How to Earn Miles

Earning Miles with Exception Fares
Certain types of tickets purchased through an agent, third party or part of a package, where the airfare price is frequently not shown when purchasing the ticket, are known as exception fares. Exception fares earn miles and Medallion Qualifying Dollars (MQDs) in a different way.

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What Is an Exception Fare?

These unpublished fares come from travel agents, vacation packages or other third parties. You still earn miles and MQDs with exception fares, just a little differently. Instead of earning based on ticket price (the way you earn with published fares), with exception fares you earn miles and MQDs based on distance flown and fare class paid, excluding Basic Economy.

EXCEPTION FARES MAY INCLUDE

  • Cruise fares
  • Bulk fares
  • Consolidator fares
  • Vacation packages (not including packages with Delta Vacations®*)
  • Discounted or inclusive tour packages
  • Tickets where the ticket price is not disclosed (this does not necessarily include flights purchased from priceline.com, hotwire.com, expedia.com, travelocity.com, orbitz.com, or cheaptickets.com where the carrier is not disclosed before purchase)

*Beginning January 1, 2024.

How You Earn Miles on Exception Fares (Through 12/31/23)
You earn miles on exception fares based on a percentage of the distance flown* on your flight. The percentage is determined by the fare class of your ticket (excluding Basic Economy). Until December 31, 2023, this may include packages with Delta Vacations.

Use the following chart to see how many miles you’ll earn according to the exception fare rules. For example, if you are on a First Class ticket with a “Z” fare class and fly a distance of 1,000 miles, you would earn 1,500 “redeemable” miles to your SkyMiles account balance.

Exception Fare Class (Delta 006 Ticketed Only)

Delta One®/First Class/Delta Premium Select - J, C, D, I, Z, F, P, A, G

Full Fare Main Cabin/ Delta Comfort+® - Y, B, M, W, S

Main Cabin and Discounted Main Cabin - H, Q, K, L

Deeply Discounted Main Cabin - U, T, X, V

Basic Economy – E

Miles*

150%

100%

75%

50%

N/A

*Miles based on a percentage of distance flown. For purposes of mileage credit, “distance flown” means the calculated distance between origin and destination, as determined by Delta in its sole discretion, regardless of the actual distance traveled on any individual flight.

How You Earn Toward Medallion Status on Exception Fares (Through 12/31/23)

To earn toward Medallion Status with exception fares, excluding Basic Economy, one-fifth of the miles earned will count as Medallion Qualification Dollars (MQDs – U.S.-based Members only). For example, if you earn 1,500 “redeemable” miles on an exception fare, you would also earn 300 MQDs on that fare.

Medallion Qualification Miles (MQMs) and Medallion Qualification Segments (MQSs) are earned the same way you earn on regular tickets.

How You Earn Miles & MQDs on Exception Fares (Beginning 1/1/24)

Beginning January 1, 2024, you’ll earn miles and MQDs on exception fares based on a percentage of the distance flown* on your flight (except for Delta Vacations, which is explained below). The percentage is determined by the fare class of your ticket (excluding Basic Economy).

Use the following chart to see how many miles and MQDs you’ll earn according to the exception fare rules. For example, if you are on a Comfort+ ticket and fly a distance of 2,500 miles, you would earn 2,500 miles and $500 MQDs.



Exception Fare Class (Delta 006 Ticketed Only)

Delta One®/First Class - J

Discounted Delta One®/First Class – C, D, I, Z

Delta Premium Select – P, A, G

Full Fare Main Cabin/ Delta Comfort+® - Y, B, M, W, S

Main Cabin - H, Q, K, L

Discounted Main Cabin - U, T

Deeply Discounted Main Cabin - X, V

Basic Economy - E

Miles*

150%

150%

150%

100%

75%

50%

50%

N/A

MQDs

40%

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

N/A

*Miles and MQDs earned are based on a percentage of distance flown. For purposes of mileage and MQD credit, “distance flown” means the calculated distance between origin and destination, as determined by Delta in its sole discretion, regardless of the actual distance traveled on any individual flight.

