Does Buying Tickets On Delta Count Toward Mqd?
Since Medallion status comes with so many fantastic advantages—free checked luggage, limitless gratis upgrades on Delta flights, priority boarding, and so much more—most Delta Flyers aim for Medallion status every year. Delta's Medallion status is attained when the flyer meets minimum MQMs or MQSs in a year and the MQDs required for Medallion status. Many Delta consumers wonder a very crucial question: do my Delta ticket purchases go toward the MQD need?
Indeed, tickets purchased straight from Delta and run under Delta or another affiliate airline will be tallied against the MQD income. Here is a thorough summary of precisely how booking Delta Airlines Flight enables you to reach yearly MQD requirements:
Medallion Qualification Dollars:
To begin with, it is useful to know what the acronym MQDs stands for. MQDs are based on the amount of money that has been spent in the qualifying year on airfare. Delta utilizes this strategy to avoid customers accumulating points through many cheap flights while not contributing much to the company’s income.
For the 2023 Medallion year, MQD requirements are:
- Silver Medallion: $3,000 MQDs
- Gold Medallion: At least $5,000 MQDs
- Platinum Medallion: $7,500 MQDs
- Diamond Medallion: Fifteen thousand MQDs or $15,000.
All Delta tickets that you buy contribute towards these annual targets. This includes the low-cost fares as well as the full serviced tickets. As for MQD, Delta utilizes the base fare and any fee that has been charged by the carrier to determine the MQD earned. In this case, taxes and fees for partners’ airlines are excluded from MQD calculations.
Comparing Main Cabin with First Class/Delta One
There is a tip that fares in the higher classes earn more MQDs for every flight mile. However, your MQD balance will grow faster when buying First Class and Delta One business class tickets, even though you will travel more often if you book cheap Main Cabin and Basic Economy tickets.
For instance, a round trip between Atlanta and Los Angeles yields roughly 5000 MQMs (Medallion Qualification Miles) irrespective of class of travel. However, the MQD values could look like this for each fare class: However, the MQD values could look like this for each fare class:
Main Cabin: $300 MQDs First Class: $900 MQDs Delta One: $1,800 MQDs
As you can imagine, purchasing premium seats moves you closer to that yearly MQD faster and in addition to the comfort they offer.
Booking Directly with Delta
To qualify toward MQD thresholds, tickets must be purchased directly through Delta channels, including To qualify toward MQD thresholds, tickets must be purchased directly through Delta channels, including:
- Delta's website
- Delta reservations phone agent
- Airport ticket counters
- In-flight purchases
If you purchase the tickets through third parties such as Expedia, Orbitz, or Priceline, those airline ticket purchases do not contribute to MQD accumulation. You would only accrue redeemable miles and MQMs based on the flight distance. It is also important to note that if you want to improve your chances of getting elite Medallion status, ensure to always book directly through the Delta channel.
Delta Vacations Air/Hotel Packages
An interesting exception to this would be Delta Vacations packages. Airfare components of bundled flight and hotel and car reservations sold on Delta’s vacation website do count toward MQD thresholds when the packages include flights with hotels and rental cars. Thus, it is advisable to book Delta Vacations to be able to achieve what may be referred to as “double dipping” of MQDs, MQMs, and other redeemable miles as compared to making separate reservations for air and hotels.
Exceptions for Award Tickets
Like third-party seller tickets, award tickets booked with miles do not count toward MQD requirements. You will get the number of redeemable miles and MQMs depending on the route and cabin type without any out-of-pocket expenses, but there are no MQDs involved.
This means that you cannot depend on awards alone, and must purchase some quantity of revenue tickets to qualify for each threshold. There are sometimes special award Miles + MQD promotions for Delta, but the awarded travel is non-eligible.
Partner Airline Flights With Delta
If you travel with partner airlines that have Delta flight numbers, even if you are on partner flights, you can earn both MQMs and MQDs as if flying directly with Delta. These include SkyTeam alliance airlines such as Air France, KLM, Aeromexico, and others. All the Alliance routes flown on these airlines are qualified for full Medallion Status recognition.
However, for all other partner airlines with no DL flight numbers, only MQMs are earned while no MQDs are earned. Some of these partners are West Jet, Virgin Atlantic, China Eastern, and others. Therefore be careful when incorporating partner flights in your travelling plans as policies differ.
In summary, all tickets with the ‘DL ’ number and many partner flights that are ticketed under Delta’s code offer everything necessary for Medallion status- mileage, MQMs, and MQDs. Simply ensure that you buy from the Delta company and not any middleman. Even higher-fare classes help you to progress more quickly. By adhering to these rules, your Delta trips will go a long way in getting to the much-coveted Silver, Gold, Platinum, or Diamond Medallion status in record time!
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