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If you’re pursuing Delta Air Lines SkyMiles elite Medallion status, you know earning every single Medallion Qualification Dollar (MQD) is vital. (Unless you’re using the Delta Amex MQD Waiver.) Well, Delta announced a new, limited-time promotion today that awards MQD for eligible hotel and rental car bookings purchased through Delta.
The promotion is effective now through March 31, 2023. Travel must take place between February 27 and September 4, 2023.
Perhaps you saw an email looking like this today:
Here’s the gist: you earn one MQD for each US dollar spent on an eligible car rental or hotel’s base rate. Taxes, fees, and other charges don’t count. Remember these purchases must be made through Delta at website www.travelextras-delta.com. (Expedia runs that booking engine.) Cancellations, no-shows, and unpaid reservations won’t earn MQD (which is totally fair).
The terms and condition state, “MQDs can only be credited to the SkyMiles Member whose name appears on the credit card used for the reservation.” So, you might(?) be able to book a hotel reservation for yourself — and add someone else to the room, even if you’re not going on the trip. They can check in and you’d (theoretically) still earn the MQD.
Remember that hotel bookings made through online travel agencies (OTA) such as the Delta-Expedia engine generally don’t entitle people to hotel elite status perks or earnings. So, if you really want your elite status benefits (a shot at room upgrades, free breakfast, lounge access, bonus points earnings, etc.), then you’re better off booking directly through hotels.
Rental car companies aren’t as finicky but your mileage may vary (figuratively and literally!).
Final Approach
A limited-time promotion gives Delta SkyMiles members the opportunity to earn MQD on hotel and car rental reservations made through Delta. Depending on how much you spend on either (or both) of those categories, you might be able to haul in some significant MQD.
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This is good .. Thanks Chris.
Anybody try this yet in reserving a room for somebody else to stay?
This would be good if it were not expensive to book rooms directly and if you could still get membership benefits with the hotel or rental agency. I have tried booking cars and Marriott hotels this way and they are always more expensive. This would be a no-no for corporate travel (in terms of doing the right thing) which is where most of my spending would go.
I also have a feeling they are going to make this a permanent feature. I really would be inclined to take advantage of it if they could eliminate these issues.
The fine print on this offer seems to indicate that the MQD’s will be earned based on the price paid at booking. But what about those of us who booked but chose the option to pay later at the hotel. Does this mean that I will not earn MQD’s for the hotels I booked?
So… I used this to book a half dozen hotel stays and rental cars through the middle of summer. I’ve since completed my first trip booked through this promo. This trip was to Athens, Greece.
Quick review: In some cases, the domestic rental cars were double the price so I choose to book them direct with Hertz, but in the case of European rentals the price was about the same. Marriott hotels were a few dollars more, but not substantial — it was worth it to get the MQDs. Other independent European hotels were the same price and in one case a few dollars cheaper.
All of my reservations immediately showed up in the Hertz app without doing anything and appear in the Bonvoy app when I search by reference number. It appears these reservations do not count toward “rentals this year” with Hertz. In most cases, foreign rentals don’t seem to show up in this count anyway so I’m not sure it’s a problem with Delta’s site. Also, I did get one Elite Night and about 900 points in the Bonvoy app for a two night stay at a Westin. This was a surprise as I expected no earnings outside of Skymiles. I did get the full points and bonus for Marriott credit card spend through Chase on this reservation.
My issues have mostly been with the site itself: some trips don’t appear in the upcoming list. Even when searching by confirmation number they are not found. However, they do find them with when I call the customer service number. The technology appears a bit buggy and poorly integrated. Also I haven’t yet seen the Skymiles credits for the trip completed last week. They did say it would take up to eight weeks. Based on the issues with the site, I suspect I’m going to have to submit a support case to get my MQD credit.
Overall, I do hope they improve the technology and keep this as a permanent feature as I will never reach the MQD waiver for Diamond on credit card spend.