The end of the year is right around the corner and you're analyzing your Delta account, trying to figure out how to hit your next Medallion Status level for 2019. There are two ingredients to Delta's status: taking flights (Delta MQMs) and spending money (Delta MQDs).
But what if I told you that you didn't have to spend all those Medallion Qualifying Dollars (MQDs) dollars Delta requires, but still get that status?
Hang with me for a minute, and I'll explain how you can do it while spending a fraction of the requirements.
The Basics of Delta Status
First things first: Let's cover some basics of Delta status and how to get it.
We tell readers that Delta Medallion status – or status with any airline – isn't for everyone. Even the lowest levels of Delta status require a fair amount of travel.
Average travelers are unlikely to even scratch the surface of hitting Silver Medallion status, the airline’s lowest tier. If you travel a fair amount for work – or fly international long-haul with Delta or a partner – that could do the trick.
There are two critical pieces to get status with Delta: flying and spending. You have to rack up a certain amount of miles on Delta flights (called Medallion Qualifying Miles or MQMs, which are different than SkyMiles) or a sheer number of flight segments, plus a spending requirement.
Here’s a brief rundown on what it takes to climb the status ladder:
- Silver Medallion Status:Â 25,000 MQMs OR 30 flights (called Medallion Qualifying Segments) AND $3,000 in spending on Delta or partner flights
- Gold Medallion Status:Â 50,000 MQMs OR 60 Medallion Qualifying Segments AND $6,000 in spending on Delta or partner flights
- Platinum Medallion Status:Â 75,000 MQMs OR 100 Medallion Qualifying Segments AND $9,000 in spending on Delta or partner flights
- Diamond Medallion Status:Â 125,000 MQMs OR 140 Medallion Qualifying Segments AND $15,000 in spending on Delta or partner flights
When you book a flight through Delta, your MQMs and MQDs hit your account after you take the flight. MQMs are based on miles flown and MQDs are based on the money you spent on the flight. It's a simple equation: Each $1 gets you 1 MQD.
There’s a workaround for the spending requirement: Put $25,000 on an American Express Delta credit card. That works for all but Delta’s highest Diamond Medallion Status, which requires an absurd $250,000 in card spend to get the waiver.
But this loophole could be even better.
Use Partner Airlines to Get Ahead
When you book a flight with Delta, every $1 you spend gets you 1 MQD. But that's not how it works with Delta's partner airlines. And this is where things get fun.
You can fly on Air France or KLM, Korean Air or China Eastern and keep earning Delta SkyMiles – and build on status. One of the benefits of airline alliances like SkyTeam is that these partnerships allow flyers to choose where they want to earn miles and status.
And when you book a flight through a Delta partner, the Delta MQDs you can earn are not based on the dollar amount you spent on the flight. They actually have nothing to do with the price tag of your flight. Instead, it's calculated by distance flown multiplied by something called a fare class multiplier – a higher fare class means a larger multiplier.
It's a critical difference. And while you'll still have to spend some money, these partnerships mean you can spend far less and still build Delta status.
Delta Partner Airline Rules
Each of Delta's 20-plus partner airline has their own earning rates for SkyMiles members. To find out what a specific airline partner earns, open the drop-down menu for that airline partner on Delta's homepage and click on the button that says “Mileage earn on/after Jan. 1, 2018.”
You'll get a page like this:
Here you can see that on a Discounted Economy ticket on KLM, you'd earn 100% of the MQMs towards status, but will only earn MQDs equal to 10% multiplied by your distance flown. If you purchase a J-fare class Business Ticket, you'd get 200% of the MQMs on the flight, and your MQDs will total 40% multiplied by your distance flown.
Be sure to read the rules and fine print for each airline, as each partner has different rules. For example, if you read through the bottom of Hawaiian Airlines below, you will see that only flights within the State of Hawaii earn elite credits.
This all may seem like a headache. Maybe I've already lost you.
But if you're trying to hit status and are short on MQDs, using partner airlines is a no-brainer. This fall, I took a trip and earned 3,136 MQDs on a ticket that only cost $1043.43. That's over three times the value I would have earned from booking the same ticket through Delta directly. Here's how to do it:
Research Partner Airlines and MQD Earnings
If you are flying a partner airline in hopes of maximizing your MQD earnings, flying in Premium Economy can be your sweet spot. This is the best bang for your buck, maximizing MQDs while minimizing the cash cost of the ticket.
