Here’s an interesting wrinkle: it’s possible to earn more Delta Air Lines SkyMiles Medallion Qualification Dollars (MQD) traveling on partner carriers than on Delta itself.
Perhaps you’ve seen blog comments asking something like, “How is it possible to earn $4,000 MQD on a $2,000 airfare?” Maybe you’ve wondered about it yourself!
This feature has existed for years. But it’s something people either don’t know about, don’t understand, or stay away from because they’re not sure how it works.
Frankly, that’s understandable because the concept can be confusing at first.
We’ve written about this before. Because people are adjusting to the new SkyMiles Medallion program update that really took effect in January 2024, I figured now’s a good time to revisit the topic.
Plus, summer travel season is around the corner. This might give you a reason to travel somewhere exotic and earn better MQD than you would flying Delta!
If it gets too confusing, don’t worry. We’ll direct you to someone specializing in booking these types of trips. They handle all the legwork for you.
(Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.)
You Will Not Book These Flights Through Delta
Before we go any further, let’s be clear. You will use your Delta SkyMiles number and need that handy. (In fact, that’s the whole key to this.)
But Delta will not be involved in planning or booking these trips. You won’t visit Delta.com. You won’t use the Fly Delta app. You won’t even search for Delta-marketed flights.
Book these trips through partner airlines themselves, travel agents, or online travel agencies (though only use reputable OTA you know and trust).
Some of the flights might be operated by Delta — but your ticket will be codeshare marketed by another airline.
What Are Some of the Delta Partner Airlines?
Some examples of the airlines we’re talking about are:
- AeroMexico
- Air France
- China Eastern
- KLM
- Korean Air
- LATAM
- SAS
- Virgin Atlantic
So, How Does All This Work?
When you book a trip through a Delta partner and credit the trip to your SkyMiles number, you earn MQD based on a “formula”:
The total distance flown multiple by a percentage determined by which fare class you purchase.
Generally, the more expensive fare class you book, the better the MQD earnings.
But here’s the potential beauty of all this: the MQD earnings are the same regardless of what you pay. You can make out like a bandit if you score a great airfare deal.
Let’s use Air France’s chart as an example.
Pretend we find a Premium Economy trip traveling 10,000 miles. Premium Economy fare classes (W, S, or A) earn Delta MQD based on 25% of the distance flown. In this example, that’s 25% of 10,000 miles. That means we earn $2,500 — no matter how much the trip costs. (10,000 miles x .25 = 2,500 miles.)
So, if you pay $1,500 for the entire airfare, you basically earn a 67% MQD bonus for your “investment.”
Here’s another example.
Suppose you find a Discounted Business trip (C, D, I, or Z class) traveling 12,000 miles. That earns 30% of the distance flown. We earn $3,600 MQD (12,000 miles x .30 = 3,600 miles.) We earn the $3,600 MQD even if we’re lucky and pay $2,000 (or $2,500. Or $3,000. Or whatever.) Plus, we travel in business class!!
Again, you’ll earn the same amount of MQD regardless of how much (or little!) you pay.
Want some real-life examples? Here’s a trip to Dubai that earns $4,437 for just over $2,000. Or take the scenic route from San Diego-adjacent Tijuana (you don’t even have to enter the city of Tijuana) to Honolulu? Again, in business class. That trip cost $1,352 and snagged $3,319 MQD. Our point.me friends tipped us off about a New York to Mumbai trip that scored over $4,800 MQD — for just over $1,500 in airfare.
Plus, you earn mileage-flown metrics toward Delta Million Miler and redeemable SkyMiles (before any applicable Medallion bonuses, which can be huge).
Some trips are classic mileage runs: you don’t leave the airports. Just fly, fly, fly and maybe get some club lounge appreciation time. No pain, no gain.
But the new trend seems to be long weekends or even full-blown vacation-length trips.
I often use this page at Travel-Dealz to figure out how many MQD a trip will earn. The Great Circle Mapper is another good tool. Plug in your itinerary, see how many miles it’s estimated to travel, then multiply it by the percentage your fare class says you’ll earn.
So, What’s the Catch?
I could spend $12,000 in airfare and earn the $28,000 for Diamond?! you might wonder. Sure. It’s possible.
But you might have to travel somewhere else to start and end the trip you find. (Frankly, I think that’s part of the fun.) For example, you might live in Des Moines. You learn about a great MQD deal departing from Miami. That means you must book a roundtrip to the Miami area and probably find a place to stay. Depending on how much you pay for your positioning trips, that may or may not be worth it. But this where award flights, hotel “free” nights, hotel points transfer partners, and other practices can be helpful. Plus, you can earn MQD for your positioning trips!