How You Earn Toward Medallion Status on DLV Packages with Exception Fares (Beginning 1/1/24)

Beginning January 1, 2024, you can earn $1 MQD per $1 spent on the Total Package Price** for every completed Delta Vacations package when booked through Delta Vacations directly. All passengers listed on the Delta Vacations booking will earn MQDs on the flight portion of the package, which is determined through the Exception Fares calculation, based on a percentage of the distance flown* on your flight.

If the Delta Vacations package includes a flight component (whether such fare is an exception fare or not), the MQDs earned by each passenger in the Delta Vacations booking will be as follows:

  1. Option #1: If the sum of all passengers’ Exception Fares (as determined by the chart below) is greater than or equal to the Total Package Price**, then the number of flight MQDs earned by each passenger = (Total Package Price/total # of passengers on the booking itinerary).
  2. Option #2: If the sum of all passengers’ Exception Fares (as determined by the chart below) is less than the Total Package Price**, then the number of flight MQDs earned by each passenger = MQD’s for such passenger’s flight calculated using the Exception Fare policy.

Exception Fare Class (Delta 006 Ticketed Only)

Delta One®/First Class - J

Discounted Delta One®/First Class – C, D, I, Z

Delta Premium Select – P, A, G

Full Fare Main Cabin/ Delta Comfort+® - Y, B, M, W, S

Main Cabin - H, Q, K, L

Discounted Main Cabin - U, T

Deeply Discounted Main Cabin - X, V

Basic Economy - E

MQDs

40%

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

N/A



In addition to the flight portion of the MQDs, the lead booker will also earn MQDs on the non-flight portion of the package. Learn more.

* MQDs earned are based on a percentage of distance flown. For purposes of MQD credit, “distance flown” means the calculated distance between origin and destination, as determined by Delta in its sole discretion, regardless of the actual distance traveled on any individual flight.

More Miles for Medallion Members on Exception Fares
  • Medallion Members earn a bonus percentage on top of the miles initially earned from an exception fare.
  • The bonus percentage amount is based on your Medallion Tier shown in the following chart.
  • For example, if a Diamond Medallion Member flew a distance of 1,000 miles in “Z” class and therefore earned 1,500 miles on that exception fare, they would receive an additional 120% Medallion mileage bonus on top of the 1,500 miles earned — an extra 1,800 miles. In this scenario, the Diamond Medallion Member would earn a total of 3,300 miles.
  • There is no bonus percentage of MQDs based on Medallion Member status.

Medallion Status

Diamond

Platinum

Gold

Silver

Miles*

120% of miles awarded

80% of miles awarded

60% of miles awarded

40% of miles awarded


Learn more about Medallion Status and MQDs.
**“Total Package Price” means the total value of the package in USD or equivalent foreign currency spent on Eligible Flights, base hotel rental rate, base car rental rate, but excluding taxes, fees, insurance, room service, other booking charges, amounts paid directly to the hotel, car or activity provider, or any element of the booking which is paid or reduced by vouchers or discount codes. “Eligible Flights” means Delta-marketed flights in Main Cabin or above (flight numbers that include the “DL” airline code), flights marketed by Core Global Airline Partners that have a Delta ticket number (ticket number beginning with “006”) and SkyTeam-marketed flights operated by a SkyTeam member airline that have a Delta ticket number (ticket number beginning with “006”), in each case which is booked through the Delta Vacations direct channel. Eligible Flights expressly excludes flights marketed by airlines that are not Delta Core Global Airline partners or SkyTeam members. Qualifying car rental bookings include rentals at a participating location for one or more days at rates other than travel industry rates or discounts, wholesale of tour package rates or discounts, wholesale tour package rates, insurance/dealer replacement rates, corporate and government rates, group travel discounts, or rentals in conjunction with a frequent flyer car award, or other corporate agreements applicable to the respective car company.