These days Delta awards elite standing completely based mostly on what number of Medallion Qualifying {Dollars} (MQDs) members rack up. On this put up, I would like to try all of the methods you may rack up MQDs with the airline, with a purpose to earn standing.
I’m not saying that one ought to pursue standing with Delta SkyMiles, however relatively if you’ll, that is the way you’d go about it…
Delta Medallion Qualifying {Dollars} elite standing necessities
To begin, I ought to point out that Delta SkyMiles Medallion standing is earned based mostly on exercise inside a calendar yr (between January 1 and December 31). If you happen to qualify for standing in a specific yr, it is going to be legitimate for all the following yr, and thru the top of January of the yr after that.
In different phrases, for those who earn standing at any level in 2025, it will be legitimate by way of January 31, 2027.
Listed here are the Medallion Qualifying {Dollars} necessities for the 4 printed SkyMiles Medallion elite tiers for the 2025 program yr (for the needs of incomes standing that’s legitimate all through 2026):
- Delta Silver Medallion elite standing requires 5,000 MQDs
- Delta Gold Medallion elite standing requires 10,000 MQDs
- Delta Platinum Medallion elite standing requires 15,000 MQDs
- Delta Diamond Medallion elite standing requires 28,000 MQDs
Let me emphasize that that is the one metric by which standing is awarded these days. It doesn’t matter what number of miles or segments you fly, as you might even earn elite standing with out even stepping foot on a aircraft (although that wouldn’t make a lot sense).
Methods to earn Delta Medallion Qualifying {Dollars}
There are a number of how to earn Delta SkyMiles Medallion Qualifying {Dollars}, together with from flying with Delta, from flying with associate airways, from award flights, from bank card spending, and from reserving trip packages. Let’s go over every of those choices.
Earn Delta MQDs for Delta-marketed flights
Delta SkyMiles awards one MQD per greenback spent on the ticket price of Delta-marketed flights. So this consists of all flights which are marketed by Delta, even when they’re on associate airways (in different phrases, you’re reserving your ticket by way of Delta).
Authorities taxes and costs wouldn’t earn MQDs, whereas provider imposed surcharges (also known as gas surcharges) would earn MQDs. The one exception is that primary economic system tickets don’t rely towards elite standing.
That is fairly simple, as a $100 ticket (earlier than taxes and costs) would earn you 100 MQDs, whereas a $10,000 ticket (earlier than taxes and costs) would earn you 10,000 MQDs. Delta’s web site will listing what number of MQDs a specific itinerary earns once you go to ebook.
Earn Delta MQDs for partner-marketed flights
Delta SkyMiles additionally awards MQDs for partner-marketed flights. This would come with flights booked by way of different airways, so that may be associate flights that aren’t marketed by Delta. For these tickets, you earn MQDs as a proportion of the gap flown, based mostly in your fare class.
Delta’s airline companions web page has all the small print. For instance, say you’re flying Korean Air roundtrip between New York and Seoul Incheon on a reduced enterprise class ticket. That journey covers a distance of 13,811 miles.
As you may see beneath, whilst you’d earn redeemable mile equal to 200% of the gap flown, you’d earn MQDs equal to 30% of the gap flown. In different phrases, that ticket would earn you 4,143 MQDs (13,811×0.3).
Be aware that in some instances this presents an incredible arbitrage alternative. For SkyTeam airways which have low cost premium cabin fares, you could typically discover that you just rack up MQDs at a a lot sooner tempo than you’d count on based mostly on the income, in comparison with being on a Delta-marketed itinerary.
Earn Delta MQDs on award tickets
Delta SkyMiles is exclusive in that it awards MQDs for award tickets. If you happen to redeem Delta SkyMiles for an award ticket and have your SkyMiles quantity on the reservation because the traveler, you’ll earn one MQD for each 100 SkyMiles redeemed.
In different phrases, for the needs of elite credit score, every mile is valued at one cent. Which means for those who redeem 100,000 miles for an award ticket, you’d earn 1,000 MQDs. Be aware that very similar to with income tickets, primary economic system awards don’t earn MQDs.
Earn Delta MQDs on bank card spending
Delta SkyMiles additionally awards MQDs with choose co-branded bank cards:
There’s no restrict to what number of MQDs you may earn with these playing cards. Clearly there’s a big benefit to utilizing the Delta Reserve Card relatively than the Delta Platinum Card, because the earnings charges towards standing are double pretty much as good.
Earn Delta MQDs for trip packages
Delta SkyMiles additionally awards MQDs when reserving a trip bundle by way of Delta Holidays. You earn one MQD per greenback spent in your trip, earlier than taxes and costs. Nevertheless, there’s a little bit of nuance to this.
The person passengers will earn MQDs for the flight portion of the bundle, based mostly on the “exception fares” chart, which primarily awards miles as a proportion of the gap flown based mostly on the fare class (since these are like consolidator fares).
Then the first passenger additionally receives MQDs for all the non-flight portion of the bundle, reminiscent of inns, rides, vehicles, and actions. The MQDs earned for the non-flight portion equals the distinction between the entire bundle worth and the mixed MQDs awarded to all passengers for the flight portion.
Backside line
These days Delta makes use of the easy metric of MQDs in relation to awarding standing. There are a number of methods to earn MQDs, together with for journey on Delta and its associate airways, for award flights, for bank card spending, and for reserving Delta Holidays packages.
Finally many members take a hybrid strategy in relation to incomes standing, with a mixture of income flying, award flights, bank card spending, and extra. Standing may be powerful to earn, although frankly I feel advantages are considerably restricted, maybe other than the Alternative Advantages that Platinum and Diamond members can unlock.
What has your expertise been with incomes Delta MQDs?
