Editor's note: Big changes are coming to Delta's SkyMiles program in 2024, including how members can earn elite status. The carrier will also be cutting back Sky Club lounge access. Read more on these upcoming changes here.

Whether you’re in it for complimentary upgrades, free checked bags or just the smug sense of superiority, there are many good reasons to pursue Delta Air Lines elite status.

Delta’s Medallion elite status works much the same as other major U.S. carriers like American and United, with spending minimums for each tier and a whole bunch of acronyms like MQMs and MQDs.

Whether you’re a wizened old frequent flyer or are new to the game, here we’ll break down everything you need to know about Delta Medallion status and its accompanying program (while keeping the acronyms to a minimum).

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What is Medallion status on Delta?

Delta has four tiers of elite status: Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond.

You can earn status by flying and spending enough within a single calendar year, and once earned you’ll keep it through the following calendar year. So if you earn Gold status in February 2024, you’ll keep it through the end of 2025. If you’re just short of reaching status before the end of the year, well, tough luck.

You can also earn lifetime status by flying at least 1 million miles as a member of SkyMiles. This starts at lifetime Silver status for reaching “only” 1 million miles and caps at lifetime Diamond status for flying 4 million miles. That 4 million miles is more than 160 trips around the Earth, so don’t hold your breath for this status unless you travel incredibly often.

Medallion levels at a glance

Here’s an overview of Delta’s status levels and a peek at what they offer. Jump to the "Medallion status benefits" or the "How much is Delta Medallion status worth" sections to learn more about these figures.

Silver Medallion

Value: $876.

How many MQMs required to earn: 25,000 MQMs (or 30 MQSs).

How many MQDs required to earn: $3,000 MQDs (or MQD waiver).

Estimated cost to earn: $3,797.

Best benefits: Bonus miles (40%), free baggage, free upgrades, priority check-in and boarding.

Gold Medallion

Value: $3,256.

How many MQMs required to earn: 50,000 MQMs (or 60 MQSs).

How many MQDs required to earn: $8,000 MQDs (or MQD waiver).

Estimated cost to earn: $$10,127.

Bonus miles earned: 60%

Best benefits: Free baggage, free same-day flight changes, free upgrades, priority security line access, expedited baggage service.

Platinum Medallion

Value: $$6,161.

How many MQMs required to earn: 75,000 MQMs (or 100 MQSs)

How many MQDs required to earn: $12,000 MQDs (or MQD waiver)

Estimated cost to earn: $$15,190.

Bonus miles earned: 80%.

Best benefits: Free baggage, free flight changes, free upgrades, one bonus benefit.

Diamond Medallion

Value: $14,153.

How many MQMs required to earn: 125,000 MQMs (or 140 MQSs).

How many MQDs required to earn: $20,000 MQDs (or MQD waiver).

Estimated cost to earn: $25,316.

Bonus miles earned: 120%.

Best benefits: Free baggage, free flight changes, free upgrades, complimentary Clear membership, three bonus benefits.

How to get Delta Medallion status

In a nutshell, you earn Delta Medallion status by getting enough Medallion Qualification Dollars for each tier and either getting enough Medallion Qualification Miles or Medallion Qualification Segments.

These are often abbreviated to MQDs, MQMs and MQSs, but in our experience, that’s more confusing than helpful, so we’ll keep spelling them out.

In Delta’s status universe, you can’t game the system by taking several long, cheap flights (as you can on Alaska Airlines) because you’ll need to reach the minimum number of Medallion Qualification Dollars for each tier (unless you have a waiver earned on a Delta SkyMiles credit card, as discussed below).

Here’s the breakdown:

How Medallion Qualification Dollars work

Lest you think a Medallion Qualification Dollar is just a dollar, Delta makes it a little more complicated.

First, Medallion Qualification Dollars are only accrued from the base fare of a ticket, excluding taxes and fees. So, if your ticket costs $500 — $100 of which are taxes and fees — you’ll earn 400 Medallion Qualification Dollars.

Second, you can also earn Medallion Qualification Dollars (and miles and segments) when flying on “select partner-marketed flights not ticketed through Delta,” according to the airline's website. However, the number of Medallion Qualification Dollars earned from partner flights is not based on the cost of the ticket but rather as a fraction of the miles flown. Confused? That’s not even the whole story.

