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![What Is the Value of Delta Silver Medallion Status? [2023]](https://upgradedpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/delta-premium-select-lean-back-wide-shot.jpg?auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=1420&height=650&fit=crop)
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Delta Silver Medallion status is the lowest of the SkyMiles Medallion elite status tiers. Delta offers Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond Medallion, and Silver Medallion provides entry-level benefits to the basic frequent traveler.
Most Delta elites are Silver Medallion, with fewer and fewer people achieving the upward ranks. Because of this, it’s important to look at the Silver Medallion benefits and help to place a value on each perk — that way you better understand if you should fly more to earn this beginner level and how you should value higher tiers.
In this post, you’ll find out what Silver Medallion is and how you can earn it, as well as what each of the Silver Medallion benefits is and its value.
Update:MQMs are used to determine Medallion Status and are different from the miles you earn towards flights. Effective 1/1/24, this benefit will no longer be available, and there will be a new way to earn toward Medallion Status with the Card. Learn more at delta.com/skymilesprogramchanges.
Silver Medallion is by far the easiest rank to earn and is very achievable with even just a little bit of flying.
To earn Silver Medallion status, you must fly at least 25,000 miles or 30 segments. For example, a flight from Atlanta (ATL) to Salt Lake City (SLC) to Los Angeles (LAX) is 2 segments.
In addition to miles, Silver Medallion status requires $3,000 spent with Delta, or you can receive a waiver for spending $25,000 on eligible purchases on an American Express co-branded credit card.
For even the most infrequent of business flyers, flying 25,000 miles and spending $3,000 isn’t too terribly difficult.
Each Medallion tier progressively earns more miles based on the fare of your ticket. In a Silver Medallion’s case, they earn 7 miles per dollar spent on flights, which is 2 more miles compared to the non-status SkyMiles earning rate.
This means that a ticket that is $100, excluding taxes and fees, would earn 700 miles. Assuming one spends the required $3,000 per year to earn Silver, that’s a minimum of 21,000 miles — nearly enough for a one-way first class ticket at a low mileage rate, or a round-trip coach ticket at a low mileage rate.
Because Delta uses a dynamic pricing system, it’s tough to specifically place a value on each mile earned, but for the most part, you can expect at least a one-way journey to be earned.
One of the most coveted benefits of being a Medallion member is the opportunity to receive unlimited complimentary upgrades to Delta first class or Delta One within the U.S. and nearby international destinations.
Silver Medallions are eligible for upgrades beginning 24 hours from the flight, so they’re the last to be upgraded after Diamond, Platinum, and Gold Medallions.
You can receive upgrades on all paid tickets, with the exception of E fares (basic economy), all award tickets, Miles + Cash tickets (when you use a combination of cash and miles to cover the total of a ticket), and Pay with Miles tickets (when you use miles to cover the cash cost of a ticket).
Depending on the upgrade, you can be moved up at different times:
You cannot receive a complimentary upgrade to Delta Premium Select or Delta One products outside of the U.S.
Here’s how Delta prioritizes upgrades:
Using this logic, here are a few common upgrade scenarios:
While Silver Medallions will be at the bottom for upgrades, they can possibly receive a seat up front, especially on not-so-popular routes, and less preferred times of the week.
Some simple tips for increasing your odds of receiving an upgrade are:
In general, it can be harder to secure an upgrade on Delta than on other airlines. Since every elite is eligible for an upgrade, every Silver Medallion member is vying for the same upgrades, resulting in much more competition for desirable seats.
Hot Tip: You should also be aware that Delta prices its first class cabins very competitively, and in many cases, the price difference between its economy class and first class product may be only a few dollars.
One of the more expensive costs of travel is checked bag fees. As a Silver Medallion, you will get your first checked bag free “when traveling on a Delta or airline partner flight,” according to Delta.
This is good for yourself and up to 8 travel companions, which can be significant savings depending on where you’re traveling to. This is good for all flights, both domestic and internationally.
Your carry-on luggage is free, but a first checked bag under 50 pounds on Delta is $30 and a second checked bag will cost you $40.
So, for a group of 8 people traveling, that’s a $240 cost to check 8 bags when a Silver Medallion can get these for free.
Baggage should be among the first to come out as these bags are tagged with a special tag at check-in to indicate to the ground handlers that the bags should take priority.
Delta generally does a good job of getting these bags out on time. Also, Delta offers a 20-minute bag guarantee where you can earn 2,500 SkyMiles as a form of compensation if your bag isn’t on the claim belt within 20 minutes of the plane touching the ground.
Hot Tip: If you’re looking for more information about baggage fees, explore our in-depth guide on Delta’s baggage fees.
