Advice to reach Silver
 

Looking for any advice to reach Silver Medallion status before the end of the year. Would be flying out of FLL or MIA.
Current stats are:

MQM 22,385 of 25,000. Need 2,615
or
MQS 9 of 30. Need 21

and
MQD $2,527 of $3,000. Need $473.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Here's the thread you want to post in for advice to get to status:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mile...lp-needed.html

But you can think about the nonstop from MIA to MSP, which looks to be about 3K MQMs and $500 MQDs in Main next weekend.

I can't think of a reason why it would be worth it in your case, unless there is a trip you wanted to take.

I had a similar issue getting to gold this year. Snagged a platinum Amex, spent $1000 and made it to gold. Also got 30k bonus miles to fly somewhere fun.

Agreed. You only have 9 segments and with taxes, you will be spending $500+ on your mileage run. With such few segments I don't see how you would recoup that investment. Your better bet would be to take that $500 and buy C+/F on your flights next year and then you would receive the same (if not better benefits) than being silver.

I think the OP should fly 21 segments before end of year. Surely that would also qualify him on MQD's. :D

Agreed - you should consider if its better to just spend that money on C+ based on your future flying plans. If you expect to fly a LOT more next year - then it might be worth going for Silver. But if you're flying the same amount, then buying C+ could be better and cheaper.

Silver gets you exit-row at booking and Zone 1 boarding. Depending on the routes you fly you get a decent shot a C+ upgrades and tiny chance at F - looking back to the last time I was Silver, out of 12 segments on BOS-MSP, I was upgraded to C+ on 6 of them and to F twice. Plus you get 2 extra RDM per $ spent.

Buying C+ gets you guaranteed C+ and SkyPriority boarding. No upgrades to F.

There's no difference in MQM earning, but you get more MQD for booking C+ (simply because it costs more ).

I would do a couple of dummy bookings to see the difference in price between buying coach and C+ for some potential trips next year - and multiply that by the number of trips you expect to take. You can use that to estimate whether its better just to buy C+ or go for Silver.

I'm Silver, and I wouldn't say it's worth $473 worth of MQD. That buys you a lot of bags and preferred seats or C+. How about applying for the Delta Amex Gold or Platinum? They have $95/$195 annual fees and come with first checked bag free (same as silver), and Zone1 boarding (same as Silver).

I agree with the other posters, Silver doesn't really get you many benefits that you can't get with a co-branded credit card (Free Checked Bags & Priority Boarding). Gold gets you a few more perks, like same-day changes (at least it used to). There are so many golds in the program though that getting an upgrade is nearly impossible. Platinum is where you start to get a decent upgrade rate. If you are choosy with your flights, you can get upgraded to F most of the time, and out of the ~60 segments I have flown this year I have been upgraded to C+ every time except I think once or twice.

When I compared the options I while back for my own situation, the only difference between having a Delta AmEx Gold and earning Silver status was the free upgrades (based on availability) and the ability to roll over excess EQM. The rollover isn't relevant for you if you're talking about just hitting the threshold, so that can be ignored. With the promotions out there to get 50K+ award miles in signing up for a card, I think I'd rather have the $95 annual fee and save ~$400, which you could use either the cash or miles to guarantee yourself an upgrade to C+ or F at booking. If you think you might be in the Silver-to-Gold range next year, it might be worth it to get the Platinum or Reserve card if you'll spend enough to get the additional EQM that could push you over that limit for Gold.

If you were talking about Gold that might be a different discussion with lounge access on international itineraries, but for Silver it appears to be equivalent to having any Delta credit card (except Blue).

As a Silver I've only been upgraded on F on short hops out of Seattle. But fortunately I do get upgrades to C+ on Transcons which frequently are selling for $100+ and I do get to use the sky priority line at some airports where it saves a ton of time.

If he MR's for Silver, he'd likely only rollover a few MQM's anyway. So the only thing really "lost" here is the Silver status itself. If he was sitting on something like 35K+ MQM's and was short of Silver by 473 MQD's, that would be a different story and going on an MR would be more compelling.

Just a thought, but to spend that kind of money already, with only 9 segments, the buy up to C+ on where OP flys could be more than the $400ish it would cost to get to Silver.

Not saying Silver is worth it in this case, just that it may not be as simple as buy up instead.