Hey Delta Airlines: ARE YOU SERIOUS??

A recent move by Delta Airlines seemed so outrageous that I felt that I had to share with other professionals in an effort to elicit your comments that Delta may be going too far with their voluminous and byzantine rules that to me, appear to be designed to either push loyal customers away or at least continue to tick us off. I'll be brief:

I'm a recurring Delta Diamond/Platinum Medallion level flyer with nearly 2 million miles flown just on Delta Airlines. Yesterday I received an email about their new Diamond Medallion Status requirements which I've included a paragraph from the email below. According to Delta, beginning in January 2018, in order to earn a waiver for one of the requirements to reach Diamond Medallion status when you use the Delta-AMEX Credit Card (a fee based card that they market) you're now required to spend $250,000 per year, on that card up from $25,000 per year or a 10x increase ... (I'm thinking it's a typo, right?) How many of you would put $250k on just one card each year to achieve an airline status?

I believe that loyalty begets loyalty, though I feel that Delta seems to continually find ways to nickle and dime and then squeeze their most loyal flyers. Maybe it takes a village to have them listen? Here's a few annoyances imposed upon their most loyal flyers: Up to a $500 change fee for international flights... No more Sky Lounge complimentary access for Platinum Medallion members... At least 60,000 miles for a domestic award ticket... And now a required spend of >$20,000 per month on their credit card just to achieve a status waiver?? DAL earned $5.79 per share in FY2016 and $5.63 per share in FY2015 so one wonders if it's a goal to increase an already healthy profit line? Regardless, how much should loyalty cost the customer??

Here's the paragraph copied and pasted from the Delta email:

As a Credit Card Member, we want you to be aware that starting January 1st, 2018, the Medallion Qualification Dollar (MQD) Waiver for Diamond Medallion Status is increasing. The MQD Waiver for Diamond is currently earned by spending $25,000 in eligible purchases in a calendar year on a SkyMiles ? Credit Card with American Express. It is being adjusted to $250,000 in a calendar year.