Originally Posted by
xliioper
The strategy in the past has generally been to book partner cheap premium cabins for the extra mileage-based MQD earn over DL fare-based MQD earn (these would also earn an MQM bonus). Presumably, you are talking about booking partner "Light" Fares to save some money and still earn MM on them (unlike DL BE fares which do not)? Not clear if partner Light fares still earn MM credit. Program T&C's indicate they shouldn't, but at this point they may not be checking --
"Flight miles flown on flights marketed by Delta’s partner airlines will also count towards Million Miler Status, except for Basic Economy and similar fares."
AF/KL doesn't have a separate booking class for their Light fares, while VS does (T). I'd be more confident about booking AF/KL Light fares than VS ones due to this, but perhaps someone with VS experience can comment. 400K miles is still a long ways off from 2MM and you'd have to put up with a lot of flying in coach just to get to 2MM. As an example, you can get VS Light fares on IAD-JNB for $820 roundtrip. Assuming these still count towards MM, you are talking roughly 21 roundtrips and $17.2K in spend to earn 400K MM miles.
I have DM through Jan, 2026 due to MQM conversion to MQDs and am planning on hitting 2MM before then and drop to 2MM Plat in 2026. Fortunately, I'm much closer to 2MM.
Thanks for your response. You are certainly closer than me to 2MM. In earlier years I did mileage runs to Asia when MQMs mattered and took advantage of the bonuses for premium cabins. I will eventually get to 2MM with work travel, but it will now take longer due to the elimination of MQMs and fare class bonuses counting as MM balance.
I’m trying to understand a strategy to accelerate BIS MM miles to places I want to go. Maybe I misunderstand, but I thought all travel counts toward MM, except Delta BE? If the MM bucket becomes my priority, and because MQM gone/MQD hit for year, I no longer am concerned about fare class on partner airlines. It can go back to old school mileage run cost/mile at any fare class across any delta partner?