Delta SkyMiles, the frequent-flyer program of Delta Air Lines, is one of the simplest rewards programs in the airline industry. Thanks in part to the fact that Delta Air Lines is the second-largest airline in North America by fleet size and passenger footfall, the carrier has a wealth of award flight options to a wide variety of destinations across a large range of price points.

Unfortunately, Delta SkyMiles was also the first frequent-flyer program to introduce dynamic award pricing, which has caused its currency to undergo a serious devaluation and has started an industry-wide shift toward dynamic award pricing.

But it’s not all bad. Delta also has recently made some customer-friendly changes to the program, allowing members to earn elite status metrics on award flights and removing the cap on mileage earnings.

On top of that, earning SkyMiles is fairly easy between spending on co-branded Delta credit cards and booking Delta flights. Delta Air Lines is also a member of SkyTeam, which means that you can earn and redeem SkyMiles through any of the other airlines in the alliance.

There are many ways to use your SkyMiles outside of just booking award flights. However, you’ll typically get the most value out of your miles when redeeming through one of Delta’s frequent flash sales.

Let’s take a look at everything you need to know about the Delta SkyMiles program from elite status to credit cards to earning and redeeming miles.

Delta SkyMiles Partners

As mentioned, Delta Air Lines is a member of the SkyTeam alliance, which includes more than a dozen global members. SkyTeam airlines serve near 1,150 destinations across six continents, meaning that you can pretty much earn SkyMiles regardless of where you’re traveling to.

Here are the other SkyTeam partners:

Delta also has partnerships with airlines outside of SkyTeam, giving you a ton of options for earning or redeeming miles even if you aren’t flying with SkyTeam.

Here are Delta’s non-SkyTeam partners:

With all of these partners, earnings and redemption rates will vary from airline to airline, so it’s best to do some research and find out which of Delta’s partners offer the best rates.

Delta Medallion Elite Status

For those who frequently fly on Delta and its partners, Delta has its own elite status program that can provide savings and extra comforts.

The program has four elite status tiers: Silver Medallion, Gold Medallion, Platinum Medallion and Diamond Medallion. You can earn status by flying and spending a certain amount within a calendar year. Once you earn that status, you’ll retain it through the following calendar year.

For instance, if you earn Gold Medallion status in March 2022, you’ll keep that status through the end of 2023. However, if you fall just short of reaching a status tier before the end of the year, your earnings metrics won’t roll over to the next year, and you’ll have to start from scratch.

It’s also possible to earn lifetime elite status by flying a certain number of miles as a member of the Delta SkyMiles program. You can earn lifetime Silver Medallion status after flying 1 million miles as a SkyTeam member, which means you’ll retain your Silver Medallion status for life.

This goes all the way up to lifetime Diamond Medallion status, which requires that you fly 4 million miles as a Delta SkyMiles member. Those 4 million miles are more than 160 trips around Earth, so lifetime Diamond Medallion status is going to be pretty difficult to achieve for most flyers.

While Delta’s elite status program is pretty similar to elite status programs offered by other airlines, it tends to use a lot of acronyms and not-so-straightforward verbiage when describing how it works. So, let’s break down the difference between MQDs, MQSs and MQMs.

Acronyms Explained

Three main metrics contribute to your elite status tier: Medallion Qualifying Dollars (MQDs), Medallion Qualifying Segments (MQSs) and Medallion Qualifying Miles (MQMs).

MQDs are the amount of money that you spend on airfare on Delta-marketed flights (those that include the “DL” airline code) in the Main Cabin or above. Only the base fare and carrier-imposed surcharges are counted toward MQDs, but government-imposed taxes and fees aren’t included.

It’s also worth noting that incidental fees, such as in-flight meals, checked bags, beverages, Wi-Fi passes, pet travel fees, ticket change fees and in-flight entertainment, don’t count toward MQDs. However, paid seat upgrades do.

The MQMs that you earn for a specific flight are based on the distance from the origin to the destination as well as the fare class. For instance, to calculate the MQMs you’ll earn for a basic economy flight, you simply take the mileage of that flight. However, for higher fare classes, you may have to multiply the mileage by 1.5 or 2 to find the total MQMs that you’ll earn.

MQSs are based on the number of flights you take, meaning the actual number of segments in which you take off and touch down. So, if you have a flight with two layovers, you should earn three MQSs.

To qualify for a specific status tier, you must earn a certain number of MQDs. However, there’s also a requirement for each status tier stating that you must earn either a certain number of MQMs or a certain number of MQSs to qualify for Medallion status.