When you’re at the airport, you’ll have access to dedicated priority queues to help check you in faster.
It all depends on the type of airport you’re in:
CLEAR is a program that allows you to speed through the ID and boarding pass verification process before entering the metal detectors at U.S. airports.
Essentially, instead of standing in line to present your ID and boarding pass to a TSA agent, you enter a CLEAR lane where your fingerprints or irises are scanned, along with your boarding pass.
This is a much quicker option than having to speak with a TSA agent at a podium. Assuming your details check out, you can then proceed to the metal detectors for screening.
Silver Medallion members can get CLEAR for $149 for the year, which is $40 in savings off of the full-price membership.
Bottom Line: CLEAR operates in many Delta airports and can well be worth the $80 savings a year when you can access your gate faster by speeding through security.
Silver Medallion members receive priority boarding privileges. However, it’s worth noting that they are far from the first to board the aircraft.
Per Delta, here is the boarding order:
| Boarding Order | Eligibility |
| Pre-Boarding |
|
| Delta One |
|
| First Class or Delta Premium Select |
|
| Early boarding for customers traveling with car seats and strollers | |
| Delta Comfort+ |
|
| SkyPriority |
|
| Main Cabin 1 |
|
| Main Cabin 2 | Main cabin customers |
| Main Cabin 3 | Main cabin customers booked in T, X, and V fares |
| Basic Economy | Basic economy customers (E) |
Note from Delta’s boarding chart: Silver Medallion members will not have a dedicated Priority Boarding zone on Delta flights departing Amsterdam (AMS) and Paris (CDG) due to Air France-KLM boarding policies.
Delta Silver Medallion members are the first main cabin group to board, behind all other elite customers and those seated in the premium cabin. They are ahead, however, of those seated in Main Cabin 2 and 3.
On many hub-to-hub flights, it won’t be surprising to see Silver Medallions board midway through the boarding process due to a large number of higher elite customers onboard.
This is a very minor benefit, but as a Silver Medallion, you earn 1,000 bonus SkyMiles for every qualified rental when you rent through Hertz.
Most flight rewards start at a minimum of 5,000 miles, and generally, these are off-peak days with not-so-popular flights. So you’d need to rent 5 times from Hertz to even receive 1 of these free flights. This said, free points are better than no points!
If you’re trying to purchase a ticket on a particular flight, Silver Medallion customers can get on a priority waitlist if their particular class of service is not available.
This waitlist is ordered by status, and like most things, Diamonds come first, followed by Platinum and Gold Medallions. In most cases, there won’t be too many people trying to waitlist for a sold-out class of service on a paid ticket.
Bottom Line: If a seat becomes available in the class of service you want to book, Medallion members have first dibs on booking before it is released back into the general booking pool.
The SkyTeam alliance has 2 alliance-wide status levels: SkyTeam Elite and SkyTeam Elite Plus. Both levels offer benefits across all SkyTeam carriers, no matter which class of service you’re flying.
SkyTeam Elite is the lower of the 2 levels and offers the most basic benefits.
These include:
Hot Tip: SkyTeam Elite status does not come with lounge access, so you must have SkyTeam Elite Plus status in order to access an eligible lounge. There are a number of credit cards with lounge access if that’s important to you.
When you call Delta, as a Silver Medallion, you can speak with an agent much faster than if you were a regular SkyMiles member.
This is especially useful for times where there are significant irregular operations, such as storms, where you need to be able to speak with an agent as fast as possible to get rebooked.
It’s worth noting that these agents typically do not have the power to bend any rules or assist with “breaking” policies — at the Silver Medallion level, it’s all about having access to an agent much quicker than if you weren’t a Silver Medallion.
Hot Tip: The Silver Medallion phone number is 800-323-2323.
This appears to be a standard benefit among all Medallion tiers, but because it is listed as an official benefit, it’s worthwhile to briefly mention it here.
According to Delta, “Save up to $300 per booking with Delta Vacations, even when booking with miles. And remember, you can earn up to 7,500 bonus miles per person with a flight and hotel package.”
Here is the schedule of savings, according to Delta:
Again, this isn’t entirely that useful of a benefit, but it does offer some marginal savings should you decide to book through Delta Vacations.
Sometimes known as “brag tags,” Delta briefly discontinued the distribution of luggage tags to some Medallion members a few years ago, but they’re coming back now!
You’ll receive your Silver Medallion luggage tags in the mail, which you can proudly wear on your luggage, backpack, or anything else you travel with.
This is a great marketing move by Delta and hardly costs them anything to do. With some of Delta’s most frequent flyers circumnavigating the world near-daily, they can display luggage tags on their bags for other travelers to see.
