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One of our readers received a very pleasant surprise: his Diamond Medallion status was somehow extended into January 2023.
“Bob” (not his real name) checked his Fly Delta app and saw a “Congratulations on achieving Diamond Medallion” message. He has over three times the required MQM for Diamond status — but is nowhere near the spending requirements.
His MQD level is short of the Silver threshold, much less Diamond. And there’s $0 in co-branded Delta Air Lines SkyMiles American Express card spending.
(Bob lives in the United States and has a US address on file with Delta — so he is not MQD exempt.)
His SkyMiles membership card reflects the status extension through the 2022 Medallion year, which expires in January 2023.
I checked with some Gold, Platinum, and other Diamond members. None received status extensions.
So Why Did Bob Get His Status Extended?
We thought of three possibilities:
- This was a random Delta IT glitch. Bob was the lucky recipient of an unintended Diamond Medallion extension.
- Diamond status only will be extended through January 2023. Bob was one of the first people to get the benefit. But it can’t be a logical alphabetical or numerical system rolling out extensions. Bob’s last name starts with a letter farther down the alphabet than “de Lambert” — and Rene’s status wasn’t extended. Plus, Bob’s SkyMiles number is several numbers “lower” than Rene’s (i.e. Bob is a newer SkyMiles member).
- All SkyMiles status will be extended. And, again, Bob somehow was in the first wave of status extensions.
Frankly, all of them are plausible.
(Note to self: get Bob to buy me a lottery ticket.)
A Delta spokesperson told us, “We have not made any changes and are looking into this specific circumstance.”
Coincidence? Or Will Delta Announce Something Soon?
We wrote a couple of weeks ago reasons why Delta should extend status, vouchers, and certificates into the 2022 Medallion year. This came on the heels of Delta partner Air France/KLM extending some elite status into next year.
But here’s a twist. FTer “avninja” posted the thread “Global upgrades to be extended, no longer sad :)” and explained:
Hey all, sure enough my global upgrades were listed at expired on 3/1/21. But alas, I did receive a call today from customer service to inform me that global upgrades will be extended till the end of 2021. They mentioned it will take some time to restore these one by one, but expect to see them available soon. Proud of Delta for doing this.
This makes me wonder if there’s something in the pipeline. Will certificates and vouchers start getting extensions through at least the rest of 2021?
Is a big announcement from Delta is forthcoming?
What Do You Think?
If you have a logical explanation as to why Bob’s status was extended, we’d love to hear it. Please share your thoughts in the below Comments section!
Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
How does “bob” have so many MQMs? I know MQMs rolled over from last year, but that’s a ton of flying!!
@Nicholas – See: https://eyeoftheflyer.com/2017/10/09/protip-the-2019-delta-medallion-elite-year-rewards-mileage-runners/ as one possibility. Also, there have been some stunning Amex spend bonus MQMs offers.
What about Bob?
Adding DP. US based DM here, no extension so far. Im around 420K MQM, $0MQD, 0 segment
I just look at my status as of( 0740 03 March 2021) and it shows my Diamond Status is expiring January 31, 2022. I will then drop down to SkyMiles Member.
Hopefully mine as well as others will be extended through 2023. I know a lot of us don’t travel like we used to, due to COVD-19 Pandemic. Everything in the world came to a halt. Hopefully everything will go back to normal again soon and we can travel the world, like we used to. Hopefully.
I just got to gold for the year and it says “until 1/23” as well.
@Koby – Correct. You are earning status now in 2021 for the 2022 flying year that ends on 1FEB2023. This year your Gold Medallion status is a “free” bonus if you will (as well as the next levels you may earn). In Bobs case he has not yet earned Diamond status and yet has had it extended.
You’re right, I checked with my friend who is Delta Diamond and has a lot of carryover and his has not been extended.
I’ve been DM since it’s inception. I’m still showing Silver as my 2022 status (through 1MM). I have about 175K carryover MQMs and $0 and no card. I hope this is a trend. I will have my first flights (domestic) on Delta next week. To be fair, as an IAH based flyer and UA Platinum, when I have to travel, I’ve been on them since their fares have been better, upgrades have been more available, and the F class actually has reasonable service
Chris, can you get an upstate from Bob on whether his new status stuck?
Last time I heard from him, everything was still good!
I thought of some other differences:
He is a million miler
He has some MQD
Maybe he didn’t claim the MQD waiver exemption a couple of years ago
Interesting — but I know a bunch of people who fit those criteria and didn’t get extended. Based on everything we know so far, I’m chalking this one up to a very fortunate glitch.
Except that Delta would most likely have reverted it by now, they are great at correcting mistakes like this, especially when they know about it. Hopefully it was intentional for whatever reason!
I am a DM and have 200k MQM ytd/rollover and 25k spend ytd, still shows ending 1/22 and becoming silver. I am also working to reclaim/reassign lost upgrade certs due to flights cancelled this spring to Europe….not easy to work this through the system and already lost them (completely) last year for same covid cancellations. Any ideas on that would be great.
I’m at 290k MQMs, $1500 MQDs, and 10 segments so far this year. I earned DM the hard way last year, rather than by extension, and no sign of any 2022 extension here.
I also earned DM the hard way last year. You get nothing extra for that btw. No sign of any extension.
Same! Hooray!! One more year of Diamond! Thank you Delta!! About 50K rollover for me.
Wow, congratulations!
I earned Diamond for 2021 more than a year ago. Rolled over 548K MQMs. Have not flown yet in 2021. 2022 status for me shows Silver (because of Million Miler). I still haven’t received my 2021 Welcome packet yet but I’m sure Delta has bigger things to deal with.
Three options that I see in reverse order of probability:
It was a mistake
A threshold of MQM triggers it
It is going to happen to everyone
i have over 200,000 mqms with $500 mqds and diamond till 2022 but status says 2022 status =silver medallion!!!