Delta Air Lines upset many travelers last year when it announced new rules to reach elite frequent flyer status. Some even threatened to switch their allegiance to rival carriers.
Now some shrewd SkyMiles members are finding workarounds, even when they don’t fly as much. Spending on a Delta platinum or reserve credit card is one way to earn points, but for a bigger boost, many travelers are booking more than just flights through Delta to rack up points for elite status next year.
With Delta’s new policy that took effect this year, frequent flyers can earn the thousands of Medallion Qualification Dollars, or MQDs, through Delta Vacations.
Wendy Willoughby, a traveler who lives in Fayetteville, took a Delta Vacations trip to Barcelona over the summer. With that trip and other MQDs she has accumulated through other Delta bookings and credit card charges, “I’m very, very, very close to the diamond for next year,” she said.
“I’ve never been diamond,” Willoughby said.
She’s interested in using diamond status to get upgrades on international flights. With her current platinum status, on domestic flights “we’ve been upgraded a couple of times to first class, which is delightful.”
How it works
Delta Vacations sells bookings for flights, hotels, rental cars, activities and ground transportation in a package. About 60% of Delta Vacations bookings are made through travel agents.
While it was once commonplace for sunseekers and holidaymakers to book vacation packages and use travel agents, with the rise of internet bookings and online price comparisons over the last couple of decades, many travelers simply research and book each component of a trip separately.
But this year, a Delta Vacations booking means travelers can earn points toward Medallion status not just through spending on a flight, but also for the cost of a hotel and rental car and the rest of the package — which can rack up thousands more MQDs. While charges on a Delta credit card earn miles, they don’t earn points toward elite status on a dollar-for-dollar basis like Delta Vacations bookings do.
In some cases, a single Delta Vacations booking can automatically be enough to earn silver elite status for the following year on Delta. That’s because reaching silver requires $5,000 in MQDs — and that’s what you could spend to book a trip for two to Cancun through Delta Vacations, for example.
Credit: Source: Facebook
Credit: Source: Facebook
As a result, some people are considering booking Delta Vacations trips when it may have never crossed their minds before.
Vishrut Patel, who has diamond status on Delta and lives in Alpharetta, booked Delta Vacations for the first time this year, with trips to London, Toronto and Phoenix.
“I was interested in earning the MQDs,” said Patel. He has the Delta Reserve credit card, “but this was another avenue.”
For many Delta customers, the Medallion rule changes along with more restrictions on access rules to Sky Clubs added a level of complexity and frustration.
For Patel, “It was kind of, I guess, surprising at first, and kind of confusing at the same time,” he said. “Earning the MQDs also now becomes a little bit more difficult, because it’s not just based on amount of miles that you have traveled, but it’s based on what kind of tickets you have purchased” and the dollar amount paid.
Patel figured “some of the changes will be for good and some of the changes will be for bad, one way or another.”
The new option to earn MQDs through Delta Vacations, he said, “really is a helpful aspect.”
More bookings
That type of sentiment has driven a more than 60% increase in Delta Vacations bookings by Medallion-level SkyMiles members so far this year, according to Delta Vacations President Kama Winters. She expects that to continue to grow as the year ends.
Medallion members used to make up 15-20% of Delta Vacations bookings, but that will likely double to the 30-40% range this year.
“That’s a pretty significant uptick in the number of Medallions,” Winters said, adding that it’s a way for them to maintain their status.
By pushing its customers to spend more of their money on Delta and its related credit cards and businesses, the airline can boost its bottom line. Last year, Delta brought in $6.8 billion from American Express as part of its co-brand credit card partnership. More broadly, Delta has long sought to position itself as more than an airline — as a “lifestyle brand.”
Delta executives have said for years that there are more ways for the carrier to make money than just the sale of seats, and the Delta Vacations tie-in to Medallion status is one example.
While travelers trying to earn elite frequent flyers status used to rack up miles before the end of the year by taking “trips to nowhere” — just flying to another city and back in the same day — that’s not as beneficial when what matters is how much you spend rather than how far you fly.
With the Delta Vacations bookings, frequent flyers are “planning their vacations around getting this added benefit,” Winters said. “I think it is a nice way to top off benefits, with that added hotel stay and activities on top of it.”
They’re booking trips to Mexico and the Caribbean, as well as to South America, Central America, Europe,Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia, she said.
“We are seeing customers certainly still looking at travel through the end of the year,” Winters said.
How Delta Vacations compares
Willoughby said sometimes booking through Delta Vacations can save money, while for other trips she finds it’s a better deal to use hotel points or other options.
Travelers also find there may be less flexibility when booking a package through Delta Vacations, with restrictions such as a minimum three-night hotel stay at one location.
A potential benefit is more hands-on service when booking a vacation package.
“If you don’t know where you want to go, or you have questions about the destination, we certainly have folks that can help narrow that down,” Winters said. Delta Vacations also has a destination help center to call for any emergencies that come up during a vacation.
Willoughby said the Delta Vacations agent she worked with “did a fabulous job picking out a perfect location in Barcelona.”
“She was familiar and I was not, and I had been looking in a different area,” she said. “And I’m so thankful we went with her, because it was very near a hub of transportation, walking distance to lots of cool places. So her experience there made our trip better.”
“So every time I’m doing a big trip, I always check and see what (Delta Vacations has) to offer and how it compares to what I could do on my own, and then make, you know, an informed decision on what’s best,” Willoughby said.
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