If you earned more Delta MQMs (Medallion Qualifying Miles) in 2023 than were needed for the level of elite status you attained, then the remaining MQMs will have rolled over into 2024. But… Delta no longer measures MQMs at all. Elite status now is based only on MQDs (Medallion Qualifying Dollars) and, going forward, there will no longer be elite rollovers of any kind. So, what can you do with those seemingly useless rolled over MQMs? Delta is offering three options: 1) Convert them to redeemable miles; 2) Convert them to MQDs; or 3) Convert each 100K MQMs into an extra year of elite status. In this post, I’ll show the options and give recommendations for which you should pick (selections must be made by December 31, 2024)…
MQM Conversion Options
When you log into your Delta account and go to the My SkyMiles page, and if you have rolled over MQMs, you should now see an option to Convert Now. If you don’t convert them by December 31, 2024, they’ll all be converted to MQDs.
Here are the choices for converting your MQMs into something useful…
Extend your 2024 status (each 100K = 1 extra year)
If you rolled over 100,000 MQMs or more, you choose to extend your 2024 status for up to 1 year for each 100,000 MQMs you rolled over. Keep in mind that your 2024 status is the status you earned in 2023 for the 2024 elite year. This is the status you have early in 2024 due to your 2023 activity. If you earn a higher level of status in 2024, you can’t then use this to extend that higher level status.
Convert MQMs to MQDs (10 to $1) or to redeemable miles (2 to $1) or to a combination thereof
As shown in the image below, you can convert your rollover MQMs (including any leftover after doing a status extension) to MQDs, miles, or both. You can choose to convert all MQMs to MQDs, or 75% to MQDs & 25% to miles, or 50% to each, or 25% MQDs & 75% miles, or 100% miles.
Recommendations
For most people, your best bet is to wait until late 2024 to make your selection. In most cases, you should wait to see how many MQDs you’ve earned during the year before deciding which portion of your rollover will go to status and which to miles.
Here are a couple of examples of why it makes sense to wait:
- If you’re considering converting 100,000 rollover MQMs to extending status for a year, it makes sense to wait because you may achieve that level of status anyway, without using your 100,000 MQMs that way. Or, more likely, you might find by the end of the year that you’re less than 10,000 MQDs from the level of status you want. You could then convert fewer than 100,000 MQMs into MQDs and achieve the same result; and with the remaining MQMs, you can get redeemable miles.
- It won’t be until near the end of the year that you’ll know how many more MQDs you need for the level of status you want. It would be a shame to convert MQMs to MQDs before then because you might end up either with more MQDs than you need (and since there’s no longer any rollover, those would be wasted), or you might end up with too few and then they’ll all be wasted and you could have had redeemable miles instead.
And here’s a couple of scenarios where it might make sense to go ahead and make the choice now…
- If converting MQMs to MQDs will get you to a higher level of status than you have now, and if you want to take advantage of that status right away, then converting sooner makes sense. For example, suppose you currently have Platinum Medallion status and you have enough MQMs to convert to MQDs to get you to Diamond status. In that case, you might want to go ahead and do that so that you can enjoy Diamond benefits right away (including Choice Benefits like Global Upgrade Certificates).
- If you earned Diamond status for 2024 and have 200,000 or more MQMs that rolled over and if you’re certain (like I am) that you won’t earn Diamond status again this year then there’s little downside to extending your Diamond status for multiple years right away. Convert any remaining MQMs to miles since MQDs won’t do you any good. On the other hand, even though there’s no downside to picking now, there’s also little upside other than ensuring that you don’t forget later on.
Delta Elite Requirements
Here are the requirements for reaching each level of status in 2024. This may be helpful for deciding how many MQMs to convert to MQDs:
To reach each elite tier, Delta SkyMiles members must earn the stated number of MQDs shown above. MQDs reset each calendar year. MQDs = “Medallion Qualifying Dollars.” Medallion Qualifying Dollars are the sum total of your base-fare spend (e.g. doesn’t include taxes) on Delta-marketed flights. Additional Details:
- Award Tickets: Flights booked with Delta SkyMiles for Delta’s own flights earn MQDs. Award tickets earn MQDs at a rate of 1 MQD per 100 SkyMiles redeemed (e.g. 1 cent per SkyMile).
- Partner Flights: Paid flights booked on Delta partners earn MQDs as long as the member’s Delta SkyMiles number is attached to the ticket. MQDs are calculated as a percentage of miles flown rather than the amount paid. Details, by partner, can be found here.
- Exception Fares: Flights booked as part of vacation packages, cruise packages, consolidator fares, etc. are considered “exception fares”. With these flights, you’ll earn miles based on the distance flown. Details can be found here.
I expect that the number of MQDs required for each level of status will increase in 2025.
