Status extension with new program
 

Question about using the 100,000 MQMs re extending status.

Have had Diamond status for years, but will probably NOT fulfill the requirements this year. So towards the end of the year when I want to convert those MQM's, will I be able to extend Diamond status ?
Or is Delta's plan that I can only extend the status that I achieve this year ? In which case, it might not be the best use of those MQMs.

Thnx in advance.

MQM rollover conversion of 100K to extend status can only extend 2024 status achieved by EOY 2023. The first 100K MQMs converted extend 2024 status (earned in 2023) to 2025.

Thank you chipbennett,

So just a follow-up:
If I would be fortunate enough to earn Diamond status during 2024 (giving me Diamond for 2025), would my 100K rollover then extend status to 2026 ?

no, in this case where you only have 100k rollover, you can only use it for the 2025 calendar year. If you achieve status naturally then you are left with the MQD conversion or Sky Miles conversion options.

If you have multiple years of rollover then it's not a buffet, you are to use 100k MQM for each year consecutively and then whatecer excess you have are either MQD or Sky Miles conversions.

Eg let's say you have 225000 rollover MQMs and want to extend status. They will use 200k of it for 2025 and 2026 calendar years. Then the excess 25k as MQD or Sky Miles. And, if you'd already naturally earned status for 2025 calendar you can't then use just 100k of the rollover amount for the 2026 calendar year. Or, said another way, you cannot leap frog a year with the rollover banked year option. It's 1 year or more, but all joined together.

You also cannot do it bit by bit. You can't use say 10k excess MQM now as MQD conversion and then later in the year decide how else to use the balance. It's one time.

Not quite. If you have 225K in rollover you can use up it 200K of it to extend status, but can also choose to do a single year of extension for 2025 for 100K MQMs. But as noted, you can't do bit-by-bit and you cannot extend status first earned during 2024. You can only extend your status earned during 2023 calendar year (2024 program year status). If you didn't earn DM during 2023, it's too late to do any DM extensions and it would be pointless to choose extension option if you earn DM status during 2024 (which will qualify you for 2025 program year DM status). Hopefully DL will make this all clear when conversions open up on Feb 28th so that people don't make foolish mistakes.

"Using the 100,000:1 ratio, Members may select the number of years of Status extension they desire, up to the number for which they are eligible. Medallion Status will not be awarded for partial years; any Rollover MQMs exceeding a 100,000 threshold, and which are not used for Status extension, can be converted into miles or MQDs using the applicable conversion rate above"

Nothing more to add there. That's exactly the way I interpret the rollover conversion rules.

right. I am saying if you have more than 1 year of 'banked' rollover allowance (say 200k excess MQM) then you cannot leapfrog a year.

If you're a DM this year, 2024, and have 200k rollover MQM then as at late this month you have a choice.

You can use 100k or 200k for 1 or 2 years rollover. It is for next year and so on. 100k will extend your 2024 status (as earned in 2023) for 1 year. 200k will extend it for 2 years. Etc.

But.....if you decide to extend this years status to next year, you have rendered your natural status earn worthless because if you also earn DM this year, naturally, you just used 100k rollover miles needlessly. You cannot therefore earn DM this year naturally for 2025 calendar status, and say to Delta by Dec 31 2024 "please use 100k of my rollover MQM for 2026 calendar status banked year".

If you use 100k of rollover for banked year....they will apply that to 2025 calendar year status regardless of whether you earned it naturally or not.

Hope that makes sense? Choice made now could bring a relief to travelers who know they won't hit it otherwise. A choice made later in the year once full status spend for 2024 is close to being done will be clearer but also gives less options.

Choose wisely!

I am DM with 200k to rollover. I will organically hit 28k MQD in calendar 2024 but the way I look at it is I am locking in 2026 DM (earned in calendar 2025) in exchange for foregoing 100k SM as no one knows what the 2026 DM MQD requirement will be (probably in the range of 28k to 35k MQD).

this is an important case as the example. If you will organically qualify for DM for next year you cannot use your excess rollovers for only a year of your choosing. It is cumulative. You must use 200k to get next year AND the year after. Ie the 2026 year for rollover 'free' will cost you 200k instead of 100k. They'll use the 100k for 2025 calendar (even though it's not needed) and then the next 100k for the next year.

You cannot leapfrog a year just because. The rollover banked year is all or nothing.

If you rollover 1 year it will be for and MUST be for only calendar 2025.

If you rollover 2 years
..it will be calendar 25, and 26.

Etc.

Make sense?

more bluntly.....the ONLY reason you use just 1 Rollover year as banked is if you don't qualify naturally for next year. If you have lots of extra MQMs the additional cost of next year's banked MQMs even if used and not needed can be amortized and won't hurt as much. Say you had 1mm excess MQMs for example. That guarantees 10 years banked, locked in now. Who cares if you earn $50k MQD this year....you're basically guaranteeing the next 9.

