With all the speculation that these fares do not earn MQMs or miles, I found it interesting that today DL posted a message internally about the new E fares. In that memo it is stated that:
-E fares will earn mileage
-E fares are eligible for MQM accrual
-E fares are eligible for complimentary Medallion upgrades (on domestic part of international itinerary)
So, it looks like all this speculation about earning no miles or MQMs is off-base. It appears they were just so new that nobody really knew much about them and finally DL has loaded them into the system and are not coding them as an award class of service