Airline/Hotel Loyalty Programs

[old_gregg]

$10 spending on AMEX = $1 MQD. Yikes.

Also:



$75K of purchases on a Citi double-cash mastercard would earn you $1500 cash back. Seems like a better deal.

Also, you can no longer earn Million Miler status with AMEX purchases. Flight miles only.

skymiles and amex are unsalvageable reward programs. total crap. i still think chase is the best for max value and flexibility if you'll use it for travel anyway, but cash back is easy to set and forget.

[old_gregg]

Also while I'm ranting about first world problems what TF use is Clear any more? When I first joined you could breeze through scanning your eyes. Now they always make you scan your boarding pass after your eyes. Last flight they made me scan my boarding pass twice ( once at the clear machine and once at the TSA agent) after scanning my eyes. Sometimes they make you scan and then show an ID after scanning your eyes. So it's turned into more steps than regular precheck. The only benefit i can see is about once or twice a year when I show up somewhere and the precheck line happens to be long; then it saves me about 20 minutes in line and is nice. But I don't think it's worth it at all overall.

i haven't shown a boarding pass for a long time. clear + whatever crappy digital wallet app the utah dmv uses for the tsa agent.

[old_gregg]

Oh, great. One more platinum guy contributing to the traffic jam!

o_g I'm sure platinum card holders are a major driver of the lounge problem, but I'm convinced to glut of medallions is a partial contributor. The Centurion Lounges that can be accessed by platinum card are crowded, but nowhere near as insane as the Sky Clubs. Also the drastic reduction in upgrade frequency and how far down the list I usually am as a Diamond post-covid compared to a Platinum pre-covid is pretty crazy. This will certainly improve the upgrade and lounge issue for those medallions who make the cut.

i spend a not small amount of time in the slc sky club and sfo centurion lounge or sky club, and the centurion lounge is always much worse than both the slc and sfo sky clubs. unique demographics, admittedly. the problem in both is the authorized users: amex plat authorized users get lounge access (even traveling on their own), and in slc it's super common to see big families. they dont typically interfere with my "give the nice lady a $20 and see how many g&ts you can kill before stumbling on to a crj" game, but they do make it impossible to sit or eat.

[Omaha 680]

$10 spending on AMEX = $1 MQD. Yikes.

Also:



$75K of purchases on a Citi double-cash mastercard would earn you $1500 cash back. Seems like a better deal.

Also, you can no longer earn Million Miler status with AMEX purchases. Flight miles only.

Like I said overall a brutal devaluation of the overall skymiles program for most. It will free up benefits for the most elite of travelers which is probs what they are going for. Delta is so far and away better than any other domestic carrier they don't need a superior loyalty program to attract customers. People fly delta just to avoid united and American and they use sky miles just because.

[Omaha 680]

Also while I'm ranting about first world problems what TF use is Clear any more? When I first joined you could breeze through scanning your eyes. Now they always make you scan your boarding pass after your eyes. Last flight they made me scan my boarding pass twice ( once at the clear machine and once at the TSA agent) after scanning my eyes. Sometimes they make you scan and then show an ID after scanning your eyes. So it's turned into more steps than regular precheck. The only benefit i can see is about once or twice a year when I show up somewhere and the precheck line happens to be long; then it saves me about 20 minutes in line and is nice. But I don't think it's worth it at all overall.

[Omaha 680]

Ugh... OK, I think I will pass.

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That's what I'm talking about. The T4 sky club line at jfk is always like that. I refuse to wait in that line for very average snacks and fighting for a seat. The sky club used to be good for what is was: a quiet place to escape the madness of the airport, work a little in comfort and peace, and have use of clean restrooms. But it hasn't been any of those things for a while.

SLC is ok because it is one of the largest but it is still quite crowded.

[Jeff Lebowski]

$10 spending on AMEX = $1 MQD. Yikes.

Also:

Beginning Feb. 1, 2025, Delta will cap American Express Platinum Card and Delta Reserve American Express cardholders' Sky Club visits to six and 10 visits per year, respectively, according to Delta. Meanwhile, passengers flying in basic economy class will no longer be admitted to Delta's Sky Club lounges, beginning next year, regardless of whether or not they have a Platinum Card or any other premium credit card.

