If I take Delta up on their offer and purchase 10,000 MQM's, I will end up just a few miles short of 70,000 MQM's for this year. If I spend enough by the end of the year to reach the next threshold on my AMEX card (I am several thousand $'s away), I will receive another 10,000 MQM's, which would take me to Platinum. I really would prefer NOT spending that much money to reach that level. Is Platinum status that much better than Gold? If I didn't reach Platinum, I would have almost 20,000 miles to roll over to 2013, which would be a good start on Gold status for next year. Any thoughts???
Will you be able to retain PM next year? It seems like without the MQM promo you'd be left to do a lot of flying in order to attain PM.
As a PM I find the value much better than when I was GM, but not worth it unless you could requalify easily. If your travel patterns typically only get you GM, go with rollover for next year to get a head start
I've only achieved Platinum status once several years ago when I was doing much more traveling as president of a national association. My current flying habits only get me to Gold status, and only with the help of AMEX Platinum SkyMile card thresholds and some rollover miles.
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I think the OP should remember that spending toward the DL AmEx spend threshold for MQMs does not roll over at all, so if one is close to a threshold, it is smart to reach that goal. there must be something you can do to acelerate charges to your card at little or no cost to you.
Can you use a SC membership for some MQMs? Can you get some MQMs from Hilton or Hertz so that you only need to worry about getting 10,000 from AmEx or purchase, but not both?
A big difference between GM and PM, in addition to upgrade priority, is the waiver of change/redeposit fees for award tickets, otherwise $150 per ticket per change. If you're planning any award travel using DL miles between now and March 2014, getting to PM can be well worthwhile.
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I already have a SkyClub membership. Actually, when you reach a spending threshold on the AMEX Platinum SkyMiles card ($25,000 or $50,000), you get 10,000 MQM's, and they DO rollover to the following year. Don't know how one gets MQM's from Hilton, other than the minimal 250 MQM's for a 2-night stay from now until the end of the year. I have booked an award ticket and a miles upgrade on an international flight for next year. It would be great to have the perk of the waiver of change/redeposit fees for award tickets. However, I am not expecting any changes with those tickets, so I should not need that perk. This is a difficult decision to make, and I only have a little over a month to figure out what I am going to do.
Programs: A3*Gold, SPG Plat, HyattDiamond, MarriottPP, LHW exAccess, ICI, Raffles Amb, NW PE MM, TWA Gold MM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gb88
I already have a SkyClub membership. Actually, when you reach a spending threshold on the AMEX Platinum SkyMiles card ($25,000 or $50,000), you get 10,000 MQM's, and they DO rollover to the following year. Don't know how one gets MQM's from Hilton, other than the minimal 250 MQM's for a 2-night stay from now until the end of the year. I have booked an award ticket and a miles upgrade on an international flight for next year. It would be great to have the perk of the waiver of change/redeposit fees for award tickets. However, I am not expecting any changes with those tickets, so I should not need that perk. This is a difficult decision to make, and I only have a little over a month to figure out what I am going to do.
MQMs always rollover if you reach at least FO, but spending on a DL AmEx does not. So if your qualifying spend is $24,000 on NYE, you will get no MQMs from this and start 2013 with zero spend. It seems like a big waste to me.
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However, if you go over the thresholds of $25,000 or $50,000 in spending, it automatically triggers an instant award of 10,000 MQM's (in addition to the normal spending FF miles). In my experience, those DO rollover.
Programs: A3*Gold, SPG Plat, HyattDiamond, MarriottPP, LHW exAccess, ICI, Raffles Amb, NW PE MM, TWA Gold MM
Posts: 20,500
Quote:
Originally Posted by gb88
However, if you go over the thresholds of $25,000 or $50,000 in spending, it automatically triggers an instant award of 10,000 MQM's (in addition to the normal spending FF miles). In my experience, those DO rollover.
This is exactly my point: if you make the spending threshold in dollars, you get MQMs that will rollover if you are at least FO. But if you miss a spending threshold, you begin again at zero on January 1, when the spend is reset to zero. So $25,000 means 10,000 MQMs that rollover and 10,000 redeemable miles that don't expire but $24,999 spend gets reset to zero and you get nothing.
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Exactly. I am currently leaning toward just buying 10,000 MQM's from Delta and having more miles to rollover rather than just make Platinum in 2013 and then worry about flying enough to reach Gold the following year. Does this seem reasonable?????
Hi, i was in the same boat last year and I went for Gold + rollover and now I am regretting the decision.
As gold this year I traveled 10 trips, the only times I got upgraded are when I am not buying the LUT fares... and I'm upgraded maybe 2-3 legs. EC is still not very enjoyable and I should've gone with platinum and enjoy a bit more upgrades.
In addition, I'm flying back to Asia this year and had to pay $150 for EC seats (2 legs), I could've saved this by going Platinum, and get the free miles as benefits.
Now I did manage to maintain gold this year and next year (I, too, rely on Amex spending) but the benefits being gold is not that good anymore, so I'll recommend going Platinum.
Exactly. I am currently leaning toward just buying 10,000 MQM's from Delta and having more miles to rollover rather than just make Platinum in 2013 and then worry about flying enough to reach Gold the following year. Does this seem reasonable?????
If you buy the MQMs though, you are spending money just for the miles. If you hit the spend, you get the benefit of whatever it is you are buying, as well as the miles. Don't waste money just to hit the spend, but what about:
Gift cards that you know you will use over the next year;
Plan flights for next year and buy the tickets now;
If you're taking a cruise or going on a vacation, buy the cruise or the package and pay in full
I think it depends on how much the OP actually has to spend to reach PM. Being a few $$$$ short can be a wide range of $. I'm assuming the $995 for 10K MQMs will get you $995 closer to the spend threshold if you spend using your amex DL plat card (also would net you an additional 2x RDMs since it is a DL purchase I think). If you're talking an additional $5-10K of spend just to reach the amex spend threshold above and beyond what you plan on spending on anyways, I am not sure if it will balance out the PM benefits. Of course this varies based on your travel patterns.
After purchasing the Delta MQM's, I'd still have to spend another $5,000 between now and the end of the year to reach my spending threshold. That's quite a ways to go to get those 10,000 MQM's. That's why I'm leaning toward keeping Gold status and rolling over 20,000 MQM's to count toward next year's status. I need a crystal ball to know if I'm making the right decision.
One more thought - it is true that the value of Gold status is diminishing. However, it certainly beats Silver. I don't know that Silvers really receive ANY benefits of much value. I definitely don't want to dip below Gold status.