Surely the threshold will be known before the MQM rollover conversion deadline, won't it?

The only downside I see to waiting to do the conversion is that everyone who converts before I do will get a slight advantage in the UG queue, all else being equal.

Yes, they generally announce qualification thresholds for the next year (as well as Choice Benefits) sometime in October.

Right - and IIRC, the rollover deadline is 31 December?

As someone said above: not a lot to add. Well done by everyone. Mine will be the proverbial "game time decision". I have approx 325,000 roll over miles. If i think I am coming in hot for 2024 and will hit the $28,000 organically, i will cash them in. If I am coming in light, i will extend my DM for 3 more years and not have to watch my dollar spend like a telethon tote board :)

This is still likely to be the determining factor for me. Locking in DM for 2026, even if there's a chance I can hit DM for 2025 organically, is likely still worth the expenditure of 200,000 rollover MQMs.

Exactly. The choice of converting to MQDs makes no sense so with 300k rollover MQMs the choice is either 150k RDM (worth around $1,500-$1,800) or 3 years of DM extension. I’ll take the extension given that no one knows what the 2025 or 2026 DM requirements will be and lock it in now.

Not sure if Delta/Amex anticipated this scenario, but anyone using the 100k MQM conversion to extend status has no incentive to rack up MQDs until the final year of extended status. I am shifting all my spend away from the Reserve Card, though I still value it for SkyClub Access, Centurion Lounge Access, First Class Companion Cert, 15% RDM discount, (now) Resy credit, (now) Rideshare credit, and (TBD) $200 Delta Stays credit. I haven't seen any stays that qualify for the credit when I search Delta Stays, so remains to be seen if this will become a valuable benefit. Oh yeah, forgot about the $100 travel voucher all legacy Reserve card holders are getting this year.

The extension allows me to get high status on both AA and UA and try them out for a few years and cancel my Reserve without losing my DL DM status. I am very far away from 2MM so this is not an incentive to fly DL. Not sure this was such a wise move by DL.

Today's email has me just short of 100K rollover. I did not do a screenshot of MQMs prior to 1/1/24.
Is there a way to confirm DL's math?

If you get the monthly email statements and save them, the December statement (sent 12/9) will have your MQM Balance through the end of November. You could then add any posts from December to get year end balance. They only keep 9 months of activity available now, so you can't go all the way back to the beginning of 2023.

Don't forget that 2024 status still required MQMs, so when checking the math, be sure to deduct the MQMs required for your current SM tier. (I almost made that mistake myself, once.)

This is what I am interpreting from the discussion.
I only have ONE year's worth of status extension
So this year, do not stress about earning Diamond status. (use mileage, fly other airlines, etc.)
Then year 2025, assuming the new requirements are a killer, working on earning Diamond status again as I am already covered for 2025 with the conversion.

Am I missing something ????

Whether you use MQM to extend prior year status, or convert them into MQDs, yes there's going to be less incentive to earn MQDs since they don't rollover. I'm pretty sure DL has considered this, but opted not to get into the situation they got into with rollover MQMs where people carried massive rollover balances. I would think there's probably some middle ground here (let people rollover a certain amount of MQD, but cap it). But not going to lose any sleep over whether or not DL considered that. I will convert my MQM into 24K MQDs and then probably largely stop spending on Reserve card except for DL purchases as I will hit DM with existing MQD balance.

Why on earth would you convert 240k MQMs (assumed) for a measly 24k MQD when you could get 2 full years of PM/DM plus have 20k RDMs left over??

I only made PM last year (was way too short on MQDs to make it to DM) and am only about 40K miles from 2MM status. So the extra year of PM status would be pointless as I'll get PM anyways for being a 2MM. Might as well enjoy close to 2 years of DM status before dropping back to Plat.

Do I have any options?
 

Long time lurker and current 1MM. Delta Platinum and Reserve card holder. I earned Diamond for 2023 but back to Platinum for 2024. I have 159,000 rollover miles. With pending travel I’ll reach MQD for Platinum 2025 by April, so won’t gain anything by extending status. I’m thinking my only options are to convert some proportion to MQD to earn Diamond for 2025 and have the rest go to Skymiles. Am I thinking about this the right way? I’m 18 minutes from ATL, so a hub captive, and I could use the GUC on a trip to South Africa in the Fall… Any other suggestions?

Your obvious answer is to take the necessary MQD to make DM. You can either convert to all $15,900 MQD now or wait until the end of 2024 to make your selection as any MQD higher than $28k at 12/31/24 are a waste. The overage should be converted to RDMs.

