You can earn Delta MQDs on hotel stays, car rentals & vacation rentals (but best not to)

Delta is running another promotion giving a limited time opportunity to earn Medallion Qualifying Dollars (MQDs) when booking hotel stays, vacation rentals and car rentals. That could be useful for people trying to earn status with Delta, but for the most part it’s going to be poor value compared to the rewards and savings you could get through other avenues.

The Deal

• Earn 1 Delta MQD per dollar spent on hotel stays, vacation rentals and car rentals with Delta Cars & Stays.
• Direct link to offer.

Key Terms

• Car Rental, Hotel and Vacation Rental bookings reserved on www.travelextras-delta.com from February 3, 2025 through March 31, 2025 (for travel dates from February 3, 2025 through April 30, 2025) will be eligible to earn Medallion Qualification Dollars (MQDs) upon the completion of a qualifying car rental, hotel or vacation rental booking. For clarity, this offer does not include any stays or car rentals booked through Delta Vacations or any cruises booked through Delta Cruises.
• SkyMiles Members will earn 1 MQD per eligible US$1 or equivalent foreign currency (“Qualifying Dollars”) spent on the base car rental rate for every completed rental booking, and on the base hotel or vacation rental rate for every completed stay.
• Qualifying Dollars include the cost of the hotel room or vacation rental property, before taxes and fees, charged at the time of booking or upon checkout. Taxes, fees, gratuities, room service, other booking charges, or any bookings which are paid or reduced by miles, redemption vouchers or discount codes are excluded from MQD credit and are not included in the Qualifying Dollars. For clarity, if miles are used as a form of payment (whether for all or a portion of the booking), no portion of the booking will be eligible to earn MQDs.
• A qualifying car rental booking includes rentals at a participating location for one or more days at rates other than travel industry rates or discounts, wholesale of tour package rates or discounts, wholesale tour package rates, insurance/dealer replacement rates, corporate and government rates, group travel discounts, or rentals in conjunction with a frequent flyer car award, or other corporate agreements applicable to the respective car company.
• lease allow up to 8 weeks after completion of eligible hotel or vacation rental or car rental for Miles and MQDs to be deposited in SkyMiles account. If Miles or MQD credit has not been recorded on your SkyMiles account 8 weeks after qualifying activity occurs, please contact us and select: Request Mileage Credit > All Other Miles Requests > Other SkyMiles Partners. Requests for Miles or MQD credit will be accepted up to 9 months from check out date from a stay or car rental return date. Bookings completed prior to enrollment into SkyMiles will not be eligible for Miles or MQD credit. Hotel currency or status are subject to each respective Hotel guest program may not be applicable for bookings made on www.travelextras-delta.comOpens in a new window.

Quick Thoughts

If you’re someone who’s looking to earn status with Delta, it might be tempting to take advantage of this promotion awarding MQDs on hotel stays and car rentals. However, in most cases this will be a poor value proposition.

For starters, you’d be forgoing shopping portal rewards on those bookings which, in most cases, will greatly exceed 2 SkyMiles + 1 MQD per dollar. For hotel stays, you’d also be missing out on earning hotel points, receiving status benefits, earning elite night credits, etc.

At first I thought that vacation rentals might provide some semblance of value for booking through Delta, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. It looks like the booking portal is powered by Expedia/Hotels.com, so you’d once again likely be better off clicking through to one of those sites from a shopping portal. If booking directly with Hotels.com, you could also pay with a Hotels.com gift card bought at a discount or through an app like Fluz or Pepper that give rewards on those purchases.

With regards to vacation rentals, I’m assuming that the properties are all pulled from Vrbo as Expedia Group owns that company too. That being the case, you could also click through to there from a shopping portal – here are the current rates.

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