The purpose here is to prevent customers from gaming the system by taking several long, cheap flights. That won’t work because you have to meet a minimum number of both MQDs and MQMs (or MQSs).

Earning Medallion Elite Status

As explained, to earn a certain Medallion elite status tier you must have a certain number of MQDs and either a certain number of MQMs or MQSs. Here’s the breakdown of how many you’ll need for each tier.

So, if you earn $6,000 MQDs and only 40,000 MQMs, you can still earn Gold Medallion status if you have more than 60 MQSs. On the other hand, if you have 65 MQSs and 55,000 MQMs but only $4,000, you won’t earn Gold Medallion status.

These are the thresholds for earning each level of Medallion elite status with Delta. However, you can bypass this process by getting select co-branded Delta credit cards. For all of these cards, MQD requirements for Silver, Gold and Platinum Medallion will be waived after you spend $25,000 in a calendar year. However, you have to spend $250,000 on these cards to receive the MQD waiver for Diamond Medallion status, which is quite a lot of money.

Additionally, Delta now allows you to earn all three of these elite status earning metrics on award flights. For instance, you’d still earn 500 MQMs and 200 MQDs on a 500-mile award flight in basic economy that costs $200.

Regardless of how you get there, having Medallion elite status with Delta can come with complimentary upgrades, free checked bags and other great perks. Let’s look at what’s offered at each status tier.

Silver Medallion Elite Status

Silver Medallion is the lowest tier in Delta’s elite status program. As a Silver Medallion member, you’ll receive:

• Unlimited complimentary Comfort+ and first-class upgrades on domestic flights and flights from the U.S. to Canada, the Caribbean and Central America 24 hours before your departure
• First checked bag free for you and up to eight travel companions
• Priority check-in and priority boarding
• 7X miles per dollar
• 1,000 bonus miles per qualifying car rental with Hertz

Gold Medallion Elite Status

Gold Medallion members will enjoy the following benefits:

• Complimentary first-class upgrades on domestic flights and short-haul international flights. These upgrades start clearing three days before your departure.
• Complimentary upgrades to Comfort+
• First checked bag free for you and up to eight travel companions
• Waived same-day confirmed seating changes
• Sky Priority® suite of services including priority check-in, priority security line access, expedited baggage service and Sky Priority boarding
• 8X miles per dollar
• 1,000 bonus miles per qualifying car rental with Hertz
• Five Star® status in the Hertz Gold Plus Rewards program

Platinum Medallion Elite Status

Once you achieve Platinum Medallion in Delta’s program, you’ll enjoy the following benefits:

• Unlimited upgrades that clear five days before your departure
• Your pick of a Choice Benefit. Options include four Regional Upgrade Certificates, 20,000 bonus SkyMiles or the ability to gift Silver Medallion status to a friend or family member.
• First checked bag free for you and up to eight travel companions
• Waived same-day confirmed seating changes
• Sky Priority® suite of services
• 9X miles per dollar
• 1,250 bonus miles per qualifying car rental with Hertz
• President’s Circle® status in the Hertz Gold Plus Rewards program

Diamond Medallion Elite Status

Diamond Medallion status is the highest public elite status that you can hold with Delta. This status tier comes with a ton of valuable benefits, including:

• Unlimited complimentary upgrades to Comfort+ shortly after ticketing, to first class clearing five days before your departure and to domestic Delta One® on the day of your departure
• Your pick of three Choice Benefits. Options include eight Regional Upgrade Certificates, four Global Upgrade Certificates, a combination of two Global Upgrade Certificates and four Regional Upgrade Certificates, 25,000 bonus SkyMiles for yourself or someone else, the ability to gift Gold Medallion status to a friend or family member, Delta Sky Club® membership options or a $200 Delta travel voucher.
• First checked bag free for you and up to eight travel companions
• Waived same-day confirmed seating changes
• Sky Priority® suite of services
• 11X miles per dollar
• 1,250 bonus miles per qualifying car rental with Hertz
• President’s Circle® status in the Hertz Gold Plus Rewards program
• Complimentary Clear membership

There’s another elite status tier above Diamond Medallion called Delta 360°® that is invitation-only.

Status Matching

If you currently have elite status with another frequent-flyer program and you’re thinking of switching loyalty, Delta will match your status for three months so that you can get a sense of the benefits. To quality, you must:

• Not have received a status match from Delta within the past three years.
• Have elite status from another qualifying airline.
• Be able to prove that you have this status and that you earned it by flying (and not through another status match).

