Medallion Status and Bonus Miles with AMEX MR transfer
 

Just saw this on AMEX web site. If you're planning on transferring a BUNCH of MR points to Delta and not Medallion level this new promotion will get you up to Gold status and 20% bonus miles. Here is link:

http://home3.americanexpress.com/rew.../whats_new.asp

I've added text in case link won't work:

You have earned the right to an exclusive SkyMiles® bonus and complimentary Medallion™ status with Delta. Just make a one-time transfer of 250,000 Membership Rewards® points, or more, to your Delta SkyMiles account between May 15 and June 30, 2002, and you'll get one Delta mile for every point you transfer, up to 20% additional Delta miles, and the additional benefits of Delta SkyMiles Medallion status.*

The more points you transfer, the greater the reward. Here's how it works…

Membership Rewards Points SkyMiles Bonus Complimentary Medallion Status
250,000 - 350,000 10% (25,000 - 35,000 miles) Silver Medallion™
350,001 - 500,000 15% (52,500 - 75,000 miles) Gold Medallion™
500,001+ 20% (100,000+ miles) Gold Medallion™


Call 1-800-AXP-EARN (297-3276) before June 30, 2002, to transfer Membership Rewards points to your Delta SkyMiles account. If you're not already a SkyMiles member, simply enroll at www.delta.com or call 1-800-323-2323.

To learn how Medallion status gives you access to exclusive privileges designed to make your travels easier, click on the following link http://www.delta.com/skymiles/medall...ance/index.jsp

*Terms and Conditions: SkyMiles Transfer Offer: This three-tier offer awards a one-time Delta SkyMiles bonus and Medallion status for transferring Membership Rewards points to the Delta SkyMiles program. Tier one: Transfer 250,000 - 350,000 points and earn a 10% miles bonus and Silver Medallion status. Tier two: Transfer 350,001 - 500,000 points and earn a 15% miles bonus and Gold Medallion status. Tier three: Transfer more than 500,000 points and earn a 20% miles bonus and Gold Medallion status.

Mileage Expiration: Miles will not expire as long as you participate in one of the following activities every three years. 1) Travel on a qualifying Delta, Delta Connection®, Delta Express or Delta Shuttle flight. 2) Participate in the SkyMiles program with one of the SkyMiles program partners, including airline partners, hotels, car rentals, Delta SkyMiles Credit Card from American Express, credit card partner or any other program partner such as cruise lines, restaurants, mortgage lenders, real estate and telephone services. 3) Redeem your miles for a SkyMiles Award.

Medallion Validity: Your Medallion membership begins 6-8 weeks following the end of this promotion period and extends through February, 2003.

Please allow 3-5 business days for Membership Rewards points to be transferred into your Delta SkyMiles account. You will receive your bonus miles approximately 6-8 weeks from the expiration date of the offer, which is June 30, 2002. You can receive only one transfer bonus during this offer. Transfer of Membership Rewards points must be made in one total sum, and the number of bonus miles you will receive is based on the first transfer made during the promotional period. Once accrued points in a Cardmember's Membership Rewards program account have been transferred to the Cardmember's Delta SkyMiles account, the points cannot be transferred back into the Cardmember's Membership Rewards program account. All standard Delta SkyMiles program rules and conditions apply.

This will further devalue our Medallion status. Now you can totally buy your FO & GM status instead of earning it the hard way.

This is pathetic. But I don't think to many people will take advantage. I think there are probably better things to spend your points on. We'll see what happens. I still like earning them the real way.

I have to agree. I would rather transfer my miles to another program as I dont see the value of DL. I am one of the many that would love to see them increase the 3/1 ratio with Starwood.

Interesting promotion, with minimum transfer being 1/4 million MR points, not sure how many people will actually take advantage of it. If I had 349k MR points, I'm not sure I'd convert them to Skymiles for Silver Medallion status and only 10% bonus.

Except for the Medallion status, the bonus is actually pretty lame. I remember a bonus I took advantage of a few years ago, transfer 20k MR points and get 5k bonus Skymiles (20k->25k), for a 25% bonus. Doing the top transfer here (500k, 20x more than my transfer) only gets you a 20% bonus.

Jeff

On a side note, this 'promotion' gives an interesting glance into how the elite retention tea leaves are being read at DL HQ due to the 'enhancements' in the program over the last two years...Hmmmmmmmm...


[This message has been edited by CoMooter (edited 05-08-2002).]

Notice the fine print: Medallion status begins 6-8 weeks after the promotion ends (June 30) and extends through Feb 2003.

For practical purposes, you may only be "buying" medallion status for Sept-Feb.

For 'practical purposes' this is the first example I am aware of any airline offering to 'sell' elite status (minus DL's own prior attempt to help 'sell' elite status through the Amex Plat Card with 10,000 Base miles) to someone that might have never flown at all. If anyone else can think of any other examples, please share...

I read somewhere that Amex offers an "invitation only" Black Centurion Card which, along with its $1,000 annual fee, offers free elite status with certain airlines and hotels, including DL Gold Medallion and Hyatt Diamond.

The AMEX Centurion card, the black card, is up to a $2500 annual fee and comes with DL GM and CO Gold Elite status. But what good would a DL GM be if there were no MSUs to go along with it??

Robert: you can be selected first for security when medallions are called, while the rest of us wait.... Smithers, give that man a gold card.

Delta is sneaky like a fox. Makes me want to spend enough to keep plat even more now. I don't think even a twelve-step program will help. (Although cutting us to four real jets a day does accelerate the planning for an eventual SAN move....)

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"Service" should be a noun, not a verb.
Delta Flyers' Guide

Seems to me that in many cases that someone who has 500,000 MR points to transfer is probably Medallion anyway. I do agree with Rssrsvp in that most of us who earn our status by flying may not be huge fans of this element of the promotion..but seems to me that the 20% bonus for transferring 500,000 MR to Skymiles and receiving an additional 100,000 Skymiles in the process is hard to pass up. I can remember a similar promo several months ago where you could receive a 25% bonus on the transfer, but there was a cap on the amount that could be transferred @ 100,000 (?).. I would say that to be able to transfer an additional 400,000 for the 20% add-on is a great deal. Am I not seeing something here ???

It sounds great getting all of those bonus miles with the transfer, however you also have to find upgradeable seat inventory to use it on. If someone takes advantage of this deal, and expects international awards, they will be extremely upset. Also as mentioned this elite status is for a short time period.

Exactly why I'm not about to take advantage of this program. I have GM through Centurion, haven't flown DL yet in two years and would only transfer MR points over for an award... my offer was only 15% at the top tier and honestly it just ain't worth it to lock my points up like that.

AA will "sell" you lifetime gold for 1 million miles (less any program to date miles) that you transfer in from any source.



[This message has been edited by dhacker (edited 05-21-2002).]