If you want to earn Delta Medallion elite status, MQMs are part of the requirements you'll need to meet in order to qualify, so leveraging your credit cards to help get you there can be a great strategy.
Keep in mind that we're focusing on the rewards and perks that make these credit cards great options, not things like interest rates and late fees, which will far outweigh the value of any points or miles. It's important to practice financial discipline when using credit cards by paying your balances in full each month, making payments on time, and only spending what you can afford to pay back.
When you join an airline's frequent flyer program, you earn miles virtually every time you fly on a paid ticket as opposed to a ticket booked with miles. Specifically, these miles are redeemable miles — ones that you can redeem for flights, upgrades, or more. Delta calls these "SkyMiles," which is also the name of the frequent flyer program. Redeemable miles are typically awarded as a function of how much you paid for the base fare on your ticket — on some partner flights, they're awarded as a function of fare class and distance flown.
For example, Delta SkyMiles members without elite status earn 5 redeemable miles per dollar spent on a flight's base fare. When you fly fairly frequently, you can qualify for elite status within the program. Elite status is usually a tiered system, and each tier offers a few additional perks, like bonus mileage earning on flights, upgrades, priority boarding, a dedicated phone support line, and waived fees. Higher tiers come with better benefits, naturally. In order to qualify for elite status with an airline, you'll typically need to meet certain qualification requirements.
Delta, typical of US airlines, requires you to both fly a certain number of miles or a certain number of flights, and spend a certain amount of money on base fares throughout the previous calendar year to get elite "Medallion" status. Read more: The best airline credit cards for earning elite status. You typically earn one MQM for every one mile you fly, although if you fly certain full-fare economy or business-class fares, either with Delta or with a partner, you can get 1.
Keep in mind that "miles flown" is calculated as the official routing distance — if you fly a few extra miles to go around a storm, or land on a different runway, you won't earn extra MQMs.
While you'd normally need to meet both MQM and MQD requirements to hit the next status level, there are two exceptions. That's why anyone who has or is chasing elite Medallion status with Delta should consider their MQMs when looking at the Delta credit cards.
Two of the cards — the Delta Platinum card and the Delta Reserve card and their two counterparts for small-business owners — offer bonus MQMs when you open a new card. Remember that even if you've had one card before, you can still earn the bonus on the other. One last thing to keep in mind: Each year that you hold Medallion status, you can roll over any MQMs above the requirements for your status level to the next year. You'll roll over those extra 5, MQMs for the next qualification year.
Read more: Who can qualify for a business credit card? Their main difference is their bonus categories for eanring miles. The Delta Platinum card earns 3x miles on eligible Delta purchases and purchases made directly with hotels, 2x miles at restaurants and US supermarkets, and 1 mile per dollar on everything else. The Delta Platinum Business card earns 3x miles on eligible Delta purchases and on eligible hotel purchases, 1.
Again, the main difference is how they earn miles. The Delta Reserve card earns 3x miles on eligible Delta purchases and 1 mile per dollar on all other purchases.
The Delta Reserve Business card earns 3x miles on eligible Delta purchases, 1. Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the Personal Finance Insider team. We occasionally highlight financial products and services that can help you make smarter decisions with your money. We do not give investment advice or encourage you to adopt a certain investment strategy. If you take action based on one of our recommendations, we get a small share of the revenue from our commerce partners.
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We also include editorial content to educate consumers about financial products and services. For more information, please see How we make money. Signing up for credit cards through partner links earns us a commission. If you live near one of these hubs, Delta status could be a great option. This is especially true in places like Detroit and Salt Lake City, where Delta is the only carrier with a hub. Delta operates a handful of focus cities around the U.
Whatever the case may be, look at your flight habits and see if it makes sense for you to move the bulk of your flying to Delta and its SkyTeam partners.
The airline has very limited service from this airport when compared to American and United. On the other hand, it may make sense for someone based in Des Moines DSM to pick Delta as all airlines have limited service to the city. Delta is one of the easiest statuses to earn with a credit card. This waives the requirement for Silver, Gold and Platinum status. Keep this in mind as you choose to earn Delta elite status. If you have lots of credit card spend, you may be able to earn a higher tier of elite status with Delta than you would another airline.
That said, you should also keep in mind the opportunity cost of using your Delta credit card for purchases where you may earn more points using another credit card.