In looking at my Delta account, I was about 3,000 MQDs and 15,000 MQMs short of hitting Diamond Status – the Holy Grail for Delta flyers. By using Google Flights, I narrowed down my search results to only show Delta partners and their pricing for Premium Economy tickets round trip from Los Angeles (LAX), Seattle (SEA), and San Fransisco (SFO).
I found six possible destinations I could get to for around $1,000. I decided on heading to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia (BKI) flying China Southern, with a layover and cabin change in Guangzhou, China (CAN).
Pick Your Flight And Calculate Your MQDs
Once you've found a potential flight, it's time to see about how many MQDs you will actually earn from this journey. You could do the math yourself, but who has time for that? This unofficial MQM calculator is a great resource to do that work for you.
From this, it looks like I will earn approximately 7,279 MQMs from the LAX-CAN segment and another 1,186 MQMs from the CAN-BKI connection. During the booking phase with the airline, you can see the booking code your ticket is under. You'll need it to crunch the numbers.
I had a Premium Economy (S) ticket for my segments from LAX to CAN and back. For my flight from CAN to BKI and back, I was booked in an Economy (P)Â ticket. Using the chart above, you can see that a Premium Economy (S) fare on China Southern earns 100% MQMs and 20% MQDs, based on the distance flown.
Here is where some math comes in to calculate how many MQDs I could earn. It's easy, I promise. It looks like this: (MQMs earned X # of Segments)Â X MQD Earning Rate
So for my round-trip ticket, I worked it out like this: (7,279 MQMs x 2) x .2 = 2,911.6 MQDs, plus 14,558 MQMs, for the trip between LAX and CAN. For the connecting flights between CAN and BKI, it was: (1,186 MQMs x 2) x .1 = 237.20 MQDs, and another 593 MQMs.
For the whole trip, I'd spend $1,043 and earn close to 3,149 MQDs. Had I booked through Delta, I'd earn far less than that for the same expense. So yeah, I booked with China Southern.
Booking the Partner Flight
My starting point was actually in Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP), so I booked a separate round-trip flight with Delta MSP to LAX. By purchasing these flights separately, I could capitalize on Delta's partner award charts and earnings.
Below you can see the price paid below for our flights from LAX-BKI round trip. And yes, I did drag someone else along with me for this mileage and MQD run. That's what family is for, right?
Enjoy Your Trip (And Check Your Balance)
Now it's time to kick back, relax, and take advantage of all of the luxuries of a Premium Economy Cabin. And then check your Delta account.
I had calculated I would earn 3,149 MQD's and about 15,151 MQM's total for my trip. So how close was my math? Here's a snapshot of my Delta account.
The grand total: 15,689 MQMs and 3,136 MQDs. 3,136 MQDs, when I only paid $1043.43. Again, that's far more than what I'd get had I booked a similar flight with Delta. Learn from me: This is the way to go if you're in a serious crunch to earn MQDs.
Bottom Line
Hitting some of the steep Delta MQD requirements for Medallion status can be tough. And it's almost impossible depending on what status level you are trying to hit.
But utilizing Delta partner airlines and their earnings charts can help you squeeze more out of your money while spending less. If you have a good chunk needed to get to the next status level before the end of the year, Delta partners are the way to go.
Lead photo credit to Grant Rupkalvis
Couple questions:
1.) Would you still earn based off the partner chart if you book through a partner on a Delta operated flight? and
2.) Did you have to book the LAX to CAN and CAN to BKI flights separately to get the different cabin options, or could you do it on one itinerary?
Hi Kevin!
To your first question: At this time I am unsure as it seems like a major loophole if so, but there are logistical challenges Delta faces in obtaining this information, so it may be possible. I am working on getting this answer though! I have a flight in March to test this out. Stay tuned.
Second, the LAX to CAN and CAN to BKI flights were all booked together, on the same itinerary. This was actually just the option that Google Flights presented to me when I went to go book the ticket. Hope this helps!
Thanks for the reply! How will I see if it works; Will you be posting another article in March? Also, is this your first article with TT? If so, looks like I am your first commenter! Keep up the good work 🙂
If it works, I would definitely foresee a follow-up post! And yes, this is my first article with TT. Expect to see more in the future! 🙂
I’m wondering how your March 2019 test flight went?
Hi David,
To follow-up on this, it did work just like the example above! We purchased our tickets on a V fare class (Deep Discounted Economy). Using KLM’s award chart through Delta, the V fare class earns 5% MQD’s based on distance. For each KLM segment, it followed this award pattern. For example, MSP-AMS came in at 4,166 miles flown, and we received $208 MQD’s for that segment.
