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I’m in a bit of a reflective, nostalgic mood. Until a couple of years ago, this was the time of year when I would start hunting for Delta Air Lines SkyMiles Medallion Qualification Miles (MQM) mileage runs.
I’d be on the mileage run lookout during most of the year. But autumn is when people (sometimes including my wife and I) realized they needed to either score some MQM for a particular status goal that year or pad their balance for Delta’s then-generous rollover MQM model.
It was a fun challenge that was an excuse to fly places, sometimes somewhere random because the points earnings were so good. (These were flights that were already scheduled. Calm down, environmentalists.)
My wife and I once flew Los Angeles to San Francisco to Minneapolis to Dallas to Detroit and back to Los Angeles — in 24 hours. We had a blast and scored a bunch of MQM for a great price. We flew to Tokyo, New York City, Hawaii (Honolulu and Kona), and Europe either on turnarounds or only for a couple of nights. Just because we loved the MQM game, enjoy traveling, and we never got tired of racking up miles and flying to Asia or New York for dinner.
Even finding good First Class deals or buy-ups was fun because those yielded bonus MQM — and we didn’t have to play the upgrade game.
And here’s the real kicker: we earned elite status by — gasp!— actually flying Delta and using their credit cards!
Ah, the good ole days, right?
Since Delta revamped the SkyMiles program two years ago, we’ve spent significantly less money flying Delta and using our Delta SkyMiles® American Express Cards. We spread the love across our Chase, Capital One, and Amex cards. (We’re rewarding Delta’s loyalty to us.)
We’ve given Southwest significantly more business. Even though we don’t love their new business model, we do love my Companion Pass and look forward to using that.
But we do miss the MQM chase.
Do you miss Delta MQM runs?
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I never did any mileage run but on our usually two vacation trips to the US (always starting at FRA) I was glad when we could fly thru ATL for the same (or better) price to wherever we wanted to go, just because this meant more MQMs.
Oh, wherever we wanted to go? Well, when planning our vacations I first looked at flights to somewhere in the West (LAX, SFO, SEA). When I found some more or less cheap flights I then started planning where to finally go for our vacation. Remain somewhere in the west? Or maybe flying to Texas? Or DTW for meeting Rene somewhere in Michiana? Or to New York? Maybe back to ATL to travel around the South?
So no true runs but I tried to maximize MQMs earned. Like when we flew back from DFW to LAX … via … ATL!
Now that distance don’t play any role anymore we will simply fly to where we want to stay … in case we fly to the US at all.
You made me smile. 2018, I was a first time qualifier and flew …. Wait for it…. A segment run from a hub to Boston and back for $100RT to get the last two segments to qualify for Silver out of a hub. I know. Rookie move. it was fun. I knew a vendor in my industry that traveled to a ton of trade shows and the like and his house was halfway between a hub and a regional airport and he would book his tickets thru the hub and into the regional airport to get two additional segments on every trip. That’s how he made medallion every year. No spend required.
Our group of five DIA fliers did the exact same thing. While we flew a lot for work, crazy mileage runs to get over the line were all for fun. And not one of us has done crazy travel since. Beijing, Dubai, Sydney, Singapore – people can blame the tourism fall on the economy all they want – DL may blame some of it on revamping the SkyMiles program.
Ah, yes, mileage runs. You never knew where you were going next, but you always knew you’d accumulate a bunch of miles toward elite status. There was also a thrill when finding a good mileage run deal, as there were always crazy people who would go along. That’s because the goal was a common goal, and many friendships were formed as a result. When working full-time, it was also a great weekend activity you could anticipate with excitement. MQD runs are pale in comparison. Yes, I miss mileage runs.