MQD Headstart Posting Date
 

Hi all -
I know that Delta's official stance is that you will get your MQD Headstart in your account 6-8 weeks after February 1st for existing cards and 6-8 weeks after opening a new card or upgrading an existing card (that didn't qualify before), but I'm wondering what folks are seeing in reality.

I had a card that qualified before 2/1/24 and received my MQD Headstart immediately on 2/1/24.

I recently (3/28/24) opened a second card and have yet to see my MQD Headstart. Trying to forecast when my status will upgrade to know if I need to pay for future upgrades and thought I'd check to see what others are seeing. Thank you!

If anyone has experience upgrading a Blue card to Platinum or Reserve and getting the Headstart MQDs for it, I'd love to hear it. I had a Reserve last year and downgraded to the Blue among seeing the initial round of SM changes, but I'm likely to upgrade it to a Platinum as the Headstart benefit is quite valuable.

I upgraded my Blue Amex to Platinum on Feb 13. MQD Headstart just posted on March 30th.
Edit to add: For what it's worth, my billing cycle ends on the 20th each month. Not sure if related in any way.

Thanks for this! Seems like they’re really taking that 6-8 weeks then.

I applied for a new DL platinum amex February 4. Got the head start on March 19, which was 3 days after I paid the first bill (with the annual fee).

I just applied for a Reserve card today.

It showed up 3-4 hours later on my SkyMiles profile (which is pretty quick IMO).

Logically it would make sense that they don't fork over the MQD until they've posted the annual fee, so I'll come back when I see mine and share here to add another data point.

I finally got my MQDs! My first statement ended 4/23 and I paid the bill on 4/24. I received my MQDs on 5/7/24 exactly two weeks after the statement ended.

Account opening date: 4/17
Statement close: 5/17
MQD Headstart posted to SkyMiles: 6/1

Account open March 11
Membership fee posted April 8
Statement closed April 8
Headstart posted April 25
Made payments on March 28 April 3 and April 30

Account opening date: 4/11
Statement close: 4/28
Bonus Skymiles posted: 5/1
MQD Headstart posted: 5/30

I'm in the same boat. I upgraded my Blue card to Platinum. I also got a Reserve on the same day.

My annual fee for the Reserve card posted during my first billing cycle and I got the 2.5K MQDs a couple of weeks after that. So 6 weeks from the day I got the card.

For the upgraded Platinum, my statement was generated 2 weeks after I got the card. The annual fee did not post. My next statement closes later this week. I still don't have the MQDs for this card.

When did your annual fee post for the upgraded card?

10/20 - platinum opened
11/19 - $350 fee posted
11/20 - paid statement
12/2 - 2500 posted

Note that according to the T&C's, if you open a new account in November or December, the MQDs will count towards the year the account is opened (not which year they post). If the MQDs do not post until 2025, they will simply backdate the activity date on the MQDs to be 2024 and that is the year they will count towards. They used to do the same thing with Amex spend based MQM Boosts if they did not post until the following year.

This is great to know for the future, thanks!

guess I didn’t need to scramble to get it before “6-8 weeks” this year..