Over the weekend we saw several U.S. airlines make positive moves for elite status members in their programs. The first of them was Delta Airlines who came out with the information on Sunday that they will provide Medallion Elite Status extensions, rollover of MQMs (Medallion Qualifying Miles), Delta Sky Club membership extensions and certificate extensions.
Here are the key points for us Canadians:
- Medallion Members:
- All Medallion Status for 2020 will be automatically extended for the 2021 Medallion Year.
- All Medallion Qualification Miles (MQMs) from 2020 are being rolled over to 2021 to qualify for 2022 Medallion Status.
- Delta Sky Club Individual and Executive memberships with an expiration of March 1, 2020, or later will receive six additional months of Delta Sky Club access beyond their expiration date.
- SkyMiles Members:
- If you have one of the following in your SkyMiles profile “My
Wallet” that is valid now or has expired since March 1, 2020, we are
extending the expiration dates to give you additional time to enjoy your
benefits:
- Upgrade Certificates or $200 Travel Vouchers with an original expiration date between March 1 and June 30, 2020, are extended – now, they can be booked and flown by Dec. 31, 2020. And, SkyMiles Members with Upgrade Certificates or $200 Travel Vouchers that expire after June 30, 2020, will receive an additional six months beyond the current expiration date.
- SkyMiles Select members will receive a six-month extension to the Priority Boarding benefit and any unused drink vouchers.
- If you have one of the following in your SkyMiles profile “My
Wallet” that is valid now or has expired since March 1, 2020, we are
extending the expiration dates to give you additional time to enjoy your
benefits:
Delta Sky Club memberships is their paid lounge access program (see our Guide to Business Class Lounge Access for more details) and this only makes sense to extend as members have paid for this access that they are no longer receiving due to the major drop in travel and most airline lounges being closed. I actually think a 12 month extension would have been better here - if your membership is due to expire on April 30 it will only be extended to October and that, in the best case scenario is when travel will only be starting to return.
It also nice to see the extension of certificates and vouchers but again by putting a December 31 end date on those set to expire by June 30 isn't leaving much of a window for them.
We'll follow up this post with the details from United who have also announced similar news. Here at home WestJet already did something similar a few weeks ago providing extensions to status members whose status was set to expire in March, April or May as well as voucher extensions but we are still waiting to see what Air Canada is planning for its Altitude members.
Learn more about the Delta announcement here.
Image via Delta
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