If approved, you’ll be given three months of elite status with Delta. However, you’ll be enrolled in a status challenge that gives you the opportunity to extend your status by hitting certain flying and spending milestones within a specific time period.

Reclaim My Status

This program is similar to parental leave for your Delta elite status. If you were a Medallion member and you had a major life event that prevented you from flying and caused you to lose your status, Delta will let you reclaim your previous tier.

To qualify, you must be able to present documentation of the life event in question. According to Delta, all life events will be considered. If you’re approved, Delta will reinstate you former elite status for three months and give you the opportunity to extend through the same status challenge process explained above.

With both the Reclaim My Status and status match options, you should apply only when you’re expecting to fly frequently in the near future so that you can pass the status challenge.

Earning Delta SkyMiles

There are several ways to earn Delta SkyMiles, the most obvious being to fly with Delta or one of its partner airlines. However, you can also earn miles by spending on co-branded Delta credit cards, by making purchases through the SkyMiles Shopping portal or by dining at restaurants.

Booking Delta-Operated Flights

When you book a flight through Delta, you’ll earn SkyMiles based on the base price of your ticket. It’s absolutely free to sign up for the Delta SkyMiles program, and miles will never expire, so there’s no reason not to enroll in the program and start earning rewards on your flights, even if you never achieve elite status.

However, having elite status means that you’ll be able to rack up SkyMiles significantly faster. Here are the earnings rates for each status tier:

• General member – 5X miles per dollar
• Silver Medallion – 7X miles per dollar
• Gold Medallion – 8X miles per dollar
• Platinum Medallion – 9X miles per dollar
• Diamond Medallion – 11X miles per dollar

For instance, if you book a flight for $300 before taxes, you’ll earn 1,500 SkyMiles if you don’t have elite status. If you’re a Silver Medallion member, you’ll earn 2,100 SkyMiles on the same flight. Diamond Medallion members will earn 3,300 SkyMiles.

Booking Through Partner Airlines

Another way to earn SkyMiles is to book flights with Delta’s partner airlines. However, there are two different options for booking with partner airlines, and the option that you choose will determine how many SkyMiles you receive.

First of all, you can book flights with partner airlines through Delta’s website and earn SkyMiles on the base fare that you paid (just like with Delta-operated flights), even though the flight is operated by another airline.

On the other hand, you also can book the flight and then add your Delta SkyMiles account number at checkout. However, when you book this way, the number of SkyMiles that you earn will be based on the distance flown, specific partner airline, booking class and whether you have elite status.

It’s probably best to compare both booking methods before purchasing your ticket because the difference in the miles you’ll receive can be quite large in some cases. You can check SkyMiles earnings rates for all partner airlines on this page.

Spending with Delta Co-Branded Credit Cards

Apart from booking flights with Delta or its partner airlines, the best way to earn SkyMiles is by signing up for one of Delta’s seven co-branded credit cards. Annual fees for these cards are either $0, $99, $250 or $550, so there’s a card for everyone regardless of how often you fly with Delta.

American Express is a sole issuer of Delta cards, and there are four personal cards and three business cards that allow you to earn SkyMiles. Here is a breakdown of all the cards.

Spending Through SkyMiles Shopping Portal

Believe it or not, you can earn SkyMiles (and most other airline miles) without ever stepping foot in a plane. Most airlines have their own shopping portal that rewards you with miles for purchases, and Delta is no different.

If you want to earn SkyMiles for online shopping, you must register an account on the SkyMiles Shopping portal using your SkyMiles account number. Then, you can search for your favorite brands or products from more than 1,000 stores and earn miles for making purchases. It’s also worth looking out for stores that offer bonus miles as this can be a great way to get bang for your buck.

Typically, the SkyMiles you earn from your purchases will post within three to five days. However, depending on the store, it can take up to 15 days.

Eating with SkyMiles Dining

If you’re already a member of Delta SkyMiles, you should absolutely sign up for SkyMiles Dining. This program rewards you with 3X miles per dollar spent at any participating restaurants in your area.

All you have to do is sign up with your SkyMiles account number and link any credit or debit card. Then, you can search your ZIP code, find participating restaurants in your area and start earning SkyMiles while you’re dining.

However, it’s worth noting that other loyalty programs also allow you to earn miles or points for dining (such as American Airlines AAdvantage, JetBlue TrueBlue, Southwest Rapid Rewards, United MileagePlus, IHG One Rewards, Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy), some which offer a greater return than Delta SkyMiles. And, since you can enroll only one card in one rewards network-operated dining rewards program, you might want to weigh your options before linking your card to SkyMiles Dining.

