DLSuites

Greetings. I am aware that if you buy a ticket on Air France and you choose to apply the flight towards skymiles, in particular the La Premier cabin, you only receive 60% MQD's.

But what if you call Delta and have them book the flight for you, would it still only get 60% MQD or being that the flight was booked on Delta, would it get 100% MQD? The flight in question would be CDG - SIN/SIN-CDG in AF La Premiere cabin.

I called DL and asked that question and they told me only 60% but wanted to see what others think. Thanks.

SEA-Flyer

It is not 60% of the purchase price. They award MQD at 60% of the distance flown. So if you fly 5000 miles, you get 3000MQD.

Sometimes this works in your favor, sometimes it doesn't.

Zorak

And to be clear, what matters is not who books the flight for you, but what airline's code the flight is marketed under. DLxxxx (whether operated by DL or AF) credited to Delta, earns by the DL rules for earning MQMs/MQDs . AFxxxx (whether operated by DL or AF) credited to Delta earns by the rules for earning MQMs/MQDs on partners.

DLSuites

I follow along now, thanks. Looks like it doesnt really matter if I book it with DL or with AF. I am only getting 60% MQD for Premiere.

btonkid12345

No. If you book the flight using DL flight numbers (even if operated by AirFrance) you will get 100% of the base fare and carrier-imposed fees allocated to that segment. It will straight up be what you paid.

If you book it under AirFrance flight numbers, you get 60% of the distance flown on the AirFrance flight numbers, regardless of what you actually paid. If you have a discounted fare, then the distance flown option is usually highly lucrative.

If you have an expensive fare, then the DL flight numbers that just credits by straight up with you paid is usually better.

Does this make sense now? No one is "shorting" you MQDs or giving you less than 100% - they are just completely different methodologies for calculating the MQD, stemming from the fact that Delta usually doesn't know what you paid others for fares, so they use the distance multiplied by a percentage to make a best guess. 60% of miles flown as MQD is the most generous and most lucrative of any partner on DL's entire award chart, when comparing to all other partners (all of whom use a percentage multiplied by distance MQD calculation)

ryw

Maybe an example would help here? For example, I might be looking at a flight in premium economy, SFO-CDG-SFO, operated by Air France. The same flight costs $1,505 if I book via Delta (which also has DL flight numbers, DL8599 and 8552); or $1,648 if I book via Air France (which has AF flight numbers, AF83 and 84).

If I book via Delta, I get MQD the regular way, the cost of the ticket without taxes and fees, which in this case is 1382 MQDs.

If I book via Air France but credit the flight to my skymiles account, I get MQD as a percentage of distance flown. The price I paid doesn't matter. Air France premium economy earns at 30%, and the total distance is 11,166 miles, so I'd recieve 11,166 * 30% = 3349 MQD.

So in this particular case I'd be better off booking the flights as AF83 and AF84 and crediting to Delta Skymiles if I wanted to maximize my MQDs.
You'll have to do the calculations for your flight, depending on the distance you're flying, your purchased class of service, and how much the DL-numbered flights cost.

MSPeconomist

tangeng

But First Class is really hard to get MQDs value on distance. Usually those are priced higher than 60% and therefore better to use revenue based MQDs.

blagger

MQDs are always 20% of RDMs earned (before any status bonus). So it might be easier if you think in terms of RDMs.
Delta RDMs are 5x $ spent.
AF RDMs in F are 3x distance.
So if the DL fare in $ is more than 3/5 of the distance, then the DL marketed flight earns more RDMs and MQDs.
For example, CDG-SIN is 13332 miles roundtrip, so if the fare is > $8000 (3/5 of the distance) then a DL flight number will earn more RDMs and MQDs than an AF flight number, if you could actually buy a DL codeshare on the flight in F.

MSPeconomist

mkt80

I have a similar question:
For AF marketed economy tickets credited to Delta SM how can I tell which economy fare I am purchasing that will apply to the Delta MQD factor, since it ranges between 5% and 25% of distance flown? Delta lists fare codes on their partner chart but I don't really see those when I go to purchase a ticket on AFs website.

ProfRB

Can anyone suggest some general "sweet spots" for MQDs? I'm MQM-heavy and MQD-light this year.

MSPeconomist

xliioper

Click on the "Fare conditions" link when pricing tickets on the AF website. It shows the fare basis codes for the flights and the AF fare class is the first letter of the fare basis code.

mkt80

so the following ticket would indicate the two first flights are A fare class and the last two flights are S fare class?
thanks!