jaydoubleu

Hello good people,

First-time caller, long-time listener with a question. Right now, I'm a sliver medallion Delta member sitting at 49,775 MQMs on the year with enough MQDs to qualify for platinum. I also am scheduled to do a work trip to Asia in September. Since I'm sitting less than one flight away, is it worth it to spend a couple hundred bucks to do a cheap trip to the closest airport to get to gold status before my work trip? My trip as scheduled right now goes from Detroit to Seattle to Narita to Shanghai and back the same route. Obviously, I'll go over gold status on the first leg of the trip. And there will be so many diamonds and above on the plane to make an upgrade unlikely. But is it worth the hassle to have better status before the long trip? What are the real benefits, perse?

Thanks for everything, I'll hang up and listen now. Although if someone wants to trade me 225 miles for a couple thousand MQDs, I'm willing to listen.

mridley2

Simple answer is YES if the following would benefit you.

Gold Med will get you the following benefits:

Sky Team Elite Plus which equals free lounge access while on any Sky Team international itinerary no matter what class of travel. If booked in J cabin lounge access is part of that so it's not necessary.


Not sure of your class of travel but GM on DL metal will get a deeper discount on Economy Comfort if flying in economy cabin. If not on DL metal but on AF/KLM/others you will get access to that airlines version of economy plus or Seat Plus(Air France).

Also in general Gold Medallion is MUCH more valuable then Silver. Better phone agents, faster response time, DL staff will be more willing to bend the "rules" or go out of their way to accommodate you if something goes awry.

Once you hit the MQMs to reach 50K give yourself 24-48 hours for your status to update (and the sooner the better) and then immediately take advantage of your expanded benefits with upgraded seats, etc.

I'm sure there are other benefits that you could take advantage of but i'ts post 1am on the East and I have a flight in a few short hours..

Happy travels.

JORBUST

I don't think it would be worth extra money to get to gold early for that one flight. I think it would be a tough upgrade for silver or gold. If you want 1st bad on DTW-SEA, see if you can upgrade with miles (K or up fare I believe).

The only other benefit to having gold on your way to narita is being sky team elite plus which does make it a nicer trip, lounge access, baggage faster, etc.

kylemore

Possibly. Gold status gets you 100% bonus miles vs 25 % for silver. I don't know if you would potentially miss out on bonus miles for the entire trip if you waited. Perhaps the extra miles would not be worth anything to you, but it is another consideration.

relangford

If I were you and the cost is low, I'd do the short MR to get over the hurdle before your long-distance flights just to be sure to get the bonus miles, without possible hassle, and proof of status for lounge access (assuming you are in Y and not a member of SC).

lamprey

If you can do it quickly enough and don't already have it, perhaps consider getting the Platinum Delta Amex card? I think you get 15,000 MQMs for a $1,000 minimum spend, though it'll cost you $195 for the annual fee. Your window of opportunity may be too small though to get to GM by the trip, once you add the trip you could probably easily make it to PM.

xliioper

When's your trip? You can do FNT-ATL-BWI-ATL-FNT for $176 on 9/13.

rubesl

"First-time caller, long-time listener with a question" - I think you spend too much time listening to Dr. Joy, the radio psychologist!

Reid

How about you apply for the Platinum Delta Amex. 15k bonus MQM would push you to gold quickly.

jaydoubleu

That's the date I was thinking about doing a quick jaunt. I was looking at the DTW-ORD from Saturday to Monday for about $200 since it's my anniversary weekend. Thanks for the tip on the Flint leg.

It sounds like about what I thought. My biggest fear is forfeiting the double RQMs on the Seattle to Japan leg, since it will take a couple of days for gold to sink in. Plus, lounge access would be nice and since I'm not high up enough in the company for business class the cheaper Economy Comfort would be good.

I appreciate all the help, everyone.

IsleOfMan

I'd calculate the value of lounge access (cost of day passes of 30/60/90 day pass) and bonus miles you would miss, and then compare that to the cost of a mileage run. If the MR is less, make sure it's ENOUGH less to justify the time & effort. Good luck!

jaydoubleu

That was another thought, since I have the gold one. But I'm not sure I'd be able to spend the grand without a business trip to do it.

humanoid94

Doing a mileage run for Gold over Silver will net you about 6K additional miles on the outbound of your trip. (I assume the inbound is far enough away that the system will recognize you as a Gold on the return). I figure those are worth $80 or so plus lounge access ($25-$50), and a 50% discount on economy comfort. If you can find a mileage run that costs less than $120 or so then I would do it. Otherwise, just fly it as a Silver.

turkeyRIOO

With the increased value of FO in 2015 40% bonus on revenue vs devaluation of GM reduced to 60% bonus. It might be better to remain an FO and roll over the MQMs. DL will need to make tweaks in 2015 and the 2016 may be better as a GM or PM might be better then. You can credit the TPAC to AS, FB or another program that offers one-ways awards after you have selected exit rows seats. Exit ros seats are still free for FOs and IMO are better than most EC seats.

Carl Johnson

You do get 15,000 MQMs. You get 50,000 RDMs, of which 15,000 are MQMs. Totally worth it and OP should do that whether he does it now or not. I have a Delta gold Amex, tried to upgrade, no go because I've had it less than a year. Rules used to be no bonus if you've had the same card within a year, or any card within the last 4 months. Now the rule is, one bonus per lifetime - can't get the bonus if you've ever had this card before. But there is not any issue with simultaneous or recently closed cards. OP should do it on the phone so he can make sure of the terms - especially since he already has the gold Amex.

They told me it took up to 4 weeks after doing the $1000 spend for the miles to hit. I was expecting the miles to hit when the statement closed, but the statement has not closed - within days of my hitting the $1000 spend, the miles were in my account. I think I have had this card for less than 2 weeks.

OP can buy $1000 worth of gift cards to hit the spend - if you make sure you buy the cards only at stores where you are absolutely certain you're going to buy the things anyway and it isn't going to strain your cash flow, it isn't a wasteful or financially irresponsible strategy.