The fraction of partner miles flown that are converted into Medallion Qualification Dollars vary by partner and fare class. The “easiest” way to see how this works is to visit the Delta partner page, choose the appropriate partner, then select the “mileage earn” box and finally look to the far-right column of the chart that appears.

Delta makes this far, far more complex than it should be. So, when considering whether to book a partner flight through Delta or through the partner itself, you should compare the number of Medallion Qualification Dollars (and miles) you’ll earn in each scenario.

Earning Delta status with award travel

Unlike most other airlines, Delta lets you earn elite status on award flights (i.e. those booked with SkyMiles).

Medallion Qualification Miles are based on miles flown, while the Medallion Qualification Dollars are based on the number of miles used divided by 100.

For example, a 10,000-mile flight booked with 75,000 SkyMiles would earn 10,000 Medallion Qualifying Miles and 750 Medallion Qualifying Dollars. Basically, Delta is treating SkyMiles as cents for the purposes of Medallion Qualifying Dollars.

Rollover Medallion Qualification Miles

Delta offers a great feature for those shooting for Medallion status, in which extra Medallion Qualification Miles roll over to the following year. For example, if you earn 100,000 Medallion Qualification Miles in 2023, you’ll earn Platinum status with enough Medallion Qualification Dollars. Since Platinum status only requires 75,000 Medallion Qualification Miles, the extra 25,000 you earned will roll over to 2024 and provide a jump-start to your status for the next calendar year.

However, note that Medallion Qualification Dollars do not roll over to the following year. The dollar threshold is harder to hit than the mileage one for many frequent flyers, which can render the mileage rollover benefit moot.

Credit card waivers

SkyMiles earned from Delta’s branded credit cards do not count as either Medallion Qualification Miles or Medallion Qualification Dollars. However, they do offer something called a Medallion Qualification Dollars Waiver to those who spend a ton on their Delta cards. How much is a ton? Here’s the breakdown:

$25,000 in spending within a calendar year qualifies for a Silver, Gold or Platinum Medallion Qualification Dollars waiver. That is, you won’t have to reach the Medallion Qualification Dollar threshold to earn these three statuses.

$250,000 in spending within a calendar year qualifies for a Diamond Medallion Qualification Dollars Waiver. (That’s not a typo.)

Medallion status benefits

All Medallion tiers offer priority boarding and check-in, and all except Silver get priority security and baggage access. All tiers also receive complimentary seat upgrade eligibility, free checked bags and bonus SkyMiles, with higher tiers offering correspondingly greater benefits.

Upgrades

Although complimentary seat upgrades are one of the biggest benefits of any airline's elite status, the process by which upgrades are determined can seem daunting and confusing. This is because all complimentary upgrades are essentially a lottery, with no certainties (even for travelers with Diamond Medallion status).

For example, although upgrades begin clearing for Diamond members 120 hours prior to departure as the above table describes, this only means that they get the first crack at seats that are available at that point.

More seats will open, sometimes at the last minute, and those will get assigned to Medallion members still on the upgrade waitlist in descending order of status (and fare class). In other words, the highest Medallion status members get first dibs on upgrades, but only when those upgrades are available.

So if you’re a Gold Medallion member flying from Atlanta (Delta’s home airport) to New York, for example, you’re far less likely to score an upgrade than you would be on another flight with fewer elite members.

Companions traveling with you are also eligible for complimentary upgrades, though it gets a bit convoluted. You can learn all the details on Delta’s upgrade page, but here’s the gist:

Companions must have a SkyMiles membership to be eligible for upgrades.

A companion booked on the same reservation as you will get upgraded at the highest tier of the two. For example, if you’re Platinum and your companion is Gold, you will both be eligible as Platinums.

For a companion booked on separate but linked reservations, it’s complicated — basically, these companions are unlikely to be upgraded unless they have Medallion status of their own.

For groups of three or more, it’s extremely complicated and very easy for no one in the group to be upgraded. We recommend calling Delta if you’re booking a group ticket and are curious how the upgrades will shake out.

Finally, basic economy (E) fares are not eligible for any complimentary upgrades, so think twice before booking these tickets for long-haul flights.

The Delta Sky Club in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Photo courtesy of Delta.

