It will be a percentage of miles flown, but the MQD value is a lot less than the MQM. MQDs will be awarded on partners the same way MQMs are awarded. And it’ll be different than what you get when you fly Delta itself. So you’ll get something, but it just won’t be tied to revenue. It’s just introducing a separate way to calculate MQDs when you fly on partners. Oh no, it didn’t get better revenue data.
But Delta decided this revenue requirement was still a good plan, so it just outright banned other airline travel from accruing MQDs. And the tech work involved along with the negotiation required to get the other airline to share revenue data is monumental. Delta ends up being involved in the settlement process in that case, so the revenue comes in.īut if you buy a ticket on, say, Air France, and there is no Delta segment in there, well, Delta has no clue what you paid. The money all gets settled up later through the industry’s clearinghouses, the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) or Billing and Settlement Plans (BSP).Īt the same time, if somebody has a ticket issued by another airline, Delta will eventually know how much you paid if the flight is on a Delta code. Not only does it know how much you paid for its flights but it knows how much you paid for any other airline flights on that ticket. Of course, when you buy a ticket issued by Delta (or by a travel agent using Delta ticket stock), then Delta knows exactly how much you’ve paid. Delta doesn’t actually know what you spend on other airline tickets except when flights are on a Delta code. But there’s a technical reason why this is the case. This sounds insane since technically Delta shouldn’t care if you fly on its own airplanes or those of a joint venture partner since the revenue all gets split up anyway.
Not even tight joint venture partner Air France/KLM counted toward status.
#Mqm calculator delta code#
Anything booked on the Delta code regardless of the ticketing airline also counted. Those issued by Delta (or by travel agents using Delta ticket stock) counted. While fares and surcharges counted toward the total (taxes didn’t), it only applied to some tickets. That being said, there’s always been one awful, gaping hole in this methodology. And it’s not an unreasonable ask for the airline. For people who are actually flying enough to qualify without playing mileage run games, this shouldn’t be all that hard. Low level elites now need to spend $3,000 during the year.
This year, the threshold went up even further. All of a sudden, it also required spending $2,500 MQDs during the year. In other words, the lowest level used to only require 25,000 MQMs. These new Medallion Qualifying Dollars (MQDs) required spending a penny dime per mile required to achieve status. Delta didn’t like that, and I can’t blame the airline. That meant you could do mileage runs at the end of the year and spend little money to squeak over the threshold. Previously, you just had to fly a certain amount and earn enough Medallion Qualifying Miles (MQMs) to make the cut. But that was the only way to make this work.īack in 2013, Delta announced that to qualify for elite status, or uh, Medallion status as the airline calls it, you’d have to spend a certain amount of money with the airline (or you’d have to spend $25,000 a year on the Delta Amex card). One in particular, the earning of Medallion Qualifying Dollars, is interesting in that it heaps on more complexity to an already complex program. It actually made some improvements to the program (unless you like flying on Alaska). But yesterday, Delta did something strange. Delta has been getting a lot of bad press lately regarding changes to its SkyMiles frequent flier program (including right here on the blog).