Booking Accommodation with Airbnb

You can earn Delta SkyMiles for booking vacation rentals at more than 7 million unique homes across the world through Airbnb. To do so, you’ll need to book through delta.com/airbnb and enter your SkyMiles account number when making your booking. Then, you’ll earn 1 SkyMile per dollar spent (excluding taxes and fees) with no minimum spending requirement.

Redeeming Delta SkyMiles

Aside from booking award flights, there are many different ways to redeem your SkyMiles. However, some of these redemption options provide far less value than others. In general, your best bet for getting the most value out of your SkyMiles will be to purchase an award flight directly through Delta’s website.

Despite that, we’re going to look at the many different ways you can redeem your SkyMiles and how much value you can get out of each option.

Book Award Flights with Delta

Booking award flights with Delta is probably the easiest and most straightforward way to spend SkyMiles, and luckily it’s one of the ways that usually provides the most value as well.

Unfortunately, Delta has removed its award charts and moved to a dynamic pricing model (Delta was the first U.S. airline to do this). This means that you’ll need to actually search your desired flight on Delta’s website to know how many points you’ll need to book it.

If you aren’t looking for any flight in particular, you should keep up to date with Delta’s award sale page. They consistently post limited-time award deals that are usually of great value. They also change these deals fairly frequently, so it’s worth checking back every few weeks or so.

If you do need to fly to a specific destination on a specific date, you can head over to Delta’s website and choose to display the price in miles when searching for your flight. The cost of the flight will vary based on the routing and the dates selected.

Book Award Flights with Partners

Delta is a member of SkyTeam, meaning that you can use SkyMiles to book flights operated by other alliance members. In addition, Delta also has several other partner airlines with which you can book flights using SkyMiles.

It’s also possible to use your SkyMiles to purchase multiple segments of the same trip from multiple carriers. For instance, you might be able to book one segment of the trip with Delta, one segment with Aeroméxico and the final one with Aerolíneas Argentinas.

Unfortunately, Delta’s partner awards have seen their fair share of devaluations of the past few years. Specifically, redemption rates for award flights between the United States and the Middle East operated by Virgin Atlantic and Saudia have gone up significantly in recent years. Award flights between the United States and North Africa and India have increased in price, too. On top of that, Delta has added close-in booking surcharges and increased rates for many partner award flights departing from the United States.

Still, with a thorough search, you can find some partner awards that offer great value when booked with SkyMiles.

Upgrading or Changing Delta Flights

Another way to spend your SkyMiles is to upgrade an existing ticket. If your ticket is eligible for an upgrade, you’ll see an option to upgrade with either miles or cash in your reservation details page.

Upgrade costs can vary heavily by flight, so you should always calculate the cost of the upgrade to see if it’s worth it.

You also may be able to use your SkyMiles to pay for services such as ticket change fees, selecting preferred seats, same-day confirmed fees or external ticket charges. In most cases, you’ll need to call Delta Reservations at 1-800-221-1212 and request that you use SkyMiles to pay for your desired change.

Book with Delta Vacations

Delta Vacations is a service offered by Delta that allows you to book all-in-one vacations packages including flights, hotels and curated activities. These packages are available to SkyMiles members only. However, you can book them either with SkyMiles or cash. It’s worth noting that you will earn SkyMiles when booking Delta Vacations with cash.

If you want to pay with miles, you can enter your SkyMiles account number while building your vacation package and then choose miles as your payment method. Also, if you don’t have enough miles to cover the entire cost of the package, Delta allows you to cover the rest with their Miles + Cash option.

If you have a Disney park on your shortlist of vacation destinations, you should know that Delta Vacations is one of the few solid ways to pay for Disney trips with points and miles. Very few other travel rewards programs allow you to use points of miles to book Disney theme park tickets.

Ordering Magazines

Delta also allows you to use your SkyMiles to purchase magazine subscriptions through the MagsforMiles program. Exact rates will vary depending on which magazine you choose, and some of these subscription options offer surprisingly good value.

For instance, you can get 52 issues of Barron’s for 1,900 miles, which would come out to a little under 37 miles per issue.

Donating Miles to Charity

Delta gives you the option to donate your miles to dozens of charities worldwide that support a range of different causes through their SkyWish program. Each charity has its own minimum donation requirement, and you can select a maximum of five charities per transaction.

