Like black Friday deals, the Delta “Elevate Your Status” offer is now live a month sooner than usual. The pattern has been, for years now, to offer to many elites the chance to buy-up one or more status levels for a bat crazy amount of cash donated to Delta and at costs as high as $5000 for some elites.
- Here was the offer 2018
- Here was the offer 2017
- Here was the offer 2016
- Here was the offer 2015
- Here was the offer 2014
- Here was the offer 2013
- Here was the offer 2012
What is it this year?
As you can see the offer has grown from a nearly reasonable sum and the same sum for everyone to “target” offers based on your status (and how brain dead you may be to even consider this). Why on earth anyone would simply give Delta cash is beyond me when you could fly somewhere fun instead! Or…
Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card
Clearly a better option, if you are wanting to be Platinum Medallion or lower, is to get a Delta Amex card for the MQMs and spend $25,000 to be MQD exempt (all charges must post by 31DEC each year). At the above prices it is well worth considering either the Delta SkyMiles Reserve card personal or business new card welcome offer (after spend) despite the non-waived $450 fee that gets you 10,000 MQMs will “ONLY” cost you 4.5 cents each to get them (and you get a bunch more perks for a year as well)! But the issue is no MQDs.
Or, as mentioned, simply fly somewhere. But where you ask? Conveniently here on the blog we constantly publish all the sweet mileage runs we can find ( #ProTip: Subscribe to the mileage run deals here via email). The key part is you can buy cheap coach or business class Delta Skyteam partners and earn HUGE MQMs and MQD bonus points based on distance and fare class (learn here how this works).
We even have a great friend Adam who can book custom runs for you from your home town airport for WWWAAAYYY less than what Delta is again offering most to “Elevate Your Status” by donation.
As you can see from the screenshot at the top of this post I am short of re-earning my Delta Diamond status for 2020. I already have a “fun-run” booked with 5 other Diamonds to end the year with a business class adventure to Europe for under 9 CPM (cent per mile) vs. the 23 – 27 CPM donation offer from Delta!
It blows my mind that year after year Delta gets folks to simply give them money. Please, dear readers, don’t let that be you. – René
Featured image: ©iStock.com/solvod
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The offer is really about selling MQDs for their face value, because the MQMs and segments are nearly worthless and, as you point out, MQMs can be obtained by other means and segments can be had for very little outlay. I received a similar offer a while back, which had an option to buy as few as (I think) 1,600 MQDs for $1.600, which was just about what I needed. Thanks to your blog, I chose to take a business class trip on Aeromexico to Central America (and a chance to fly on 787s both ways) later this month for about half that price, and get MQMs as well. It seems unlikely that anyone willing to pay so much would not have already reached the MQD waiver so, in my view, the primary target is someone who wants to reach or retain Diamond status, lacks MQDs , and can’t or doesn’t want to travel in the next couple of months.
Looking forward to our run!