Yesterday evening, Delta’s long-rumored changes to the SkyMiles program were finally announced and it wasn’t pretty. Almost every person commenting on a blog post, FlyerTalk thread or Facebook group saw the changes as negative.

I’m not going to rehash all of the changes here. You can read all about it on Delta’s website. What I wanted to do was focus on a couple of points that are not being discussed widely and how these changes will affect us based here in Atlanta at Delta’s largest fortress hub.

Will There Be Rollbacks or Status Boosts?

SkyClub crowding has been an issue at the larger Delta hubs. Earlier this year, Delta tweaked their SkyClub access rules including setting a three-hour time limit for accessing clubs on departure and eliminating access on arrival to try and cut back on the crowds. However, they rolled back the arrival restriction a few days later due to the uproar from frequent club users.

This precedent may lead to some rollbacks of the either the draconian qualification requirements for 2025 Medallion status or (more likely) some rollbacks of the equally draconian SkyClub visit limitations on the Delta Reserve American Express cards and the American Express Platinum cards. I can see either increasing the number of visits allowed or possibly allowing further visits as members hit each Medallion level of MQDs (Medallion Qualifying Dollars.)

Another possible announcement could be that additional status boosts will be available at certain credit card spend levels. For example, every $10,000 of spend on a Delta Reserve card (which would provide $1000 in MQDs) gets you an additional $100 in MQDs or something along those lines. This sort of tracks with the MQM boosts that you can earn through this year ($30,000 on Reserve gets you 15k MQMs and $25,000 on Delta Platinum gets you 10k MQMs) up to four times per card.

Will There Be Similar Restrictions on Amex Lounges?

Many of the commenters and bloggers have noted that at airports like JFK (and hopefully soon to be ATL and DCA), where the American Express Centurion Lounge is accessible when flying Delta (unlike LGA), many card-holders will flock to the Amex lounge instead to save their limited SkyClub visits. Now, I don’t know if they are playing dumb or really just haven’t thought this through, but I would be willing to bet that American Express will soon announce similar visit restrictions for Centurion Lounges on the Delta Reserve cards and probably on Amex personal and business Platinum cards as well. It would make no sense for Delta flyers to hold a co-branded credit card that limits their access to SkyClubs and not to other non-Delta lounges. Crowding is a major issue at many Centurion Lounges too.

What Should Atlanta Delta Flyers Do?

Assuming we’re not switching to Southwest, which does have a compelling program with their Companion Pass and free checked bags, but a mostly terrible flight schedule out of Atlanta, what are the Emptynesters going to do?

First, we will enjoy another 16 months of unlimited SkyClub access via our credit cards and enjoy another 16 months of my Platinum status with Comfort+ seats at the time of purchase, free checked bags, priority boarding, and the occasional upgrade to First (including using next year’s Regional Upgrade Certificates).

Then, in February 2025, I will likely (but not definitely) drop down to Silver Medallion for a year before losing status altogether. It does not really make sense to spend on (or probably even hold) a Delta Reserve card beyond this year as you cannot easily reach status with spending anymore. It’s possible that Delta will offer “soft landings” to those of us dropping down in status (one level per year) as they used to do this, but seems unlikely given their desire to cull the ranks of top level elites to only include big spenders.

At that point (2025 and beyond), it makes sense to shop around. We may continue to fly Delta sometimes as we’ll probably continue to carry the Amex Platinum card for a few lounge visits (as the card has value well beyond the lounge access), but on some trips, we’ll fly American as they have quite a few nonstops to places we visit like LGA (hopefully now that the JetBlue alliance is off), DCA, PHL, MIA plus LAX, DFW, PHX, CLT and ORD if we need those or don’t mind a connection. American (and United) is also in Concourse T which avoids a trip on the ATL plane train, so we can show up a bit later for our flight and get home quicker on our return. They even have a lounge here if I want to get their credit card with (unlimited!) lounge visits, but that’s unlikely. American also prices First Class in miles or cash reasonably which could get us many of the same benefits as having status.

The Delta world has been rocked by these major SkyMiles status and lounge access changes and we’ll see how people react over the next year in terms of changing flying patterns and increasing/reducing credit card spend. I’m sure this story will continue to develop over the next few months and I will provide an update to these and other questions if we see any changes.

If you enjoyed this post (or have questions), let me know in the comments or send me an email at emptynestermiles@gmail.com. If you are thinking about opening a new credit card, please use one of my links.