We’ve received several messages about how people can ramp up their MQM balances before the end of the year.
This is sort of an unofficial tradition at the blog. Right around October, some readers scramble to accumulate MQM and MQD so they earn or requalify for Delta Medallion elite status.
Delta Air Lines announced that all MQM will roll over to 2022 — regardless of whether or not you hold Medallion status. (The airline did the same thing last year. So there’s a chance you’re sitting on a nice chunk of MQM.)
But how can Delta flyers earn MQM in a short period of time?
We put our heads together and came up with several ways how to earn Delta MQM during 2021.
Flying Delta Air Lines-Marketed Flights
In March, Delta implemented a “Status Accelerator” promotion, giving SkyMiles members MQM, MQS, and MQD bonuses of at least 50% on paid and award tickets flown through December 31, 2021.
- Basic Economy and Main Cabin tickets receive 50% bonuses.
- Comfort+, Premium Select, First Class, and Delta One earn 75% bonuses in addition to any “cabin” bonuses. (I’ll explain in a minute.)
So if you fly a Main Cabin itinerary that would normally yield, say, 5,000 MQM roundtrip, you’ll score 7,500 this year. Nice, right?
But the premium cabins bonuses are where you can really rake in MQM (except Comfort+).
For instance, Discounted Business (or First) and Premium Select tickets already give flyers a 50% MQM bonus anyway. (That’s a standard policy and not limited to just this year.) So you receive a 75% bonus on top of those 150% earnings.
Here’s a real-world example.
I flew from LAX to Salt Lake City in April. (This was the single-day trip during which I reviewed Delta’s Old Fashioneds, tasty Margaritas, and the new SLC Sky Club.) I purchased a coach ticket — but later decided to treat myself. I used SkyMiles to “pay” for a Business/First Class upgrade.
I snagged 3,104 MQM!
For the deep-pocketed folks out there, full-fare First Class (F) and Business Class (J) each earn 200% MQM before the 75% bonus.
We publish Delta mileage runs that offer MQM for relatively low prices (whenever we find them).
This promotion ends on December 31, 2021. (Like, your flights need to depart no later than that day.) So now’s the time to book and fly!
Keep in mind, too, that award tickets earn MQM, MQS, and MQD this year and next. So if you’re sitting on a redeemable SkyMiles stockpile, now might be time to cash them in for Delta flights.
Flying Delta Partners
You can occasionally find great business class and premium economy fares on airlines such as AeroMexico, Air France, KLM, and Virgin Atlantic. That’s why “MQD runs” are so popular.
Those trips can bring you a bunch of MQM — while you travel comfortably for a good price.
We post Delta partner mileage runs and mini-vacations every so often. Our pals at Juicy Miles are also a fantastic resource to help you find and book Delta partner trips, too.
Delta Amex Card Welcome Bonuses
Three Delta American Express cards currently offer MQM bonuses as part of their welcome offers. The Reserve cards’ offers are particularly jaw-dropping.
- The Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card
- Earn 20,000 bonus MQM and 80,000 bonus SkyMiles after spending $5,000 on purchases within three months of being approved for the card.
- Read more here.
- Terms apply.
- Limited time offer: expires on November 11, 2021
- The Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card
- Earn 20,000 bonus MQM and 80,000 bonus SkyMiles after spending $5,000 on purchases within three months of being approved for the card.
- Plus, earn a $200 statement credit after spending $5,000 on purchases within three months of being approved for the card.
- Read more here.
- Terms apply.
- Limited time offer: expires on November 11, 2021
- The Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card
- Earn 10,000 bonus MQM and 90,000 bonus SkyMiles after spending a total of $3,000 on eligible purchases within three months of being approved.
- Plus, earn a $100 statement credit after the first Delta purchase you make on your card within the first three months of card membership.
- Read more here.
- Terms apply.
- Limited time offer: expires on November 11, 2021
Remember that each card is considered a separate product. This means you can get the welcome bonus for each! Say, for example, you’re the primary cardholder of a Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card — you’re still eligible to get the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card‘s welcome bonus (if you haven’t yet already received it).
So if you’ll earn a chunk of MQM if you apply for a card and meet those minimum spending requirements.
Delta Amex Card Spending Bonuses
Cardholders of the Delta Reserve and Platinum cards (consumer and business) earn bonus MQM after meeting certain spending thresholds during the course of a year.
And Delta is awarding 25% bonuses this year for Delta “Status Boost” MQM!
So, Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card and Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card members earn 18,750 MQM for every $30,000 spent on eligible purchases on a Delta Amex Reserve Card during 2021. (This reflects an increase from the standard 15,000 MQM.) Each card is eligible for four MQM Status Boosts each calendar year. So that means one Reserve card can get you 75,000 MQM if you spend $120,000 in purchases during 2021. That would net you Platinum Medallion Status without stepping on a plane.
Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card and Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card, members earn 12,500 MQM for every $25,000 spent on eligible purchases on a Delta Amex Platinum Card. (This is an increase from the standard 10,000 MQM.) Each card receives up to two MQM Status Boosts each calendar year. So that means one card can get you 25,000 MQM if you spend $50,000 in purchases this year.
Receiving Gifted MQM from Delta Reserve Amex Cardholders
Both the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card and Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card allow cardholders to gift their bonus/Status Boost MQM to another SkyMiles member.
This is something both René and I have done several times. (Here’s a quick guide on how to gift your Delta Reserve MQM.) This can really work well in “two-player mode.”
Let’s take my wife and me, for example. In the years before our daughter was born, it was just the two of us traveling together. So I would earn Medallion status and she could be “Medallion lite” — meaning she’d enjoy the same upgrades and checked luggage benefits as me when we flew on the same reservation/PNR.
I’d earn 60,000 bonus MQM across my Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card and Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card. Mrs. Carley, meanwhile, would earn either 15,000 or 30,000 bonus MQM on her Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card (depending on our spending habits and budgets for a given year). She’d gift me the bonus miles. So that alone was 90,000 bonus MQM just from credit card spending.
Now that both of us are Medallions, I sometimes gift her my bonus MQM if she needs a top-off to maintain her status.
Keep an Eye Out for Random Promotions
I received bonus MQM for taking a Delta survey a few years ago. It happened only once or twice — so don’t hold your breath that something like this will come along. (And I earned only 250 or 500 MQM, I don’t remember which.)
That being said, if something like that comes along, jump on it.
Final Approach
Delta’s bonus opportunities are a great way to help earn MQM this year — especially if you can save some money while enjoying great trips! Load up on them during 2021 — especially with the big Accelerator promotion that awards you between 50%-75% bonuses. And if you haven’t gotten one of the Delta Amex cards offering bonus MQM as part of its welcome promotion, now would be a great time to take advantage of the opportunities!
- To see rates and fees for the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card, please visit this link. Terms apply.
- To see rates and fees for the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card, please visit this link. Terms apply.
- To see rates and fees for the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card, please visit this link. Terms apply.
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.
We’re going to get MQMs for Award tickets too? I have an award round trip CVG-CDG later this year, and this would bring me to Gold status. I’ve never before gotten mileage credit for an award ticket.
Thanks!
Brent
Yep. Check out this post.
There are still mileage runs for Quito, Ecuador posted in 2019 still available out of certain cities, via aeromexico. 550$ each I paid for 3 flights that will bring me to diamond for 2022. Out of Ohare. Couldn’t beat that price
Thanks for the heads-up!
For 2021 if I book an Aeromexico flight I have heard yes and no on getting the special bonus MQM and MQD this year. I was told by a Delta DM agent it had to be a Delta flight. Can you confirm ?
As far as I know, if you book an AeroMexico-marketed flight, you won’t receive the Status Accelerator bonus miles.
Is there concern with AM flights-Delta Codeshares because of the FAA ruling that puts at Cat -2???
We’re writing a post about it. Stay tuned.
What if you buy up to F? I booked the ATL-FAI mileage run in Main but they offered me $149 to buy up to F for the MSP-FAI 5.5 hour flight so I took it. Will I get the usual 50% bonus and then another 75% under the promo for that leg?
Yes. That’s what I did in the example above.
You used miles but I paid cash. I assume it’s the same though. Thanks
We’ve recently retired and started traveling. Delta is pretty much our preferred airline. What are the MQM, MQS and MQDs? Being new to the travel game we are just not familiar with these.
@Michael – Start by reading everything HERE on Delta.com about the medallion program. Then come back here to learn how to do it for less! 🙂
If you use miles to upgrade to first, you get the bonus, right? Do you get the bonus if you used regional upgrade certificates for first?
Miles, yes. RU = YMMV but don’t plan it.
Yes, I know that YMMV. But is the answer then “no”? Or “sometimes”?
We’ve heard some people received premium cabin bonuses on RUC. But, again, don’t count on it. Be pleasantly surprised if it happens and enjoy the seats up front!
