SDQBound

I was recently booking an upcoming flight. It's a 4-day trip with no saturday stay, which means that only M fares were available. Booking M on DL means some ~2000 extra RDM, while booking on AF means 150% MQM, of course I booked with AF.

Wimsta

If I'm wrong I stand corrected, but...
My DL flights booked through KL are the same as DL booked, price/fare based.

My KL flights booked through DL, are price based.

My KL flights booked through KL are distanced based.

My AF flights booked through KL are distance based.

But, you are correct, about code, KLM steal with DL code does show reward method R and KL reward code is D, but isn't that all about how it is booked?

angra

I'm not sure how to read the totality of your post, but, as of right now, if you credit a AF or KL marketed flight to your DL skymiles account, the RDM and MQD will be distance based, no matter who the ticketing carrier is and who the operating carrier is. The rules used to be different but were simplified to work entirely based on marketing carrier recently (I believe it was 2017 but I am not positive about the timing).

xliioper

The rules were simplified for 2018. Ticketing carrier was still a factor in 2017.

mot29

For most of 2017, yes. But I was surprised to see VA flights on a mixed DL 006 issued ticket earn based on mileage in Oct/Nov 2017. Because this was DL ticketed I'd been expecting to earn based on DL $ rules.
DCA-LAX-BNE earned $ based with DL flight numbers (LAX-BNE was VA operated).
BNE-AKL/CHC-SYD-LAX earned miles based as all flights had VA flight numbers and were VA operated (the reason I had a 6 hour layover at BNE -- VA and NZ code share a lot of OZ-NZ flights and the first connection to AKL was NZ operated, so would not have earned miles. And I think that CHC-SYD was operated by VA on some days and NZ on others).
LAX-DCA earned based on DL flight number and operations.
FWIW
LAX-BNE 7,161 actual miles (earnings based on $s) 10,742 MQMs, $1317 MQDs, 14,487 flight miles (base+bonus)
SYD-LAX 7,489 actual miles (earnings based on distance) 11,231 MQMs, $2995 MQDs, 23,958 flight miles (base+bonus)
As much as I tried, I couldn't get the LAX-BNE flight to show up with a VA flight number.
As I recall, the whole ticket -- DCA-AKL/CHC-DCA in business cost about $4500 including taxes and fees. I earned $6072 MQDs for the whole trip including the DCA-LAX-DCA flights.
If you are on an expensive ticket then it may not work out, but if you find relatively cheap business class tickets, booking with partners can be great.

frankflieslots

so help me out here. do we get more MQMs & MQDs booking via DL on KL/AF flights or should we book them directly with KL/AF? i fly business class, and there are time booking directly with KL/AF can save a couple hundred of dollars. but i just thought booking it directly would allow me to talk to DM desk in case of flight interruptions.

Zorak

There's no simple answer to your question.

If you book something like a DL9xxx codeshare operated by KL/AF, you will earn everything as if it was a Delta flight -- distance-based MQMs with class of service bonus if applicable, RDMs based on price, MQDs based on price.

If you book an AFxxx/KLxxx flight number (regardless of whether you purchase through the Delta web site or the AF or KL web site or an OTA) you will earn MQMs based on the AF/KL chart, and MQDs based on percentage of distance, and RDMs based on some formula based on distance with bonuses for elite status etc. Consult the partner earning charts: https://www.delta.com/en_US/skymiles...rline-partners. This paragraph also applies to KL/AF codeshares flights that are operated by DL.

Which one yields more MQDs or RDMs will depend on the fare paid and the distance involved.

I believe DL handles customer service for AF/KL in the US, and for day of travel IRROPs you'd have to deal with the operating carrier regardless. So that part doesn't matter where you book.

mot29

Unfortunately, as Zorak notes, there isn't a quick and dirty formula.
I usually need MQDs more than MQMs to requal for status and tier 1 partners like KL/AF/MU can be very good for MQDs when you find a relatively inexpensive business class ticket. I've got a Dec trip that based on spend with DL would only earn about $2300 MQDs. But I'm flying MU and the $2500 ticket should earn 40% of 14,800 miles, almost 6,000 MQDs.
You really need to calculate it for each trip.