Delta Choice benefits now include ability to gift Platinum & Diamond status when earning enough MQDs

For many years, Delta has offered the ability for SkyMiles members to earn Choice benefits when attaining Platinum and Diamond status. According to Delta’s website, those Choice benefits max out once you hit $28,000 Medallion Qualification Dollars (MQDs) for Diamond status.

It turns out that’s not the case after all. You do still earn Choice benefits once earning $15,000 and $28,000 MQDs, but Eye of the Flyer has learned that it’s possible to earn additional Choice benefits beyond the $28,000 MQDs level at the $50,000, $75,000 and $100,000 MQDs levels.

As a reminder, here are the standard Choice benefits options at the Platinum and Diamond levels (they can be found on the bottom half of the table):

Delta’s descriptions of elite benefits can be found here. Here's a summarized chart:

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	SILVER	GOLD	PLATINUM	DIAMOND
Miles per dollar earned on paid flights	7	8	9	11
Free domestic upgrades to 1st Class	Begins 24 hours before departure	Begins 72 hours before departure	Begins 120 hours before departure	Begins 120 hours before departure
Free domestic upgrades to Comfort+	24 hours before departure	72 hours before departure	Shortly after ticketing	Shortly after ticketing
CLEAR membership discount price	$159	$159	$159	Free
Dedicated phone line	Priority	High Priority	Higher Priority	VIP Line
Free companion upgrades
Free preferred seat selection
Waived bag fees
Waived same day confirmed or standby change fees
Sky Priority boarding
Sky Priority expedited checked bags
Sky Team lounge access on international flights
Hertz elite status	Five Star	Five Star	President's Circle	President's Circle
Waived change & cancellation fees regardless of route
Choice Benefits			Choose 1:	Choose 3:
Upgrade certificates			4 Regional	4 Global (or 8 Regional or 2 Global & 4 Regional)
Statement Credits (for Delta Platinum and Reserve Cardholders)			$400	$700
Starbucks® Rewards Stars			6,000 Stars	6,000 Stars
Delta Sky Club® Individual Membership			N/A	Requires 2 Choices
Delta Sky Club® Executive Membership			N/A	Requires 3 Choices
MQD Accelerator			$1,000 MQDs	$2,000 MQDs
Gift medallion status			2 Silver	2 Gold
Bonus miles			30K	35K
Delta Vacations Flight + Hotel Cert			$400	$500
Sustainable Aviation Fuel Contribution			$250	$250
Delta Travel Voucher			$300	$350
Wheels up flight credit			$1,500	$2,000

The elite benefits Greg has found to be most valuable are:

• Unlimited complimentary upgrades (when available, upgrade from coach to first class on domestic flights). Higher status leads to better chance of upgrades.
• Waived same-day confirmed fees and waived same-day standby fees (switch to different flight on same day as ticketed flight). Requires Gold or higher. Info about getting value from same day changes can be found here: Leveraging Delta’s Same Day Flight Changes.
• Complementary Preferred seat selection (choose exit row seats with lots of legroom)
• Complementary Comfort+ Seats (more leg room, free drinks, better snacks).
• Regional upgrade certificates. While these rarely confirm before the flight, waitlisting a regional upgrade puts you to the front of the line for upgrading at the gate. This is great to use for flights where upgrades are most important to you. For example, I use these for flights of about 3 hours or longer. This is a choice benefit for Platinum and Diamond status. Upgrade certificates can be applied to both paid and award tickets.
• Global upgrade certificates. Use these to upgrade from economy to Premium Select, or from Premium Select to business class on any flight when upgrade space is available. When you upgrade from economy to Premium Select, Delta will put you on the business class (Delta One) upgrade list 24 hours before your flight. This is a choice benefit for Diamond status only. Upgrade certificates can be applied to both paid and award tickets.
• Free award changes and cancellations. This used to be huge, but now all awards originating in North America are free to change or cancel for all members. With Platinum and Diamond status, that benefit extends to flights originating elsewhere. Requires Platinum or higher for free changes on awards originating outside of North America.
• Statement Credits (for Delta Platinum and Reserve Cardholders). Getting $700 cash back as a Diamond Choice Benefit is a really nice reward!

For those subsequently earning $50,000, $75,000 and $100,000 MQDs, you can pick one additional Choice benefit at each level from the following list:

• 4 Regional Upgrade Certificates (RUCs)
• 2 Global Upgrade Certificates (GUCs)
• $5,000 MQD Accelerator at the start of the next qualification year (i.e. at the time of publishing, this would be awarded at the start of 2026 for the 2027 Medallion year)
• 50,000 bonus SkyMiles (these can be credited to your own account or gifted/donated)
• Platinum status to gift to 2 other SkyMiles members
• Diamond status to gift to 1 other SkyMiles member (this can only be selected if you reach $100,000 MQDs)

Those are the Choice benefits as part of Delta’s published list, However, here’s a list of the “secret” Choice benefits available at the $50,000, $75,000 and $100,000 MQDs levels; you can select one benefit at each level:

• 4 Regional Upgrade Certificates (RUCs)
• 2 Global Upgrade Certificates (GUCs)
• $5,000 MQD Accelerator at the start of the next qualification year (i.e. at the time of publishing, this would be awarded at the start of 2026 for the 2027 Medallion year)
• 50,000 bonus SkyMiles (these can be credited to your own account or gifted/donated)
• Platinum status to gift to 2 other SkyMiles members
• Diamond status to gift to 1 other SkyMiles member (this can only be selected if you reach $100,000 MQDs)

Having the ability to gift Platinum status to two other people is awesome, as is the ability to gift Diamond status to another SkyMiles member if you hit $100,000 MQDs. However, there’s a pretty significant caveat to all this.

That’s because reaching those thresholds will require a lot of spend. Needless to say, earning $50,000, $75,000 or $100,000 MQDs organically would require both a significant amount of monetary outlay and time spent in the air on Delta flights, so only the most hardened road warriors could expect to achieve it through those means.

The alternative is to spend your way to those Choice benefits via credit card spend. As a reminder, you earn 1 MQD for every $20 spent on Delta Platinum credit cards and 1 MQD for every $10 spent on Delta Reserve credit cards. To get from $28,000 to $50,000 MQDs, you’d therefore have to spend $440,000 on a Delta Platinum card or $220,000 on a Delta Reserve card. For the additional $25,000 MQD increments to attain $75,000 and $100,000 MQDs, you’d have to spend $500,000 to reach each next threshold on a Delta Platinum card or $250,000 on a Delta Reserve card.

All that means that the cumulative spend to get from $28,000 MQDs to $100,000 MQDs is $1,440,000 on a Delta Platinum or $720,000 on a Delta Reserve. Those are eye-wateringly high spending requirements, especially considering the opportunity cost of much of that spend only earning 1 SkyMile per dollar.

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