All eligible partner-marketed flights earn MQDs based on a percentage of distance flown and cabin/fare class. It's just some partners earn better than others for the same or similar cabin/ticket.

Another possibility to earn some MQD is this promo, which can be booked till July 14, with travel completed by September 7. So you could combine the Platinum Amex, a flight and the stay (and maybe a rental car) to get to the 6000 MQD you need.

https://carsandstays.delta.com/lp/b/...May25MQD.Hotel

Never too early for runs.
It was easier when it was mileage, not $$$ (which is flat across the entire year).
But you could get bonus for PS or even a low-cost D1 ticket...

Not sure what you mean by bonus as there's no MQD bonus for booking DL PS/D1 fares. Partner discount biz fares used to be more lucrative when they earned 40% of mileage flown as MQDs. Now that they are down to 30% of mileage flown, the options are pretty thin and you'll likely need to reposition (which adds to costs) to find better deals. Since partner PE fares earn only slightly less now at 25% of mileage flown, they are generally a better bang for the buck and you may not have to reposition to find good deals. As an example below, KE Prestige biz fares on YYZ - DPS/CGK start at around $3800 USD roundtrip and will earn roughly 5925 MQDs at 30% of mileage flown. In example above, you could get 5K MQDs on a $2.7K PE fare and not have to reposition.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7e1a86e023.png

Sorry the way it appeared in my recent activity was a bonus, and I misread mileage and paid upgrade as an MQD bump

I second xliioper statement that the “sweet spot” is AF/KLM PE fares for the biggest MQD ROI.

Looking into cheap partner J fares e.g. out of Canada can give similar multiples without having to fly PE. Getting 6k from $3k spent shouldn’t be a huge issue to find with some flexibility.

I switched my uncategorized CC spend from amex platinum to amex delta reserve for the rest of the year -- that should get me another 10-15k MQD pretty easily. Discounted KL/AF flights seem like the best MQD-earning value for flights.

My example above used biz fares on YYZ-DPS/CGK that are both roughly $3800 USD roundtrip after exchange. It's actually pretty challenging to find anything getting 2-to-1 ratio due to the reduction from 40% to 30% miles flown a couple years ago. The $3800 fares would have earned about 7900 MQDs at prior 40% miles flown rate, but now only earn 5925 MQDs at the current 30% rate.

Back when VS first introduced PE fares a number of years back, they used to be quite a bit less than they are today. The itin below earned about 5580 MQDs for $1352 in spend at former 30% earnings on VS PE fares.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...87b474f10d.png
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...78d68bad4d.png
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7509af97dd.png


I checked AM fares out of YYZ to South America and found some cheap Biz fares to GRU. Trip.com is showing them for as low as $1465 USD roundtrip. Not sure if these are published fares as both AM website and ITA Matrix show $1815 USD roundtrip. These will earn close to 4K MQDs which is better than 2-to-1 ratio.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...8b41c20abb.png


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...1f4861a94f.png

LATAM Premium Economy flights (within South America) are also a great way to earn MQD cheaply.

e.g. SJO-LIM-GRU in PE earns 939MQD and costs from USD306....
Then take GRU-BEL in PE and earn MQD383 for USD92.....
....and so on.

Thank you everyone for your ideas.
Now, I have some research to do!
AF recently began service out of MCO so maybe I can find something local too.

Cheaper to just buy domestic F than all these shenanigans :)

Everyone’s different, but I have to agree with your sentiment. If I did this, I’d have to link the flights with something on the other end. Spending money for the sake of status is a bit hard for me to swallow, which is weird because I did MRs back in the day. But I probably wouldn’t have spent $3-6k for the next tier. Maybe because it feels much more transactional with the money vs the intermediate step of miles or segments.

Yeah, AM and LA come to mind. Latam is running some lie-flats to places and I have seen quite a few options where one can get 2x or more. Takes planning, but IMO one might as well go for comfort in MQD runs ;)

I'm in a situation where my MQD accelerator could really be helpful. What I've never gotten good information on is how long it takes for those to post (I don't want to lose GUC availability on a flight). Terms say 6-8 weeks, which seems insane. Does anyone have personal experience (anecdotal, I concede) of how long this takes? TIA