Results of my last great mileage run
Late last year when we learned that Delta was going to offer the option to extend status for a year for each 100,000 MQMs rolled over, my wife and I decided to go big. Really big. Until 2024, it was possible to earn MQMs with big spend on Delta SkyMiles Platinum and Reserve cards. We pulled out every trick in the book for spending money and getting it back and maxed out the MQM earning potential of all of our Delta cards. The idea was that this last great mileage run would be our last ever. We would each earn Diamond status and then extend that status for multiple years. Additionally, we’d each get closer to lifetime Platinum status which you get once you become a 2 Million Miler. Starting in 2024, only flights add to your million miler status, but last year and before all MQMs counted.
You can read details about these pursuits here:
And here are the results of those last great mileage runs:
- We each have Diamond status
- My wife has enough MQMs to extend status for 5 more years (ending January 31, 2030)
- I have enough MQMs to extend status for 4 more years (ending January 31, 2029)
- My wife has 1,920,391 lifetime miles. She only needs about 80,000 more butt-in-seat miles to get to 2 million miles and lifetime Platinum status. I expect that she’ll get there very easily within the next few years.
- I have 1,746,260 lifetime miles. I need a little over 250,000 more butt-in-seat miles to get to lifetime Platinum status. It’s pretty unlikely that I’ll get there before my Diamond status runs out, but I might be very close. We’ll see!
My MQM conversion options:
My wife’s MQM conversion options:
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Very helpful thread and f/u posts! Had an expensive year ouch but will make 2025 Diamond MQDs….when that happens (prob. October) I can just go ahead and convert my 389k miles, correct without needing to wait until year end? Will probably go for additional 3 years since the status is so valuable even if I’m traveling less. Sound about right?
Yep
I have 300K MQMs to roll over (I did a similar end of year run like Greg) and am going to extend my 2024 Diamond status for three additional years. I know I am not going to keep Diamond via MQDs this year – however, the timing of accepting the rollover is slightly more nuanced, due to the lack of double dipping (as I understand it) both earning AND extending via rollover.
I have traditionally gifted silver (two recipients) to family members as I have passed PM on the way to DM. I’m at about 12K MQDs so for – if I elect my DM rollover, I will jump to DM for 2025 (and 26/27) and (I think?) will forgo the opportunity to pass platinum and collect my choice benefit.
Is this a correct interpretation of the rollover rules – that once a higher status is extended, there is no possibility of “earning” lower status – in this case PM? This seems like a potential downside going forward. Or, are they saying one cannot double-dip “the same status” – i.e., rollover DM and earn DM via MQDs (i.e., if one’s job/travel changes and makes MQD earning possible)? Thanks!
No, that’s not right. You can still continue to earn Platinum choice benefits by qualifying for Platinum through MQDs earned each year. Its just that if you don’t earn enough MQDs for Platinum, you’ll only get the Diamond choice benefits.
Wow – that’s fantastic! I mean, the PM MQDs are not trivial, but nice that it’s still an option to earn PM choice benefits through flying/Skymiles card headstart MQDs during the next three years even though I’ll technically be classified as DM from the rollover and receiving DM benefits. Thanks for the correction.
I am already a two-million miler with lifetime platinum. I have about 275,000 residual MQMs and only 7,000 MQDs from making Diamond for 2025. I have no idea what my best strategy would be with all these moving parts and complicated formulas. Any advice for me?
Your current 2024 status would be helpful in planning your stategy. Big difference in options if you are already DM.
Nope-I am Platinum for this year. Lost mileage mojo during Covid (Had been Diamond every year since program inception) but should again be Diamond for 2025. Maybe I’m looking at it wrong, but I would think that extending my current platinum status with cashed in MQMs would be pointless – and kinda dumb.
I think you have already figured it out 🙂
Rolling over your status makes no sense so your only option, as I see it, is to convert your 275K MQMs to 550K redeemable miles.
Thanks for giving this a think for me, Mike. Do you know if there is any scenario where I’d make Diamond now in 2024 when I reach the 28K MQD limit? Should make it by June. If so, then it would make sense to apply those MQMs to extending Diamond for two years. I thought I saw somewhere on Delta that you could make the threshold and be granted Diamond status instantly….but maybe I dreamed it.
BTW Delta says I’d only receive 137,000 miles for my 275,000 MQMs, not 550K.
My bad.. Wishful thinking perhaps . Convert MQMs to SkyMiles: 2 MQMs = 1 SkyMile. That said, as soon as you hit DM you get it for the rest of this year and next. So as soon as you qualify in 2024 you will have DM status.
Great! You’re right…2024 DM status does make a big difference in the options. I think I will hang on until I see what happens when I hit the DM threshold in a month or two. If I can string that status out for a couple more years, it would be worth it! If not, I will take your advice and cash out all my MQMs into redeemables. Thanks so much for your advice!
You are most welcome.