Choice benefits

Delta offers a unique choose-your-own benefit option for both Platinum and Diamond Medallion members. It’s a nice perk, as it lets you focus on the benefits you value most and skip the ones you’d never use.

Platinum members choose ONE of the following:

Package of four regional upgrade certificates.

20,000 bonus miles.

$200 Delta travel voucher.

Gift of Silver Medallion status to a friend.

Diamond members choose THREE of the following:

Executive membership to Delta Sky Clubs (unlimited access for self and two guests) — this option counts as three choices.

Package of as many as eight upgrade certificates (eight regional, four global, or two global and four regional).

25,000 bonus miles.

$200 Delta travel voucher.

Gift of Gold Medallion status to a friend.

Partner benefits

The system for Medallion benefits on Delta’s partner airlines is so complex and inscrutable that we can’t possibly explain it all here. Delta’s own partner benefit page starts with a glossary of terms like a list of characters at the beginning of a Russian novel.

That said, in general:

Silver Medallion holders get SkyTeam Elite status, which offers a few limited benefits on most partners.

Gold, Platinum and Diamond holders get SkyTeam Elite Plus status, which offers more robust benefits like lounge access.

All Medallion holders get one extra free piece of luggage on partner flights.

Most partners offer their own combination of benefits to these two groups. If you’re unsure which airline to fly based on your Medallion status, check the partner page and compare the offered benefits.

How much is Delta Medallion status worth?

In NerdWallet’s annual analysis of the best airline elite status programs, we sought to determine how much value the major U.S. airline loyalty programs deliver to flyers. Here's how the Delta Medallion program did.

Status matching, challenges and Reclaim My Status

Delta offers several helpful ways to give you a leg up on earning Medallion status (or help you get it back after lapsing).

Status matching

If you’re a frequent flyer on another program and are considering switching loyalty, Delta will match your status for three months to give you a sense of the benefits. To qualify you must:

Not have received a status match from Delta in 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 from flying (not through another status match).

If approved for a status match, you’ll also be enrolled in a status challenge. Essentially, this lets you extend your status beyond the three-month trial if you’re able to hit certain flying and spending milestones during the trial.

In fact, you can extend your Medallion status through the entire following year if you begin your status match after July 1. For example, if you begin your match (and challenge) on July 2, 2023, and meet the milestones, you’ll keep your status throughout 2024.

'Reclaim My Status'

This helpful program is essentially parental leave for airline elite status. That is, if you were a Medallion status member who had a major life event that caused you to lose your status, Delta will let you reclaim your previous status in a similar way to the matching program above.

To qualify, you must be able to provide documentation of the life event, but Delta claims that “all life events will be considered.”

If approved, Delta will reinstate your former status for three months and give you the opportunity to extend your reclaimed status through the following year in the same manner as the status challenge above. So, you should only apply for the program when you’re ready (and planning) to start flying again.

Is Delta Medallion status worth it?

Delta’s Medallion elite program is great for travelers who frequently fly on Delta and its partners, as it can provide money-saving and comfort-improving benefits to all Medallion holders. Just realize that — to save money — you'll have to spend money. And for most status tiers, that means spending a lot of it.

Sure, roughly $14,000 in value from Diamond status is great, but you'll only get it by spending an estimated $25,000 with Delta. Be realistic about what you'll actually spend on Delta flights ahead of your quest to become a Delta Medallion member.

For what it's worth, Delta tends to rank squarely in the middle among all the other major airline elite status programs. Delta's top-tier Diamond Medallion status is not nearly as valuable as the boffo $29,000 that NerdWallet estimates American's Executive Platinum status is worth. But, it takes an estimated $50,00 to earn American's top-tier elite status, so it might not net out to be all that worth it.

Meanwhile, the Delta Diamond Medallion perk's are more valuable than those you might expect to get in the Alaska 100K elite status tier, which are worth just $8,300.

It's almost always a good idea to sign up for the Delta SkyMiles program, even if you're just taking the occasional flight, considering it's free to join. If you fly frequently and live near a Delta hub (like its headquarters in Atlanta), pledging allegiance to one airline can be more worthwhile than chasing the lowest fare deals. Especially if you can earn elite status in the long run and take advantage of its value. Even the lowest tier of Delta Medallion status, Silver Medallion, can offer hundreds of dollars in value by saving you on Delta checked bag fees, netting you Delta priority boarding and more.