SkyMiles

Elite tiers

Gold confers SkyTeam Elite Plus — the lowest tier in this programme with alliance-wide lounge access. Alliance mapping last verified 12 July 2026. Conditions beyond the threshold: Four US-issued Delta American Express products grant an MQD Headstart — a credit against the single annual counter, so it counts toward every tier, granted per card type (not modelled).. Compare lounge access across programmes →

Qualifies on MQDs (spend-based, ≈ revenue). The counter is a calendar year and resets to zero on 1 January; status earned in a year runs to 31 January of the year after next. The MQD Headstart is a credit against that single annual counter, so it counts toward every tier rather than only the upper ones: it comes with four named US-issued American Express products (Delta SkyMiles Platinum and Reserve, personal and business), and is granted per card type rather than per card held. Main Basic (Basic Economy) earns NO MQDs: the asterisk on Delta's own $1-MQD rule states that Main Basic tickets are not eligible for earning miles OR credit toward Medallion and Million Miler Status, and MQD is the sole Medallion currency (read 31 Aug 2026) — the opposite of United, whose Basic fares earn full PQP. The zero is encoded against the FARE PRODUCT ('Main Basic', selectable on booking class E), not against a bare letter: E is doubly attested as Basic's letter (Delta's own fare card and Flying Blue's chart) but from a single fare card, and the week's Saudia finding is that letters do not identify fare products — an E ticket with no product selected still computes at the published $1 rule.

Earning reference

Status matches into SkyMiles

SkyMiles status matches out