Greg – the article stated “going forward, there will no longer be elite rollovers of any kind” – does that mean excess MQDs won’t roll forward from 2024 into 2025? That we would lose any excess MQDs beyond earning a certain status level?
I will let Greg correct me if I’m wrong, but yes, you would lose excess MQDs.
Mike is correct
So if I made DM in 2024 and have 108,000 MQMs that I can convert to extend DM status through 2025, if I make DM status for 2025 by earning 28K MQD in 2024, could I convert the 100K MQMs I have to extend DM status through 2026? Or is it just through 2025 either way?
No, its just through 2025. I think your best bet is to wait until near the end of the year to see if you need any more MQDs to earn Diamond again. If so, convert just enough to earn Diamond and convert the rest to redeemable miles.
If you rollover your MQMs to miles, do they count towards your million miler status?
In my situation it would put me right about 3 million miles
Unfortunately no. At this point only actual miles flown will count towards MM status
Thanks for the article. I only attained Silver status this year, but have over 200k MQMs. If I were to convert all to MQDs, would I become Platinum immediately or have to wait til February 2025? Also, if I become platinum immediately, is that good until end of Jan 2025 or end of January 2026? Also, if I then do 8k MQDs this year, when do I become Diamond, and until when is it good?
Thank you!
Also wondering, but I’m 24PM pending 25DM after conversion.
If we hit the 28k MQDs in 2024 do we still have to wait until 2/1/25 to get the three benny?
If you earn Diamond through MQDs, regardless of whether they are from the conversion or from flights or whatever, you’ll get access to the choice benefits right away.
Yes, you would become Platinum immediately and it would be good through Jan 2026. If you earn 8K additional MQDs this year, you would become Diamond as soon as those MQDs post to your account and it would also be good through Jan 2026
I’m sure there is no official answer to this question but I’m curious as to what people think! How will a decision on what to do with rollover MQMs impact decisions on 360 invitations?
I doubt it will affect it but if you think you’ll keep spending enough with Delta to earn 360 then I’d argue that trading your MQM rollover for redeemable miles makes the most sense. Extending status that you’ll earn anyway won’t help you.
I’m sure it’s on the SkyMiles site but does anyone know if MQD’s are going to roll over? I’m sure I’ll have $60k plus MQDs this year. Will they roll over like MQMs did?
No, they’ve done away with rollovers altogether.
Hi, I have 2.3 million lifetime miles / platinum status. I have 300,000 MQM’S, I do not fly nearly as much these days. Any suggestions which roll over option makes the most sense?
Thanks
That’s a tough one. Are you flying enough to benefit from Platinum status for the next 4 years? If so, then extending for 4 years makes sense. Otherwise, trading in for 150,000 redeemable miles is probably best
But he already has lifetime platinum. How does rolling over plat help him?
Oops. I misread his comment. Just get the redeemable miles.
Wsa just checking my rollover miles and noted the following.
I am a 2 Million Miler with Delta and, accordingly, will recieve Platinum Status for Life (one year at a time).
I finished 2023 with 260,000 MQM’s. When it came time for the rollover, Delta first went and ‘took’ 75,000 MQM’s for my 2024 Platinum status and told me that I only had 185,000 of rollover MQM’s.
I would have thought that all of my year end MQM’s should have been rolled over since I did not need to use any MQM’s to achieve 2024 Platinum status. Instead, Delta felt that it needed the 37,500 miles more than I did (75,000 MQM’s at 2:1 redeemable miles)
I’m thinking of reaching out to Delta to request my 75,000 MQM’s back.
I am in the same situation, I contacted delta agent through chat option, and they decided to apply 37,000 miles to my account to offset the 75k deduction.
Another question….. do you have more than one opportunity to extend your status ? Say I have enough to extend for 4 years but initially only extend for one year. Can I return to the site for additional extensions?
Nope. You can only make a selection once
Definitely good to know. Thank you !
If you chose to extend the Diamond status for an additional year(s), do you receive the Platinum and Diamond Choice Benefits for those extended years?
I believe so, but I’ll know for certain soon with my own experience and will report back.
People cannot choose yet, but the consensus on Flyertalk is that if you do the 100k Diamond extension, you will get the Diamond Choice Benefits only (because you earned Diamond status, but never earned Platinum along the way). People with Diamond status from being 3 million milers get Diamond Choice Benefits, but not Platinum Choice Benefits.
If you convert your MQMs into MQDs, and achieve Diamond status for 2025 that way, then you have earned both Platinum and Diamond status. So then you should get both sets of Choice Benefits.
I did talk to Delta and they confirmed you would get the Diamond Choice Benefit but not Platinum (as stated) if you chose the Diamond extension. However, since I am a 2 million miler I guess I would get the Platinum Choice Benefit that way
Gerg, I followed a similar plan. 4 years of rollover DM and am now 6K miles short of 2MM. Let’s hope Delta doesn’t find way to change the rules going forward and make us regret the end of year flurry.