Northwest and Delta Offer Qualifying Mile Bonus For Higher Fares Only

Northwest (register here) and Delta (register here) have jumped on the Double Elite Qualifying Miles bandwagon started by American and followed soon thereafter by United and Continental.

Like American and United — and unlike Continental — the offer applies only to tickets both purchased and flown during the promo period. So tickets bought last week, for instance, won’t count.

And unlike the other airline offers, this one exludes the least expensive fares from earning double qualifying miles. Specifically, Delta L, U, and T fares and a shifting set of Northwest fares based on region of travel — read the terms and conditions! — are ineligible.

Meanwhile, they promote the offer as ‘up to triple qualifying miles’ which is somewhat disingenous, since that applies to the highest fares that generally earn a qualifying mile bonus anyway.. they’re just saying that the base and miles miles on such fares are doubled. For a large portion of customers this is a non-promo. But if you fly last minute tickets and/or premium class fares, it’s worth registering…

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Delta is being pretty smart about this. I mean, it’s bad for people like me fond of exploiting the current economic weakness by buying dirt cheap int’l fares, but this move makes business SENSE. Flying 10,000 miles to Moscow for $250 roundtrip should NOT earn you 20,000 elite miles.

    Of course, if everybody was so smart in closing loopholes, this ff game would be a lot less fun. 🙂

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