Putting lots of spend on your Delta cards could mean losing out on points with other cards. Look through your spending habits and see if it makes sense to earn status with your Delta card. Related: Boost your progress toward Medallion status with select Delta credit cards.
If international travel is your goal, Delta can be tough. The airline has devalued its SkyMiles currency twice in the past year , focusing on international partner awards. The most recent devaluation means Delta partner awards to Asia and Europe now start a huge , SkyMiles one-way in business class. This is far higher than almost any other program and not a particularly good way to redeem your miles.
Even worse, economy tickets cost almost as much as business class tickets do with other airlines. The airline dynamically prices its own award tickets and is known for super high award pricing on long-haul business class. So, what are SkyMiles good for? Domestic awards are generally your best bet. The airline recently ran a number of award sales , with tickets starting at just 2, SkyMiles one-way.
Standard Main Cabin economy starts at just 6, SkyMiles. Of course, we could see this change post-pandemic. But for the time being, your best bet for redeeming Delta SkyMiles is on domestic flights. So…all that being said, where do the four elite levels of the SkyMiles program land? The first and arguably most valuable benefit of Silver Medallion is the ability to upgrade to first class on domestic flights plus flights from the U.
This was even extended to award tickets in October Again, we value complimentary first-class upgrades at roughly 0. This bonus does not apply to flights flown with Delta partners. Earn qualifying miles, dollars and segments on Delta award flights.
Usually you would not earn any elite qualification from award flights, but Delta has changed this for the remainder The earning rate is somewhat complicated: The Medallion Qualifying Miles are based on miles flown, while the Medallion Qualification Dollars are based on the number of miles used divided by Bonus qualifying miles on some Delta co-branded credit cards.
These promotions vary by card — see here for complete details. These qualifying bonuses apply for flights taken between April 1 and Dec. Put simply: Medallion status is easier to earn when flying with Delta for the remainder of The requirements for each level described below remain unchanged, but Delta is offering bonuses to make them easier to reach. The SkyMiles Medallion program has four levels. We'll start by looking at what you get at each level, then how to get there. All Medallion members get priority check-in and priority boarding.
All levels above Silver get priority security lane access and priority baggage service at select airports. Additional benefits include:. Medallion members at the Platinum and Diamond levels are eligible for "Delta Choice Benefits," in which they choose the premium benefits they want from a list. Platinum members can choose one of the following:. Package of four regional upgrade certificates.
Gift of Silver Medallion status to a friend. Diamond members can choose three of the following:. Individual membership to Delta Sky Clubs unlimited access for self; guests pay a fee. Executive membership to Delta Sky Clubs unlimited access for self and two guests — this option counts as two choices. Package of as many as eight upgrade certificates eight regional, four global, or two global and four regional. Gift of Gold Medallion status to a friend.
See full details about choice benefits. You earn 1 MQD for every dollar you spend on Delta flights. This includes the fare and airline fees, but not taxes and government fees. You earn these based on how far you fly and the fare class of your ticket. With regular economy class tickets, you earn 1 MQM per mile flown. For higher classes, it may be 1. You earn these based on how many takeoff-to-landing flights you fly.
But if you changed planes in, say, Minneapolis, then you would earn 2 MQSs. To earn this status, you must have MQDs of at least:. Medallion status for a given year is earned based on activity in the previous calendar year. Your status is generally good until Jan. For example, your Medallion status for is based on your activity in and will last until Jan. MQMs roll over from one year to the next.
Say you earned 65, MQMs in The "unused" 15, extra MQMs roll over to to give you a head start on your next year's earning. Delta also offers to match your status in another airline loyalty program. You must have current elite status with a qualifying airline, and you cannot have used the match in the previous three years.
To keep it for the rest of the year, you need to earn it during those three months:. Delta is one of 20 airlines in the international SkyTeam alliance, which allows you to earn and use SkyMiles on flights aboard carriers other than Delta. As of January , Delta also had partnerships with these non-SkyTeam airlines:.
Delta's credit cards are issued by American Express. All of the cards offer different spending rewards. Earn 2 Miles on every dollar spent on eligible purchases made directly with Delta. Earn 3 Miles on every dollar spend on eligible purchases made directly with Delta and on every eligible dollar spent on purchases made directly with hotels.
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