Canarsie

To assist those SkyMiles members who want to reach a certain Medallion level next year, I pose the following challenge to all Delta FlyerTalkers:

What is the maximum number of Medallion Qualification Miles one can accrue towards Medallion status for next year?

The best fare I have found is $613.50 round-trip for an A-class (First Class) fare between Atlanta and Orange County airport in California. At an official distance of 1,919 miles each way (according to Delta Air Lines), that means one can earn a total of 7,676 Medallion Qualification Miles for $613.50.

That is a cost of 8¢ (or, to be more precise, US$.0799244) per Medallion Qualification Mile.

For the record, I am still weighing my options as to whether it is worth it for me.

I challenge other Delta FlyerTalk members to find a less-expensive Medallion Qualification Mile. Who knows — it may assist someone to achieve Medallion status for next year (whether one thinks it is worth the effort and expense) who otherwise may not have been able to do so.

Go ahead. I dare you.

Dovster

Alitalia TLV-FCO-ORD and return, deeply discounted fare. 6241 MQM's, cost $495. Price per MQM: US $.0793142

Edited to meet the new rule:

The info came from a promotional e-mail sent to me by Alitalia on Sept 17. The tickets must be bought by Oct 31 and travel must be between Nov 1 and Feb 29. It requires a 6/21 day stay and allows stopovers in FCO or MXP.

I do not know if the same price holds true in the other direction (starting in ORD).

Similar offers are being made from TLV to JFK/BOS, Toronto ($599) and MIA ($649).



[This message has been edited by Dovster (edited 10-07-2003).]

Cholula

Canarsie...I always enjoy a challenge so I found a K fare from BOS/HNL/BOS. Cost of ticket is $784.81, 10,190 MQM's for a cost per MQM of .0770176. Beats your example by a little but I'm sure someone will be able to improve on my submission.
I predict that fbgdavidson will post next...

(oooops...wrong thread.... )


Edited to comply with Canarsie's rule update. I got my information off DL's website, chose Coach-Discounted Fares, and I entered dates from 10/28/03-11/7/03.
Also, I'd like to congratulate Canarsie on starting this thread. Maximizing points and miles is really the true purpose of FT...even though we sometimes get sidetracked on other critical topics like smoked fish, hot sauce and airiline blankets.




[This message has been edited by Cholula (edited 10-07-2003).]

Canarsie

Cholula, who never fails to not disappoint in any post which he contributes, was shamelessly referring to this thread, to which I have the audacity to post an incredibly shameless link.

I am glad Dovster and Cholula have already out-MQMed me in terms of cost, but I should have added one more requirement to simplify searching for the aforementioned fares:

Please be more descriptive about the fare you found and state the source of your information.

My source was directly from the Delta Air Lines Internet web site using the Coach (Flexible) option and was good for virtually any date.

sammy343

I flew in September from PVD to NRT on a Continental B class fare (purchased from Continental.com), which gets 1 MQM per mile flown. The cost was $786.09 for 14,464 MQM (1000 PVD-EWR and back, 13464 EWR-NRT and back), which I worked out to be $.05435 per MQM.

Going to Continental.com today, they offer that B class fare from PVD-NRT Nov 5-11 for $814.82, which would work out to $.05633 per MQM.

Delta's price is $817.82 or so for L class Nov 5-11 (from delta.com), so I went for the MQMs and would have again.

It's a long way to go for MQMs though.


[This message has been edited by sammy343 (edited 10-07-2003).]

Donna D

I found a similar fare from ATL-SFO for November that I considered taking for a mileage run to maintain my status but of course, when I tacked on the cost of getting between ATL-MCO, it became too ridiculous. I randomly checked dates in November [after airtran starts its atl-sfo flights] and I believe the fare was $612. It was also FC - thereby resulting in 8,556 MQMs.

For anyone including a trip from MCO-FLL in their plans - last I checked [yesterday] you could pay $4 more on the r/t fare to bump the fare class from H to M and get 1.5XMQMs rather than 1XMQMs. That's an extra 500 MQMs for $4. Unfortunately, I did not discover this until I had taken that flight many times this year ... oh well.

I think Delta would be happier if we searched for the HIGHEST MQM fares .... in planning my upcoming trip to south florida I checked the fares to Miami. MCO-MIA at over two weeks out, H fare is lowest fare available at $438.50 [that fare had been around $375 - they must have just raised it] ... , for a mere $.4385 per MQM :-) for flying on a RJ.

Yup, that MQM system of rewarding higher paying customers works just great!

cygnus

Well, I think I can beat the previous posters.
Recently flew Korean Airlines in S class, round-trip FRA-ICN-SYD, cost of the ticket was EUR 1050 (about $905), for a total of 31612 MQMs and 42148 sky miles (I am GM) . This comes out to 0.029 dollar cents per MQM.

Ironically, for EUR 950 you would get a KE Q class ticket which does not accrue ANY miles or MQMs, so in some sense I only paid EUR 100 for 42000 sky miles :-)

[edited to add that the above computation is wrong, see posts below for a correction of my embarrassing mistake; correct numbers are $1230 for the flight, and 0.038dollar cents/MQM]

[This message has been edited by cygnus (edited 10-07-2003).]

misty1tk

Found a K fare from TPA to ANC for $511. With the right connections it is worth about 8400 MQMs.

Diver90

Roundtrip - ATL - HNL - ATL

J Fare for $1254

18008 MQM

$.06968 per MQM

Diver90

A bit of a tweak

1050 EUR = $1228.50 (@ 1.17)

Still thats $.03886 per MQM

cygnus

outch!

I knew that number was too good to be true. I guess 7pm here in Europe is too late to make even the most trivial computations.

(blushes and sits silently weeping in the corner).

Cygnus

NHFL9

In July EWR-SLC-HNL-SLC-EWR for $550 K fare. $0.055 per MQM

Richard1148

DonnaD - If you don't mind flying Song, the best I found from Orlando is a B fare MCO to LAX round trip at $506.50 for 6,648 MQMs (.076). You can actually fly out in the morning and back on the same plane an hour later to do it all in a day if you want.

Dovster

According to Alitalia's USA website, you can fly JFK-FCO r/t for $262 all winter (except Christmas week). That is 4278 MQM's or 0.062646 per mile.

BUT, if you want the best possible deal, find a friend with an Amex who is planning to fly Bus Class to Italy. Then have him put your ticket on it as well. Your cost: $99. Total MQM's: 17,108. Price per mile: 0.0057867 per mile!

Of course, if you are an attractive female and if your friend is a Dirty Old Man such as myself, you might find that the price is much higher.

empedocles

For the cheapskates (like me), the best I've got so far is a $240 run on CO: CMH-EWR-LAX and back.

5,918 miles, 2,959 MQM's, $0.0811 per MQM.

I'm sure I can do better with more digging.

=============
Forgot the source & dates:
Expedia Fare Calendar, Nov 1-2.

[This message has been edited by empedocles (edited 10-07-2003).]