Check Your Miles: Delta’s Miscalculation That Almost Made Me Lose My Diamond Medalist Status

Last week I flew from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Copenhagen Airport (CPH) on Delta Airlines.

The trip isn’t a mile run – I’m meeting my cousin and a friend for a short ride – but I need Medallion-Qualifying Dollars to keep Diamond medal status. After taking this flight and factoring in another year-end travel, I’ll be just over 15,200 MQD for the year.

However, a miscalculation in Delta’s system caused me to shorten 273 MQDs. If the mistake goes unnoticed, I will pay the price for my position in 2023.

See, when I landed back in New York, Delta credited my account with 593 MQD even though my ticket cost about $954. I don’t expect to earn MQD on all of that spending – MQD is earned only on the base fare of the ticket and carrier-imposed surcharges, commonly known as “YRs” – but what do I know? that happened.

I checked an elite status tracking spreadsheet I maintain and quickly confirmed that I should have received 866 MQDs for my JFK-CPH-JFK journey. According to my receipt, the ticket has a base fare of $266 and a $600 carrier-imposed surcharge. This brings me to my missing 273 MQD. In return, I also only lacked more than 3,000 SkyMiles as well as my redeemable mileage earnings calculated on the incorrect $593 base fare plus carrier-imposed surcharges.

Thankfully, this story has a happy ending. I called the Diamond Medallion line and explained the situation to the agent. He called SkyMiles, they found his mistake and the agent told me they would recalculate earnings with the correct fare and surcharges.

About an hour later, my account was properly credited with 866 MQDs and 9,526 redeemable miles, worth about $134 each Valuation of TPG.

If I hadn’t noticed this error, I could have lost my Diamonds benefits because of a simple error in Delta’s system. Or, I’ll have to panic book a flight after finishing my flight home for the holidays and realize I don’t qualify for my status. Needless to say, it won’t be a cheap (or fun) endeavor right after the holiday.

Related: Quick Point: How and Why You Should Regularly Check Your Loyalty Accounts

Use my experience as a reminder to always check your loyalty account after you fly. Then recalculate your earnings and make sure you got the right redeemable miles and elite stats. Otherwise, you can leave mileage and elite status on the table.

I also encourage you to build a spreadsheet that records your flights throughout the year. I add all of my flights to this spreadsheet when I book, along with Medallion Miles, MQDs, and redeemable SkyMiles earnings. Then I have a running number that adds them all up and adds them to my existing MQD balance. This helps me plan and check my account quickly as I move throughout the year, and it helps me see how close I am to the next elite level of status.