The new policy, however, does not apply to Centurion-branded airport lounges, which American Express owns and operates. Qualified American Express cardholders can also access the Sky Club lounges without restrictions if they make at least $75,000 worth of purchases per year on their credit cards, the Delta's website shows.

$75K of purchases on a Citi double-cash mastercard would earn you $1500 cash back. Seems like a better deal.

Also, you can no longer earn Million Miler status with AMEX purchases. Flight miles only.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Ugh... OK, I think I will pass.

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[Omaha 680]

I can use the lounge now? Dang, I didn't know.

Oh, great. One more platinum guy contributing to the traffic jam!

o_g I'm sure platinum card holders are a major driver of the lounge problem, but I'm convinced to glut of medallions is a partial contributor. The Centurion Lounges that can be accessed by platinum card are crowded, but nowhere near as insane as the Sky Clubs. Also the drastic reduction in upgrade frequency and how far down the list I usually am as a Diamond post-covid compared to a Platinum pre-covid is pretty crazy. This will certainly improve the upgrade and lounge issue for those medallions who make the cut.

[Jeff Lebowski]

the lounges are an amex platinum problem, not a status problem

I can use the lounge now? Dang, I didn't know.

[old_gregg]

Brutal new limits for Delta status qualification are coming in 2024, announced yesterday. After hiking the MQD limit for diamond to $20,000 this last year (from $15k in prior years), they are now going away from any mileage requirement and only imposing new, higher MQD requirements. Diamond will now be $35k (!). Platinum will be $18k which is $3k above what diamond was just a year ago. If you spend a crap ton of money on a Delta Amex card you can get some MQD credit but not sure it's worth it. I'll admit that I am talking out of both sides of my mouth here. I have complained ever since covid ended that there are too many Delta medallion members. The Sky Clubs are so crowded and have such long lines at JFK I rarely go in and I only get upgrades about 25% of the time as a multi-year consecutive Diamond. So in some ways this is a welcome change but they probably priced me out of Diamond given my meager engineer fare budgets.

the lounges are an amex platinum problem, not a status problem

[Omaha 680]

Brutal new limits for Delta status qualification are coming in 2024, announced yesterday. After hiking the MQD limit for diamond to $20,000 this last year (from $15k in prior years), they are now going away from any mileage requirement and only imposing new, higher MQD requirements. Diamond will now be $35k (!). Platinum will be $18k which is $3k above what diamond was just a year ago. If you spend a crap ton of money on a Delta Amex card you can get some MQD credit but not sure it's worth it. I'll admit that I am talking out of both sides of my mouth here. I have complained ever since covid ended that there are too many Delta medallion members. The Sky Clubs are so crowded and have such long lines at JFK I rarely go in and I only get upgrades about 25% of the time as a multi-year consecutive Diamond. So in some ways this is a welcome change but they probably priced me out of Diamond given my meager engineer fare budgets.

[Bo Diddley]

As I mentioned recently, I just signed up for an AMEX gold (70K mileage bonus) and a platinum AMEX business card (95K mileage bonus). They just sent my wife a mailer offering 85K miles for an AMEX platinum. We applied and it was approved.

That is 250K miles for a modest amount of spending. Yeesh. Need to start flying business class.

Lewbowskis are in the game!

[Jeff Lebowski]

As I mentioned recently, I just signed up for an AMEX gold (70K mileage bonus) and a platinum AMEX business card (95K mileage bonus). They just sent my wife a mailer offering 85K miles for an AMEX platinum. We applied and it was approved.

That is 250K miles for a modest amount of spending. Yeesh. Need to start flying business class.

[Green Monstah]

One thing I forgot to mention: I earn Allegiant points for any flight I book under my profile. And it comes to you with a dollar value, and you can offset cost of flights partially with your credits. It probably is not better/worse than a normal flight rewards program from the perspective of credits earned as a percentage of purchase, but I like it.