As other folks see them receiving benefits such as free upgrades or priority boarding, they’ll be curious as to how they received them, and the luggage tags help spread goodwill for Delta.
This is a really cool Medallion benefit, and while it won’t provide perks every day, it provides an invaluable benefit at a time when you probably need it the most.
The “Reclaim My Status” is only available to Medallion members, so as a Silver Medallion, you can certainly partake.
Let’s say you have an extraordinary life event — perhaps the birth of a child, a death in the family, having to change jobs, or something else that severely limits your travel. Delta will let you have your status back should you lose it due to an impacting life event.
There are a few important things to keep in mind. According to Delta, to be eligible, “You had Medallion Status during the previous Medallion year, but either lost it completely or moved to a lower Tier of Status.” This means that if you’re a Silver, you would have had Silver Medallion status for 1 year, then had an impacting life event, and then lost Silver Medallion status the following year. The Reclaim My Status benefit would help you get Silver Medallion status back.
To do this, you need to have “documentation to verify a life event occurred which reduced your ability to travel (all life events will be considered).” This could be anything from a birth certificate, death certificate, new job contract, or some other proving paperwork.
When you submit your Reclaim My Status request, you should do so at a time when you’re in a position to fly as much or more than the status you previously held. You’re going to be granted a 3-month period of the status you previously held, no strings attached, but will need to keep up certain requirements to have that status extended for the remainder of the year.
As a Silver Medallion, you must complete both a “fly” and “spend” portion to reclaim status:
There are some important dates you should keep in mind, however. According to Delta, if you enroll in Reclaim My Status between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023, and meet the required thresholds, your Medallion Status will be extended through January 31, 2025.
Hot Tip: Reclaiming your status as a Silver Medallion probably isn’t worth it since it requires the least amount of flying and also comes with the least amount of benefits.
Delta Silver Medallion status is certainly a good entry-level status and comes with a variety of perks for the occasional leisure traveler or business traveler. Throughout the course of the year, you’re looking at approximately $1,085 in value if you use each benefit.
Silver Medallions will get to experience complimentary upgrades, access to reservations agents before general members, and priority check-in privileges, among other benefits, making it very useful for enhancing the travel experience.
For rates and fees of Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card, click here.
There are several Silver Medallion benefits, including:
Silver Medallion status does expire if you do not meet the required amount of flying and spend.
That said, each year, you can roll over the EQMs earned beyond status to the next year so it can count for the next year’s elite status. For example, normally Silver Medallion requires 25,000 miles flown in a year, along with a spend requirement to earn status. If you fly 30,000 miles in a particular year, which is not enough to earn Gold Medallion status, 5,000 miles (the difference between 30,000 miles and the required 25,000 miles) will be rolled over into the next qualifying year. Therefore, you will have a 5,000-mile head start on flying the following year and would only need to fly 20,000 more miles to earn Silver Medallion status.
Silver Medallion does not normally include SkyPriority benefits. Some airports may not have Silver Medallion check-in queue, and at those airports, if you are a Silver Medallion, you can use the SkyPriority lane. Normally, there are dedicated Silver Medallion lanes at hub airports such as Detroit, Atlanta, or Salt Lake City.
You must fly either 25,000 miles or 30 segments on Delta or partner airlines, and then either spend $3,000 on Delta or eligible partners or $25,000 on certain co-branded Delta credit cards.
These requirements are annual, and reset each year after December 31, so you must fly the required amount and spend the required amount each year to earn Silver Medallion.
You can also participate in a 1-time status challenge if you have status with another eligible airline and want to start flying Delta. If you have entry-level or higher status with another major carrier, contact Delta and it may be able to match you to Silver Medallion status or higher — that way you can enjoy the perks and benefits upfront while completing some sort of status challenge requirements to keep the status for the months after.
Silver Medallion is the entry-level elite status tier of Delta Air Lines and its Medallion loyalty program. Higher levels include Gold Medallion, Platinum Medallion, and Diamond Medallion.
The status comes with several benefits, including complimentary upgrades, free checked bags, additional bonus miles with every flight, and priority boarding, to name a few.
Silver Medallion status is earned by flying 25,000 Medallion Qualifying Miles, or 30 Medallion Qualifying Segments, and either $3,000 Medallion Qualifying Dollars (MQD) or spending $25,000 on an eligible co-branded credit card to receive an MQD waiver.
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James (Jamie) started The Forward Cabin blog to educate readers about points, miles, and loyalty programs. He’s spoken at Princeton University and The New York Times Travel Show and has been quoted in dozens of travel publications.
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