I’m debating the value of “earning” DM this year. I’ll earn 125k+ 2021 MQMs but MQDs will be quite a bit short without investing in a few partner mileage runs. My Q pertains to the 2022 upgrade priority sequence. If I do nothing I’ll “earn” PM in 2021. If I’ve got it right the only 2022 DMs there will be are those that do it the old fashioned way – “earn” it in both MQM and MQD. So, excluding RUC and to simplify things by not sub-sequencing by fare basis and Delta Reserve etc, the only group ahead of PMs who “earn” it in 2021 are DMs. So, is it worth chasing DM for the bump in priority (I recognize there’s value in getting the Choice Benefits, etc)? My guess is that 2022 will see fewer DMs than in at least the last several years because travel is still down, which means “earned” PM could be upgraded more than they were in the past. What’s your thinking on this? Thanks!
Delta is rolling over everyone’s status and MQM. So — in this instance — there will be DMs who earn their 2022 status and others whose DM status simply rolls over. DMs who earn their status will clear before those whose status was rolled over. Then PMs who earned their status…so on and so forth.
You might want to use the rest of the year to load up on MQM and rollover a bunch into next year. Now is a fantastic time to bank MQM.
Hi Chris, thanks very much for the reply! I’m still a bit unclear. I get the fact that DMs who earn their status will clear before rollover DMs. (The only way there can be a rollover DM is with, in 2021, earning $15,000 MQD – or waiver – but not earning 125K MQM, correct?) I’m uncertain about this: will rollover DM clear before earned PM? Even those rollover DMs that didn’t even earn 75K MQM in 2021?
(It does seem unlikely that rollover DMs wouldn’t have at least earned 75K MQM in 2021, unless they have AmEx spending in excess of $250K. It’s unlikely there’s not a lot of those, would you agree?)
Rollover DM don’t even need to have set foot on a plane this year. They don’t need to have accrued a single MQM or MQD or MQS or spent a cent on their eligible Delta Amex.
Rollover DM will clear before earned PM.
Hi Chris – I recognize I’m being a pest here, but based on what you said to me, and then to @Carol, I’m not certain on how someone gets rollover DM status. As I think you imply to me above, people can be rollover DM regardless of their flying/spending behavior in 2021, and they will clear before earned PM. But in your response to @Carol, I think you indicate you caught a typo and indicate MQD or Delta Amex spend totals at the end of 2021 do NOT rollover into 2022. If that’s true unless a person earned 15K MQM or spent $250k Amex in 2021, they will NOT be DM rollovers. Their 2021 year-end 125k+ MQM will rollover, so their 2022 status will be determined on their 2021 year-end MQD total or Amex spend. So for example, even if they have 125k MQM at end of 2021, if they have less than $15k MQD / less than $250k Amex spend, they will not be rollover DM. Thanks in advance for clearing this up for me – and will help me figure out what to do for next 2.5 months!
Thanks in advance for clearing this up for me!
Thanks again!
If someone has DM status this year, it rolls over to 2022. End of story. They don’t need to requalify for anything. Like all other SkyMiles members, all of their existing MQM will roll over, too.
“As I think you imply to me above, people can be rollover DM regardless of their flying/spending behavior in 2021, and they will clear before earned PM.”
That’s correct.
“MQD or Delta Amex spend totals at the end of 2021 do NOT rollover into 2022.”
That’s correct.
“If that’s true unless a person earned 15K MQM or spent $250k Amex in 2021, they will NOT be DM rollovers.”
Yes, they will be a DM next year if they already have Diamond Medallion status this year. No matter how they received it (rolled over from last year, earned it this year, etc.) DM now = DM in 2022. Forget about MQD and Delta Amex spending when it comes to rolling over status right now. I know people who have DM status that rolled over from last year. They’ve barely earned enough MQM and MQD to earn tin status! But because they are DM now, they’ll be DM in 2022 — because everyone’s status rolls over.
“…even if they have 125k MQM at end of 2021, if they have less than $15k MQD / less than $250k Amex spend, they will not be rollover DM.”
Bingo!
Chris, did I read your previous comment correctly or was there a typo? Status and MQDs rollover? or should that have read status and MQMs?
If MQDs rollover, I’ll get back in line for mileage runs!
Ugh, typo. Thanks for letting me know!! (Although because I inadvertently put it out there in the universe, may be it will happen! 😉 )
Darn, I hoped that I’d missed some updated announcement.
Sorry 🙁