Back in the summer, as it became imminently clear that I would be relocating to Atlanta, I procured a Platinum Delta SkyMiles Card from American Express. One of the benefits of this card is a 10,000 Medallion Qualification Mile (MQM) boost for $25,000 dollars in spending during a calendar year. I just got my last statement for 2012, and as of 12/24, I am a mere $2,500 dollars short of $25,000 dollars in spending for 2012.
Seeing that I only had the card for 5 months during 2012, that is a pretty big amount of spend for me in such a short amount of time. Of course, I put a lot of our move expenses on the card, and there are just a lot of little expenses that add up when you relocate to a new home that might not be directly related to the move itself. Frankly, I was surprised when I saw how close I was to the MQM boost. Then I began to reflect on the last 5 months, and what I could have done differently. I could have put a little less spend on my Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa. Simply making the final payment for our European cruise with the SkyMiles Amex instead of my Sapphire Preferred Visa would have meant I would not even be writing this blog post. I’d have the extra MQMs in the bag. But I would have also missed out on a big pile of Ultimate Rewards points since I was getting 2 of those per dollar for our cruise. And it was some of those Ultimate Rewards that enabled me to do this.
In any event, I have a decision to make. Do I go out and spend $2,500 dollars in the next few days, or do I let the 10,000 MQM boost go? Don’t hate me, but I’ve decided to let them go, and here is why.
- 10,000 MQMs will not push me from Silver to Gold Medallion. Granted, I could roll them over to next year, and be that much closer to status for 2014, but I’m likely to fly enough to promote myself up the elite status levels anyway. If I don’t, oh well. If I were less than 10,000 MQMs from Platinum, or even Gold, I would go for it. I’m not.
- One of my very top rules for the road is that I will not spend money I would not otherwise spend just for the sake of earning miles. If I went out and spent the $2,500 just to get these 10,000 MQMs to be rolled over to next year, that is exactly what I would be doing. Yes, I realize that may make me sound foolish to some, but I am what I am, and I don’t begrudge you if you feel differently.
- Finally, I don’t have any degree of clarity on what SkyMiles will look like in the future. I am absolutely convinced that Delta wants to remake mileage programs and that SkyMiles is going to change to what I expect will be a “revenue based” mileage program. As you know, I don’t look upon this with the same sense of trepidation that others do, but I know it will be different. While any possible changes are not very likely to impact 2013, I don’t know that for sure. Will the Medallion program look essentially the same? Will the only changes be in the way redeemable miles are earned and burned? Don’t know. I expect that’s the case, but only time will tell. In any event, I’m just not feeling compelled to run out and front load $2,500 bucks of spend right now, especially after all the holiday expenses that many of us have incurred this month.
Now, I know that one option is to go out and buy $2,500 dollars in gift cards or load a pre-paid card of some sort. Maybe I’m just a little too beaten down by holiday spending or perhaps its because I just paid the bill from our Mediterranean cruise, but I’m just not feeling the need for these MQMs enough to go out and do that right now. Am I wrong about this? Really dumb? Or really in touch with my finances? What would you do? Feel free to disagree with my take on this. Just be nice. 
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MJ – one $3k AMEX gift card and take your time to spend it. Simple & done and you will next year, when you are wishing you had the MQM’s, be kicking yourself!
Use it to prepay your cell phone bill … That’s how I meet those first time spending thresholds
buy gift card. u are wasting the 22500 spent u have already. the roll over will carry.
Agreed, buy 5 VRs and be done w it.
I agree with you, do not spend it on things that you would not spend anyways.
On the other hand, if you are able to prepay some expenses, then definitely do it. Auto insurance, cell phones, TV services, home owners association fees…etc. are some examples that you can prepay.
Plus, if you have Blue Bird Amex, it is insane not to do it. Just buy the VR cards. That is IF you have Amex BB and play that game.
Good luck!
Gift cards!
I don’t have Blue Bird, but have been studying it. I’m not above thinking that this could be the best excuse ever to get started with that. I could get the VR cards now, and deal with procuring the BB after 1/1.
Exactly what the others said. Don’t spend more than you would have, just shift spend.
As others have said, you’d be crazy not to do the last 2,500. What were you thinking spending 22,500 on this card if you didn’t value the 10k bonus that highly. Surely, there would have been a better card to put the spend on. (Sapphire to start..)
@BDA clearly, I wasn’t thinking. I honestly had no idea I was as close to 25K as I was until I saw it on the last statement.
Great comments here. Really appreciate the thoughts.
You could send a $2500 payment to your friend thru paypal, have the friend hold on to the money til after your statement closes and then have your friend refund the paypal payment back to your card and you will get a $2500 credit to your card. Done.
MJ, Shift some of next year’s spending to this week and get the bonus. You have MQM rollover as Delta Silver. If you don’t claim them now you would really be sorry to be <10K short of a goal at the end of 2013. Plus, those miles are spendable. If I could get another 10K miles for free, I certainly would.
You are just tired from a year of travel and the bustle of Christmas. Take a quick nap, then get back in the game!
DO IT!
VR and GreenDot cards shouldn’t be too hard to find at ATL-area CVS locations right now. 3 trips this weekend ($1k on two VRs twice and $500 once), and you’re done. Load them on a BB that you get in January. Use the BB to pay rent or mortgage or the balance on a different credit card that you would have paid anyway.
Go for it. Come to the dark side of BB, Marshall, you know you want to.
Better to do a little work and not have needed the miles then be kicking yourself for not having them.
10k is a lot of miles to roll over and gold status was not easy for me attain, so I say do a prepaid card and pay a bill. Then it’s $10k MQMs for about $20 – totally worthwhile.
Never, ever regret decisions that you felt were right at the time. Hindsight may be 20/20, but if you could reliably see the future you wouldn’t be blogging about travel and suchlike…
Given how hard it is to acquire MQMs without actually flying, I’d consider it an investment. Even if SkyMiles is changed to revenue-based, the chances are mighty durn slim that those 10k MQMs would become valueless. Prepay some bills, buy some cards, however you do it, but I think it’s worth it to reach the threshold as long as it doesn’t overtax your finances.
Buy MQMs from Delta and/or a SkyClub membership (bonus mqms for that) so you’ll hit GM. Big step up at GM with 100% mileage bonus, free same day confirmed changes, and free economy comfort at booking. UG’s out of ATL will still be tough, but the free changes and economy comfort are a big help.plus you’ll get priority security.
Post#7 BB is worth having. how else can you pay your mortgage cheaply and earn miles?
Wow! What great comments. It’s obvious that this is one of those things that stirs up some ideas. One idea is that it is time for me to step up my game. So luck for a future post. In the meantime, MrsMJonTravel read this post and all your comments and told me I was crazy if I didn’t do something. So yours truly paid a visit to the local CVS today…well, 2 CVS’ and procured something flavored in Vanilla. Details to follow.
[...] yesterday’s post struck a nerve, a positive one. I got a lot of great comments on my little dilemma about being so [...]
[...] on. I was very close to $25,000 dollars in annual spending and a 10,000 MQM boost. I even wrote a blog post about my little dilemma. And then a confluence of events, self-inflicted and otherwise came [...]