Most big airlines now require minimum spending, not miles, to earn elite levels: Why Delta’s changes matter
The first time I earned status on an airline, it was an accident. I booked a super-cheap Emirates EMIRATES, +2.24% business class flight to New Zealand and applied my Alaska Airlines ALK, +0.92% account to the itinerary. It turns out, I flew far enough to earn Alaska’s lowest-level MVP status with a single flight.Alaska’s elite status program is among the few left based on the distance flown.
“More rewarding” is a stretch unless Delta is referring to itself as the beneficiary of these rewards. It’s like saying that $5 gas is good for consumers’ finances, and by “consumers” you mean “oil executives.”The cost to earn each status level has more than doubled in just two years. The earning requirements for Diamond status are a whopping 139% higher in 2024 than in 2022.
Delta has shifted the way Medallion Qualification Dollars can be earned, so you can now get them if you book car rentals and hotels along with your flight. The only problem with this approach is that you shouldn’t book travel that way. So this isn’t much, if any, of a benefit for most travelers. The thing is, business travel still hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels. Corporate travel spending is expected to reach 71% of 2019 levels in the second half of this year, according to a 2023 survey of 334 travel managers by Deloitte, a consulting firm. Even by 2024, this kind of spending is expected to remain lower than in 2019.
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