Triangle Trip

Delta introduced two major changes to the 2010 SkyMiles program: 1) Rollover Medallion Qualifying Miles (Rollover MQM) which lets you build status toward the following year; and 2) a new Medallion class: Diamond which requires you to have 125,000 MQM. We are extremely pleased to see this change as it is definitely ground breaking for the airline industry.

I have been traveling coast to coast on United and Delta for the past six months. The Rollover MQM along with the free/complementary upgrades clearly made Delta my carrier of choice for the rest of the year (see previous post regarding Delta as the best for coast to coast travel). I would be surprised if United or American follows this promotion as they have most of the corporate customers locked into corporate travel plans/accounts such as 25 to 30% discount plan.

Marriott launched their Elite Rollover Nights program in late spring and none of the major hotel chains followed. Marriott’s move to offer Elite Rollover Nights doesn’t surprise me since they require 75 actual nights to obtain Platinum status which means Elite rollover doesn’t begin until your 76th night. With 50 to 60 nights at other hotels like SPG, Hilton respectively, you’d be at their highest level.

Delta is extremely generous with its rollover plan. You can practically begin rolling over miles after making silver – or your 25,001st medallion mile. For example, if you earned 45 MQMs this year – 20,000 MQM more than the Silver Medallion requirement – the 20,000 MQMs will automatically roll over to next year’s balance. This means for 2010, you will only need to get 5,000 MQM to get Silver Medallion. This is actually a great perk as Delta didn’t devalue its mileage program with the Double/Triple MQM scam (see previous post) – I only earned 1 double MQM from all my trips.

Captain G will go on record to endorse Delta despite the fact that Delta JFK’s customer service should all be overhauled (see previous post).

Following up on my last article, SPG is finally showing free weekend nights awards online at spg.com (you have three more days to earn another free night which can be redeemed before the end of September 30, 2009).

To check your SPG free weekend nights status, login to SPG’s website, select account information, than under Starpoints@ Awards, click “My Earned Award” link.

The My Earned Award page should show you the number of free weekend night awards.  Reminder, they expire end of September and are running out of rooms fast.  Use them or lose them.

Quick update: I just booked a category 5 hotel for labor day weekend.  The process took a little bit since everyone is saving their awards for the last minute august/september travel.  The spg operator has to search date by date for the hotel of choice.  I had the operator search through each weekend in september for numerous hotels until we luckily found one.  Book quick for the higher category hotels.

United is trying to win back more and more customers like us… I just got an email from United telling me that they will be removing the last minute (“close-in”) award processing fees effective July 30, 2009.  The award travel processing fees were $100 if you booked an award ticket within seven days of departure, and $75 for 7 to 21 days prior to departure.

Here’s the link to the official press release:  United Puts the Easy Back Into Using Frequent Flyer Miles, Eliminates Fee

This is United’s attempt to get its customers to use up their miles and so United can clear its balance sheet of people holding onto airline miles.  We should take advantage of this opportunity and burn up some miles.  This new policy does not eliminate the co-pay for upgrade (see previous post).  Delta need to follow suit as they are notorious with award booking fees.