Audit your mileage run: How Delta’s miscalculation nearly value me Diamond Medallion standing

Final week I flew from New York’s John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK) to Copenhagen Airport (CPH) on Delta Air Traces.

The journey wasn’t a mileage run per se — I used to be assembly my cousin and a pal for a brief journey — however I wanted the Medallion Qualification {Dollars} to maintain my Diamond Medallion standing. After flying this journey and factoring in my different year-end journey, I might be at simply greater than 15,200 MQDs for the yr.

Nonetheless, a miscalculation in Delta’s system shorted me 273 MQDs. If the error had gone unnoticed, it will have value me my standing for 2023.

See, after I landed again in New York, Delta credited my account 593 MQDs regardless that my ticket value about $954. I wasn’t anticipating to earn MQDs on all of that spending — MQDs are solely earned on the ticket’s base fare and carrier-imposed surcharges, generally dubbed “YR” — however I knew one thing was off.

I checked an elite standing monitoring spreadsheet I keep and shortly confirmed I ought to have obtained 866 MQDs for my JFK-CPH-JFK itinerary. Based on my receipt, the ticket had a base fare of $266 and $600 in carrier-imposed surcharges. This brings me to my lacking 273 MQDs. In flip, I used to be additionally shorted simply greater than 3,000 redeemable SkyMiles too, as my redeemable mileage earnings have been calculated on the inaccurate $593 base fare plus carrier-imposed surcharge.

Fortunately, this story has a contented ending. I referred to as the Diamond Medallion line and defined the scenario to the consultant. He referred to as the SkyMiles division, they observed their error and the consultant instructed me they’d recalculate earnings with the right fare and surcharges.

Roughly an hour later, my account was credited with the right 866 MQDs and 9,526 redeemable miles, price about $134 per TPG’s valuations.

If I hadn’t observed this error, I may have misplaced my Diamond advantages over a easy mistake in Delta’s system. Or, I might have needed to panic-book a flight after ending my vacation flights residence and realizing I hadn’t certified for my standing. Evidently, that may not have been an inexpensive (or enjoyable) endeavor proper after the vacations.

Associated: Fast Factors: How and why it is best to usually audit your loyalty accounts

Take my expertise as a reminder to all the time verify your loyalty account after you fly. Then, recalculate your earnings and make sure you obtained the correct variety of redeemable miles and elite metrics. In case you do not, you can depart miles and elite standing on the desk.

I additionally encourage you to construct a spreadsheet that logs your flights all year long. I add all of my flights to this spreadsheet as I e book them, alongside their Medallion Qualification Miles, MQDs and redeemable SkyMiles earnings. Then, I’ve a operating quantity that provides all of them up and provides them to my present MQD steadiness. This helps me plan and audit my account shortly as I journey all year long, and it retains me within the loop on how shut I’m to the subsequent elite standing tier.