Delta Medallions, don't panic: The 2021 rollover has already started

Delta's SkyMiles program has one big benefit that its major U.S. competitors don't offer: the ability to roll extra earned Medallion Qualification Miles (MQMs) over into the next qualifying year.

Seemingly every year, Medallion members wake up on Jan. 1 and wonder where all their extra miles went, as evidenced by a reader question from two years ago.

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Referring to the 2020 rollover campaign Kathryn Steel, a spokeswoman for Delta stated, "The MQM rollover.. should take 1 - 2 weeks."

This year, the rollover has started earlier than expected. TPG's Scott Mayerowitz woke up today to find that his MQMs had already rolled over as of January 3.

Related: Why I'm chasing Delta elite status during the pandemic

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How the Delta MQM rollover works

If you're new to Delta Medallion status, here's a quick overview of how the rollover works: You already know that you needed to fly a certain number of miles (MQM) or segments (MQS), and spend a certain amount of money (MQD) to reach each status tier. For Silver Medallion, the lowest status tier, the thresholds are 25,000 MQMs or 30 MQSs and $3,000 MQDs.

In a normal year, any extra MQMs earned beyond a specific status level would roll over to the next year. Once you crossed the threshold for Silver (or higher) in 2019 (thus earning status for 2020), you may have continued earning MQMs in 2019, but not quite enough to reach the next status tier. The extra MQMs you earned were automatically deposited into your account toward your 2021 status.

For example, if you earned 32,000 MQMs in 2020 and reached Silver Medallion, the "extra" 7,000 above your status threshold get rolled over into the new year and help you get a head start for elite-status qualification. However, due to the pandemic Delta will be rolling over all MQMs earned last year, not just the extras earned beyond a specific status level. So if you earned 101,000 MQMs last year as Scott did, you should see the same number of MQMs posting to your account in the coming days.

Additional reporting by Ariana Arghandewal