The MQD percentages used to be better — until Delta slashed them as part of the SkyMiles 2025 program. (Like, 40% for business class vs. the 30% now.) People would take back-to-back-to-back trips and earn Diamond Medallion over a week. That’s tougher now.
The Boarding Pass
When you check in for your trip, make sure that your Delta SkyMiles number is printed on the boarding pass. Hold on to your boarding pass until all of your MQD post, which should be within a week or so after your trip is complete.
How Do You Find Delta MQD Partner Deals?
I usually poke around at Google Flights. I live in Los Angeles, so I plug in LAX, Burbank, and Santa Ana. I also throw in Las Vegas and San Jose because I can easily position there. Then, I select a few cities far away and go from there. Sometimes we find good airfares, sometimes we don’t.
Keep your eyes peeled for sales on partner airlines, too.
We refer people to the Mileage Run Department at point.me (formerly known as “Juicy Miles”). They staff people who know all about MQD trips and can book them for you.
Whenever we get time to look for deals and find something worthwhile, we post it to our Elite Mileage Runs page. Make sure to sign up for our alerts and mailing list that let you know when we publish deals:
- Subscribe to our Elite Mileage Runs newsletter and daily Eye of the Flyer newsletter. It’s free to sign up for them!
- Follow @EyeOfTheFlyer and @EliteMileageRun on Xitter. Turn on alerts so you know whenever we post anything.
- Follow Eye of the Flyer on Facebook
- Follow Eye of the Flyer on Threads
- Follow Eye of the Flyer on Pinterest
This is So Confusing! Who Can Do This For Me?
If you want someone to find an MQD trip for you, just contact the Mileage Run Department at point.me. They’ll find and book trips for you. They charge a $200 fee for their services but it’s probably worth your time and hassle!
What’s the Best Credit Card for Booking Delta Partner Mileage Runs?
If you want to rack up Delta MQD, consider going with the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card or Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card because each card earns $1 MQD for every $10 in eligible spending. The Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Cardand Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card are options, too, albeit not great ones. They earn $1 MQD for every $20 in eligible purchases. Keep in mind you’re purchasing airfare from other airlines — not Delta. So, you’ll only earn 1X SkyMiles per dollar spent.
Outside of that, you want to focus on something that awards airfare or general travel purchases.
The The Platinum Card® from American Express is a good way to go because it earns 5X Membership Rewards® Points for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel (up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year). You can also earn 5X with the The Business Platinum Card® from American Express — but only on flights books through Amex Travel, not directly with the airline.
I also like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® because it earns 3X Chase Points on travel purchases (after the car’s annual $300 statement credit has been earned back).
The American Express® Gold Card earns 3X points on flights purchases directly through airlines or AmexTravel.com
Th American Express® Green Card earns 3X points on eligible travel purchases (including flights). All information about the Amex Green Card was collected independently by Eye of the Flyer. It was not provided or reviewed by the card issuer.
The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card also earns 3X Chase Points on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases each account anniversary year across the categories of travel, shipping purchases, internet, cable and phone services, and advertising purchases with social media sites and search engines.
Flights booked through credit card travel services are considered cash fares — even if you use their points to offset some or all of the cost! So, that’s a great way to save money and earn the MQD. That’s one reason we love, love, love the Amex Business Platinum card’s 35% Pay With Points rebate.
Amex Platinium Business card holders earn back 35% of their Membership Rewards points used to pay for an eligible trip booked through Amex Travel. Eligible trips are:
- First Class or Business Class on any airline flight bookable via AmexTravel.com
- Coach tickets on one airline the cardholder selects annually (i.e. Delta)
Up to 500,000 bonus points may be earned back per calendar year.
Say you go to AmexTravel.com and find an AeroMexico business class trip costing $1,000. You decide to pay the entire thing with points. That costs 100,000 points. But you’ll soon get 35,000 (35%) of them back! And you’ll earn the Delta MQD because you enter your Delta SkyMiles number in as your frequent flyer program of choice when booking the ticket.
Final Approach
I hope that help give a little more information about to earn MQD using Delta partners. I know it’s confusing at first — so, please feel free to ask questions in the below Comments section!
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Also getting a head start to MQD by owning some of Delta co branded cards from Amex, starts you off at $2500 MQD per card I believe.
With the devaluations that landed in 2024, flying partner airlines hardly nets the big MQDs like they used to. For at least some of the partners I am familiar with, you have to buy up to J to get the old 40% of miles flown as MQDs. That’s rarely worth it. Still possible for certain, just not as easy as it was.
Also: if you’re doing positioning flights, keep in mind that you won’t be protected on your inner nested flight if something goes sideways, like a weather delay or a massive jam up in security/immigration at a foreign connecting airport…