You can earn miles – both redeemable and elite qualifying – on virtually most cash tickets with airlines around the world. The rate at which you earn miles depends on the fare you purchased and sometimes, the ticket price. In most cases, if you redeem miles, you won’t get any mileage credit for award tickets – after all, you are getting a “free” ticket and therefore it makes sense that you wouldn’t get any credit for it.
There are, however, a few airlines changing the game and they allow you to earn elite qualifying miles for flying on an award ticket – you obviously won’t be earning redeemable miles, but it is nice to know that you can earn something towards elite status – after all, it shouldn’t matter if you have a revenue ticket or an award ticket for the purpose of qualification since both tickets have you flying.
United Airlines MileagePlus Elite Credit
United doesn’t follow the traditional metric of elite qualifying miles for flights, but rather has categories as follows which determine your elite status:
- Premier Qualifying Flights (PQF)
- Premier Qualifying Points (PQP)
The number of PQF and PQP you earn each year determine your elite status. So how many of these can you earn for an award ticket?
- you earn 1 PQP for every 100 miles you redeem
- for example, a ticket that costs 10,000 miles will earn you 100 PQP
- every flight segment on United earns 1 PQF
You can only earn elite credit for award tickets for flights operated by United AND only if you redeemed United miles. So if you book a Lufthansa flight with United miles, you won’t get credit and if you use other Star Alliance miles to fly United, you also won’t get credit.
Delta SkyMiles Elite Credit
Delta Air Lines allows you to earn elite credit for award flights and Delta currently has three categories that can determine elite status (these will change next year when Delta updates their program):
- Medallion Qualification Miles (MQMs)
- Medallion Qualification Segments (MQSs)
- Medallion Qualification Dollars (MQDs)
You earn elite status on Delta for a combination of MQDs and MQMs/MQSs. You always have to earn MQDs and then you can earn elite status either based on MQMs or MQSs. On award tickets you can earn:
- 150% MQMs based on distance flown
- for Award Travel in Delta One, First Class, and Delta Premium Select (O and R classes)
- you also earn MQSs and MQDs
- 100% MQMs based on distance flown
- for Award travel in Delta Comfort+ and Main Cabin (SN and N classes)
- you also earn MQSs and MQDs
- Award tickets in Basic Economy do not earn MQMs/MQSs/MQDs
A few other important things to note:
- if your flight is eligible to earn MQMs, you will receive at least 500 MQMs (even if the flight is shorter in distance)
- MQDs on eligible award tickets are calculated as follows:
- miles redeemed for the flight itinerary / 100
Therefore if you redeem 10,000 miles for a flight, you will get 100 MQDs. You do not earn elite credits for award tickets on partner airlines.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Elite Credit
The first-ever airline that allowed you to earn elite credits on award tickets was Virgin Atlantic. Virgin Atlantic uses Tier Points to determine your elite status level and Tier Points are fixed based on your booking class instead of distance flown.
For award tickets, you will earn:
- Economy Class (A fare): 25 Tier Points
- Premium Economy Class (P fare): 50 Tier Points
- Business Class (G fare): 100 Tier Points
You will earn elite credits on award tickets only when you fly Virgin Atlantic – so if you used your Virgin points to book an award ticket on a partner airline, you wouldn’t earn elite credit for those flights.
All in All
These 3 airlines and frequent flyer programs allow you to earn credit for travel on award tickets – which is awesome. More airlines should follow and allow you to earn elite status on award tickets because, after all, you are still flying and in the air – whether you booked your ticket with cash or miles shouldn’t matter; it is understandable, however, that you wouldn’t earn any redeemable miles on award tickets.