Delta operated our flights, but the tickets were purchased through KLM and it worked just like the example in the article!
I just want to point out that it doesn’t always work in your favor. I frequently fly AF/KLM routes to Africa, most of which are quite expensive even in discount economy. I routinely earn <1000 MQDs on $2000+ tickets. (and if any DL execs are reading here, please don't change the partner MQDs! It's the main reason I fly DL rather than United/*Alliance or other airlines)
Kate, you are aboslutley right that in flying in the discounted economy your MQD’s earned are much less. For KLM, it is a 5% fare multiplier on discounted economy vs. a 25% fare multiplier in full economy. That is why utilizing the reward charts on Delta’s website is crucial if you are flying to earn MQD’s!
Not sure if the thread is still active, I have a conundrum. I need 4710 MQDs to reach Diamond on Delta for 2020, this year several planned flights fell through.
I’m reading the partner page for Virgin Atlantic on the Delta site. The earning chart for Virgin Atlantic lists 40% earning of MQDs based on miles flown in Business, Z class. The “explanations” are very confusing, so my Question is: what are the MQDs that apply, 40% of miles flown as listed in the Delta site, actual dollars spent or both, not thinking this last option applies, but just putting it out there because I found several posts that seem to indicate just that. I also called Delta and they were no help. Thanks in advance.
It’s 40% of the mileage flown, so for example if you go to the unofficial MQM calculator in the article (https://fly.qux.us/smcalc/) that will be pretty close to the number that Delta uses. For example, if I type “sfo-cdg-sfo” (a round trip between SFO and CDG), that site tells me that is 11,128 miles flown. The number of MQDs I would earn is something very close to 0.4 * 11,128 (which is 4,451).
Thank you David, in your example above, was this booked on Delta or Air France? My understanding was that “miles flown” are earned on partner airlines, no? Just to clarify, I do have to make the reservation on Virgin Atlantic, correct? OR can I book Virgin Atlantic on the Delta site and sill earn on % of flown miles? With this trip I will be pretty close, but I still need to take another trip unless I chose a different destination. Thanks again.
If you book it on Delta.com, you will not earn by that formula — you will earn whatever is shown on the bottom left of the page near the button to purchase the ticket.
The % partner calculation formula stuff ONLY applies when you purchase a ticket from a partner airline, and that ticket is marketed as their flight number (for Virgin Atlantic, it should be a VS flight number, not a DL flight number on your ticket, even if the flight operates as a codeshare).
Thank you David, in your example above, was this booked on Delta or Air France? My understanding was that “miles flown” are earned on partner airlines, no? Just to clarify, I do have to make the reservation on Virgin Atlantic, correct? OR can I book Virgin Atlantic on the Delta site and sill earn on % of flown miles? With this trip I will be pretty close, but I still need to take another trip unless I chose a different destination. Thanks again.
Thank you David, that’s exactly what I thought. Some of these airline rules and their explanations are so convoluted. Delta lists the partner earning %s on their website, it does not mention anywhere that the ticket must be purchased on the partner’s website or how to book the ticket to achieve the earnings. Delta also has fares where part of the trip is on DL and the part of the trip with the partner under their codes. I called Delta costumer service and could not speak to partner earning. They did make sure to let me know to save my receipts and boarding passes to claim the earnings, which I was already aware of, from many years of travel.
Thanks again for your help.
I believe you would have to book the flights on the partner airline’s website to earn on the miles flown basis, though I don’t have much experience with these bookings myself. It is really hard to get good info about these things! Best of luck to you.
I am $45.00, yes forty-five dollars shy of maintaining Gold. Do they offer any exception at all? Second question, can I buy a one-way ticket and just not board the flight and still earn those dollars?
You have to actually put your butt in the seat to earn the MQDs (and MQMs/MQSs, for that matter. It’s always worth an ask but Delta is not known for making exceptions. In your case, it would certainly be worth considering booking a short, cheap flight to put you over the threshold. But also keep in mind that you will rollover your excess MQMs if you don’t qualify for Gold, potentially putting you dangerously close to requalifying for Silver right off the bat.
My brother did this last year. He bought a one way flight from MSP to Rochester, and had my dad pick him up down in Rochester. Like Kyle said, it might be more beneficial to let the miles roll over, but this can be completely dependent on what your projected travel schedule may be.
Hello, i have a question, it might sound silly and stupid….if im booking with KLM for the MQD run for Delta, how will Delta know that im flying with KLM, do i upload my reservation in my Skymiles account? Thank you!! Happy Holidays!!