Originally Posted by
Cricket7
This is all very interesting, creative And helpful! But can you help me out with the alphabet? How do I figure out what is V, Z, etc
yours truly,
the newbie
Sorry, Cricket, I realize you asked us to keep it in layman's terms.
Those are referring to fare classes. V is the lowest (cheapest) Main Cabin fare excluding Basic Economy (E fare), while Z is the lowest First class fare which can sometimes be found for a very small markup over the Main Cabin. You can see the fare class in parentheses when selecting your flight on delta.com.
V and most Main Cabin fare classes earn 100% of miles flown as MQMs with a minimum of 500 MQMs awarded per segment. In other words, DTW-BWI will earn 500 MQMs despite being 400 miles. DTW-CVG-DCA would earn 1000 MQMs (500 per segment). Z and other discounted First Class fares earn a 50% bonus, so your DTW-BWI trip would earn 750 MQMs each way.
Hope this helps and welcome to FlyerTalk!