The race is on: With under two weeks to go until the New Year, Delta flyers are checking out their Medallion Status progress … and scrambling to close the gap before the year is over.
This late in the game, there aren’t many options. You need to earn those all-important Medallion Qualifying Dollars (MQDs) by spending with Delta – and after last year’s unpopular overhaul, you need more of them than ever. Booking a flight for next year won’t help you: You need to actually put your butt in that seat by Dec. 31 for the MQDs to count.
But if you’re dead set on clinching that next level of Delta status for next year and still a few thousand MQDs short, all is not lost. You could open (or upgrade) to a top-tier Delta SkyMiles credit card and get an automatic 2,500 MQDs.
It’s the easiest way to quickly get a big boost – and with the days of 2024 ticking down, one of your only options. Here’s how it works.
Get (Or Upgrade to) a Top Delta Card
Like it or not, having a Delta co-branded Amex card is practically essential for earning Delta status these days. If you don’t have one (or maybe if you already do), adding the right Delta card to your wallet could give you a huge boost.
Delta quietly added a perk to some of its top cards last year that has escaped even some diehard Delta flyers’ attention – and confused many others. It’s called MQD Headstart: Just for having one of these cards in your wallet, you’ll get an automatic $2,500 MQD boost:
- *delta skymiles platinum card*
- *skymiles business platinum*
- *delta reserve card*
- *delta reserve business*
Even with just days to go until the year is over, you could still put this perk to use. If you’re done flying for the year but still $2,000 MQDs or so away from Delta Gold or Platinum status, this is by far the easiest way of getting over the hump.
It can take as long as eight weeks for those automatic MQDs to hit your SkyMiles account. But Delta has also made clear that anyone who opens an eligible card in November or December will get the MQDs credited in 2024.
Rather than opening a new card outright, you could could even upgrade an existing *delta skymiles gold card* if you’d like. While we typically recommend against upgrading Delta cards, it’s the easiest route to get that $2,500 MQDs fast.
Unfortunately, you can’t double-dip on MQD Headstarts by upgrading. For example, you wouldn’t get a total of $5,000 bonus MQDs by upgrading from a Platinum to Delta Reserve card midway through the year – you’d need to open the Reserve Card outright and keep your existing Platinum Card open.
And that brings up an important point: You can have multiple Delta cards and stack each of these MQD bonuses. Already have a Platinum Card? You could open a Reserve Card and get another $2,500 MQD boost. Eligible for a small business credit card? You could technically open all four eligible cards and get 10,000 MQDs total, instantly hitting Gold status.
At $350 on the Platinum Card (see rates & fees) and a whopping $650 a year on the Reserve (see rates & fees), none of these cards are cheap by any means. But they’re still the fastest and likely cheapest way to quickly get a few thousand MQDs before the year is over.
Really, Really Close? Spend on Your Delta Card
If you’re really, really close to the Medallion status you crave, whipping out your Delta card more often could be a savvy move.
In the new world of earning Delta status, there’s a way to earn additional MQMs for everyday spending on select Delta credit cards – sorry, *delta skymiles gold card* cardholders, yours doesn’t cut it.
- You only earn 1 MQD for every $10 you spend on a *delta reserve card*.
- It’s worse on the *delta skymiles platinum card*: just 1 MQD for every $20 spent.
Let’s say you’re bound to wind up $50 or so MQDs shy of the Delta status you want for next year. Put a $500 on a Delta Reserve Card, and you’re set. With the Delta Platinum Card, you’d need to charge $1,000 to earn that same $50 MQDs.
Critically, you don’t have to wait until your credit card statement closes for those MQDs to hit your account: They process by the day, typically the same day a purchase actually posts to your account. That means you can rack up MQDs bit by bit on your everyday spending quite quickly.
While I wouldn’t wait to make a purchase until Dec. 30 or 31 in order to cross the threshold, any purchases on an eligible Delta card within the next week or so should be in the clear to help pad your Medallion balance.
Is this the most efficient way to earn a bunch of the Delta MQDs you need before the year is over? Not even close. But if you are just a dozen or so MQDs shy, have a big purchase coming up, and can’t (or don’t want to) get another credit card, this is your next best bet.
Who Should (& Shouldn’t) Take this Path
Travelers do silly things in pursuit of airline status. Trust me, I’ve been there myself. Don’t make my mistakes.
If you’re still far away from clinching entry-level Silver Medallion status, it’s hard to see how paying $350 or more in additional annual fees on a new credit card would be worth it.
For example, I’m still more than $2,000 MQDs short of Silver and I wouldn’t dream of picking up even a Delta Platinum Card to close the gap – the meager perks (and non-existent upgrades) just aren’t worth that money to me.
But if a jolt of 2,500 MQDs would help you close the gap for Gold, Platinum, and especially Delta Diamond status? That’s an entirely different scenario. Heck, I would even entertain opening two new Delta cards if that would help vault from Platinum to Diamond Status for next year.
You might want to step back and think bigger picture about how other perks on the cards could help you out (or offset the cost). Combined with a final boost toward status, maybe that’s the deciding factor you need to pull the trigger?
- Have you been looking for a way to get into Delta lounges … or fretting about harsh new limits on Sky Club entry taking effect next February? The Delta Reserve Card will get you unlimited Sky Club access through January 2025, then on 15 days a year starting Feb. 1
- While you won’t get them until your second full year with either card, the Delta companion certificates on both the Platinum and Reserve Cards can be even more valuable – and with recent changes, they can get you further than ever including to Hawaii, Alaska, and throughout the Caribbean and Mexico
- Both cards with MQD bonuses also now offer a handful of money-saving credits for dining via Resy, hotel reservations booked via Delta Stays, and rideshare trips. If you can put those to use over the next year, maybe you can offset the cost of more annual annual fees even more?
There’s no black-and-white answer here. As with all things in travel, you have to do what far too many flyers forget when chasing airline status: You have to do the math for yourself.
Bottom Line
The clock is ticking, but there’s still a chance to quickly close the gap and level up your Delta status for next year before 2024 comes to a close.
