Delta SkyMiles

Back in 2021, Delta made a positive update to its Million Miler elite status program by giving flyers the chance to lock in its top-tier SkyMiles Diamond Medallion status for life (albeit for the life of the program, not the life of the traveler) and that was a surprisingly positive move for Delta to make. But how do you earn lifetime Diamond Medallion status?

Delta and Starbucks have announced a new partnership that allows customers with SkyMiles and Starbucks accounts to earn miles and stars when they buy their morning coffee and when they fly.

In the miles & points world, it's often a bad sign when you read of a loyalty program saying that it is "enhancing" benefits as no one running any of the major loyalty programs appears to know what that word means.

Delta has launched a new promotion with which it's giving flyers the opportunity to fast-track their way to Medallion status through bonus Medallion Qualification Miles, Medallion Qualification Segments, and Medallion Qualification Dollars. Also, rather amazingly, Delta is also offering elite status credits for award bookings.

With air travel still potentially months away from showing any real signs of recovery, Delta has announced that it will be extending the validity of all existing upgrade certificates and that it will be offering an amnesty to Medallion members whose certificates had recently expired. In further good news, Delta flyers now also have more ways in which to use their upgrade certificates

It's not like Delta isn't known for devaluing its currency as frequently as possible, but at a time when the airline industry claims to be on its knees and very few people are flying out of choice, Delta's decision to quietly increase the cost of partner awards by 25% (and more) is very hard to understand.

Delta Platinum and Medallion members have long been able to change award bookings without incurring a penalty but now, with immediate effect, everyone else can feel a little bit more like an elite flyer with Delta after the airline announced that change fees on domestic award bookings are now (mostly) a thing of the past.

At the beginning of April, Delta was the first of the major US carriers to announce status extensions and, among other things, extensions to select benefits offered by the Delta SkyMiles credit cards issued by American Express. Now, with the travel crisis not looking like it's going to get better any time soon, Delta has announced a second round of extensions to select benefits that accompany its co-branded credit cards.

Delta has broken ranked with the other major US airlines and announced that it is extending Medallion status, Club memberships, and various other benefits for periods of between 6 months and a year.

American Express has been offering a cashback + bonus miles sign-up deal on two of its co-branded Delta credit cards over the past few weeks and, with under 48 hours to go before the offer expires, I thought I’d highlight the options that are currently available for anyone who may not have seen them.