While donating your SkyMiles to charity through SkyWish is a generous way to use your miles, this redemption option offers low value. On top of that, charitable donations of miles through SkyWish aren’t tax deductible (unlike cash donations).

Transferring SkyMiles to a Friend

If you don’t have any use for your own miles, you might want to consider transferring them to a friend or family member. However, doing so provides a low value as Delta charges high fees for transferring points.

For starters, there’s a $30 processing fee per transaction. On top of that, transfers cost 1 cent per mile. Given the cost, you’ll lose a large chunk of your points’ value by transferring them. For instance, if you were to transfer 30,000 miles (worth around $390), it would cost you about $330 in total fees.

If you do choose to transfer miles, you can transfer no more than 150,000 per year, and each SkyMiles account may receive a maximum of 300,000 miles per year.

Gift Cards

If you want to give your points to someone else to buy a flight, it makes more sense to spend your SkyMiles on a gift card than to transfer them from account to account. However buying gift cards still offers a relatively low-value redemption option.

Here are the different gift card options and the value per point the miles provide.

As you can see, redeeming your SkyMiles for gift cards always results in a value of less than 1 cent per mile.

Delta gift cards never expire and can be used for any flight purchasable through Delta’s website or for Delta Vacations packages that include airfare. Gift cards usually take about seven days for delivery (even digital ones).

SkyMiles Experiences

Delta’s SkyMiles Experiences feature allows you to bid on exclusive tickets to events, such as sporting events, musical performances, culinary experiences and more, using your SkyMiles. Although the per-point value of these redemptions usually isn’t great, you may be able to score tickets to events that might otherwise be sold out through the SkyMiles Experiences portal.

SkyMiles Program Sweet Spots

While Delta’s move from a fixed award chart to a dynamic pricing model severely devalued the program as a whole, you can still find certain sweet spots that provide outstanding value.

Let’s look at some of the best ways to leverage the Delta SkyMiles program.

Flash Sales

Delta occasionally updates its award sales page with limited-time deals on certain flights. These flash sales are usually on short- and long-haul flights to U.S. destinations as well as some cities in Europe, Asia and the Caribbean.

Recently, there have been some great deals for Main Cabin, Comfort+ and even first-class seats. It’s not uncommon to find international flights from the U.S. to the Caribbean in Main Cabin for 14,000 SkyMiles or fewer.

However, it’s important that you routinely check Delta’s SkyMiles deals page because they do change their flash sales often. You never know when the next sale on a flight from your hometown airport might pop up.

LATAM Economy Flights to South America

Regardless of what cabin class you search for, cheap flights from the U.S. to South America are hard to find. However, one of the most affordable ways to fly from the U.S. to South America is by booking LATAM award tickets with Delta SkyMiles.

For instance, you can book a round-trip ticket in economy from Miami (MIA) to Sao Paulo (GRU) for 60,000 SkyMiles plus $37 in fees. Since flights from the U.S. to Brazil are notoriously expensive, this is a fantastic deal.

Flights from the U.S. to Canada

Delta is partnered with WestJet, one of the largest airlines serving Canada. This means that SkyMiles members have many flight options when crossing the border from the U.S. to Canada, many of them well-priced.

For instance, you can fly one way from New York (JFK) to Toronto (YYZ) for as little as 5,000 SkyMiles plus fees and taxes or round trip for 10,000 SkyMiles plus taxes and fees.

Short-Haul Domestic Flights

Certain short-haul flights within the United States can be purchased through Delta for fewer than 6,000 SkyMiles, which is usually a great value compared to their cash rates.

For example, you can fly from New York City (JFK) to Boston (BOS) for as few as 6,000 SkyMiles one way or 12,000 SkyMiles round trip.

If you have a short-haul domestic flight that you have to make in the future, it’s definitely worth looking into whether you can get a good deal by purchasing it with SkyMiles.

The Bottom Line

Although Delta SkyMiles certainly experienced a devaluation when it switched from a fixed award chart to a dynamic pricing model, there’s still a lot to like about the program.

The opportunity to earn SkyMiles with other SkyTeam members and the hefty welcome bonuses offered with some of Delta’s co-branded credit cards make it easy to boost your SkyMiles balance quickly.

When you redeem your SkyMiles, you also get access to the full SkyTeam network, meaning that SkyMiles will take you nearly anywhere on the planet. Plus, if you stay on top of Delta’s flash sales, you can find some amazing redemptions that offer fantastic value.