The only reason I'm considering keeping any spend on a DL branded Amex is for the Platinum Choice Benefits.

My initial reaction was to shift spend to my regular non-DL Amex Plat and CSR/Hyatt Visa but the MQDs from my Personal/Biz Reserve cards in combo with flight activity MQDs make it a pretty easy lift to get the remaining MQDs for Plat CBs via spend. At least for one year with the card related bonus MQD boosts.

Alternatively considering downgrading all DL Amex products to the Blue level and purchasing an Executive SkyClub membership- we travel enough with 3 kids (under 13 so no AU option) that purchasing membership is probably a bit less expensive than guest fees even after taking into considering the passes we get. Still need to think through how this plays out now that companion certificates can be used to the Caribbean where we often go as a family (relative to RUCs).

Are most of you DMs with high MQM rollovers using it all for extension? Some? Or none?

I just looked at the email and it says I have 723,484 for conversion.

If anyone (including me), thinks they have ANY clue how much they will be flying 5 Years+ from now, they are full of it... Things change.. So what are people's thought processes? I am inclined to just use it all for extension. I am not hurting for RDMs with 1MM +, and they will probably continue to be devalued anyway. I have a stash of Chase miles (over 1MM) that I have available and would like to use some of those, but I have been tethered to the Delta treadmill. Or should I just use them (extend DM) maybe until 5 years out because things will inevitably change again anyway with DLs program? I am 2.48 MM and I live in ATL, so obviously will fly DL the majority of time anyway, at least domestically, especially since now PM for life (or "annually" for you micro-managing word sticklers out there..). I have both the Reserve and the Business Reserve which I am now inclined to keep both for the companion certs., Skyclub credits, upgrade priority, 15% redemption discount, Uber $. and hotel credit once I figure out how to redeem.

Anyone else in a similar situation?

I would use 100% of that (i.e. 700K) for status extension. Who knows what the DM MQD requirement will be 2031?

Every year of extension beyond 1 effectively reduces the risk/increases the efficiency of the rollover.

Or if there will even BE a program in 2031, right?? Or many other factors way beyond our control..

Well, if there's no program, then today's MQMs, MQDs, and RDMs will be useless, anyway.

Do the extension. DL has already shown their hand that DM will eventually be $35k MQD.

I see posters referencing an email from Delta regarding using MQM to obtain or continue DM status. When was this email sent?

I ended 2023 with 225,000 MQM and because of health issues in 2023 I fell short of DM status by $750 MQD. I have been DM since the status began and would like to continue, but unsure of the process.

Thanks

If you ended with 225K MQMs on 12/31/23, they would have rolled over 150K as they would have subtracted 75K for Plat status. Still enough for 1 extension, but not 2. The emails were sent out on Feb 9th. But you can also view your 2024 MQM Rollover amount in your Skymiles Account Activity. You may have to go back several pages since it will have a Jan 1st activity date. The program will not be active until Feb 28th, so you cannot actually convert MQM Rollover balances yet.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...620fcff7c9.png

Reclaim My Status link is here -- https://www.delta.com/content/www/en...my-status.html
Although Reclaim My Status program gets you 2025 program year status (not retroactive 2024 program year status), which won't really help you with extensions (since you can only extend earned 2024 program year status which is earned during 2023).
But either way with an extension or Reclaim My Status, you would have status through Jan 2026 (although you'd miss out on CB selections if they don't grant you retroactive 2024 status).

97,159 rollover MQMs. Quite disappointing. I easily would have flown the extra 1 flight had I known. Ugh.

Sorry to hear that
I spent weeks leading up to the end monitoring my MQM - suddenly I "lost" 5000 MQM showed up as -2500 Amex
Turned out that this was due to my downgrading my Reserve in July (before reupgrading it in October) before 1 yr had passed from my last upgrade
Luckily I had a 15k boost from CC trade that saved my status for an extra year rollover and got me to 1 MM as well at same time

Now we have extensions for next few years as well as GM after that, we can forget about status and just WFBF or put up with economy for short flights.

Any ideas on when the status extensions will come in? I am hoping by March 1 but no word on option yet on DL site

Website still just says "end of February".

The T&C's say Feb 28th specifically -- https://www.delta.com/us/en/skymiles...rogram-updates

"Beginning Feb 28, 2024, SkyMiles Members possessing a Rollover MQM balance after qualification for 2024 Medallion Status will have the option to convert their final Rollover MQM balance (earned up to December 31, 2023, at 11:59:59 PM CST) into miles, MQDs, or, for Rollover MQM balances of 100,000 MQMs and higher, into Medallion Status extensions (or a combination of all, if applicable)."

Fast Ed forgot it’s a leap year.