mercilessmeng

New to this forum here but need advice from you experience travelers. My Delta SkyMiles said I need $1,230 to get to Silver Status before Dec 31. Any advice or tips on how I can get there? I live in PHX. I am flying from PHX to JFK for Thanksgiving. Are the MQDs credited when I book the flight or after I have flown? I know I can buy the MQDs with hard cash but I am trying to avoid that. Thanks!

FlyingUnderTheRadar

Welcome to FT. Everything is credited once flown. MQD is for the actual flight cost and does not include the taxes and other fees. If you need more miles, segments, MQD then start looking for flights. That said IMHO spending extra monies to get silver rarely worth it. The exception is if you have lots of domestic travel and need to check a bag or are already well over 25K miles.

xliioper

They do not credit until after you have flown each flight (if flying non-stop on single itin, half will credit after first flight and the other half after second flight). You can often earn more MQD's than spent with Delta Vacation packages or partner flights (such as AeroMexico) in a premium cabin because MQD's are awarded based on distance flown rather than cost. Although if you haven't booked your flights to JFK yet, you are unlikely to find any deals there (the cheaper flights generally require an advance purchase of a couple weeks or so). You'd have to take a side-trip though Mexico or other international destination to book with AeroMexico.

mercilessmeng

Thanks for the replies. I figure it's not worth spending the money for Silver. You probably rarely get the upgrades, which is what I am after. I already have the Delta AMEX Platinum card so I get free baggage check anyway and Main One boarding.

mercilessmeng

I already booked the flight, when it was fairly inexpensive. I don't think it's worth spending the extra cash to pay for the upgrade to Silver.

dmbolp

Isn't this as simple as, spend $1,230 more MQD dollars on Delta flights flown by 12/31?

Either:

A) Change your fares to F (or C+) on your PHX-JFK-PHX flights, spending at least $1,230 MQD

or

B) Book additional flights this year totaling at least $1,230 MQD

ekozie

What are your travel patterns? If you're flying off times/routes/days of the week, silvers still see upgrades (though not as numerous as they once were). Check your receipt to see the base fare of the JFK trip, and also let us know how many MQMS and MQS you have for the year. It may well not be worth it to go for silver, but if you're in a marginal situation where it may make sense, you may want to take the buy-up offer to F on the JFK trip and make a plan from there.

Mountain Explorer

Welcome to FlyerTalk. Since you haven't flown to JFK yet, you haven't received that credit yet. So assuming your round-trip base fare was $500, then you're really only short 730 MQD. The easiest way to get that would be to upgrade yourself to first class for your Thanksgiving trip. If your base fare increases by 730 MQD then you will get silver status a few days after Thanksgiving, and you will enjoy a more comfortable flight to JFK in the process. Of course, if you're travelling with family in coach, you might have some explaining to do FYI, upgrading your family would be very nice gesture indeed but it won't help your pursuit at all since they would receive the extra MQD, not you (even if you're the one paying the bill)

SeaHawg

Apply for the Delta Skymiles Gold card...

Free checked bags and Main 1 priority boarding are standard.

The annual fee is $95 versus $1,200 of extra spending, and the benefits are basically the same as silver.

Otherwise, expect very little out of FO so you won’t be disappointed.

CarmenOM

The OP said he already has the Delta AmEx Platinum card.

Gig103

I was a PHX based silver, and found myself around #40 on the upgrade lists. The exception were a few of the 6am SEA flights when I actually got upgraded to FC. But that's an upgrade you can sometimes buy for $75. The preferred seating and the rollover MQM would help you but also not for $1200 in my opinion

SeaHawg

Ah- I just read the first post and responded. If OP has the AMEX DL Plat, then they essentially have the main benefits of FO locked up. No need to drop an extra $1.2k unless they really want the luggage tags.

mercilessmeng

I just checked my Delta account. Delta wants $789 to upgrade my seat. I don't know if it's to 1st class or just Comfort+. I only paid about $350 for this r/t ticket from PHX-JFK-PHX.
It's U class for PHX to JFK and V class for JFK to PHX. So, it's ridiculously high.

Because i signed up for the Delta AMEX Platinum card this year, I have 29,758 MQMs' and 9 MQSs'. So this part is satisfied but I still need the $1,230 MQDs'.
After my NYC trip it will get down to around $900. I am still debating if it's worth it. I am running out of runway to do a mileage run before Dec 31.

Mountain Explorer

The other thing to consider is that if you achieve Silver, you will get to rollover any MQMs greater than 25,000.

If you upgrade to first, you will earn approximately 6,500 MQM for your r/t to JFK. Therefore you will rollover 29,758 - 25,000 + 6500 = aprox 11,300 MQM. So you start next year with that already in the bank.

If you don't achieve silver by Dec 31, you lose everything and start at zero next year.

CPMaverick

Silver is NOT worth >$1000 extra cash. Period.

Yes, sometimes Silvers get upgraded, but you'd be better off buying guaranteed upgrades with that cash than paying up front and then hoping. If you have the Delta CC Silver doesn't get you anything extra worth striving for besides that upgrade chance.

Any flights with the potential for Silver upgrades will have cheap F buy-ups.

If you have a lot of MQM over 25k and the rollover would help you next year to achieve Gold or higher, it might be worth considering. But don't do it just for the Silver status.