The Delta Choice Benefits program allows SkyMiles Diamond and Platinum Medallion members to select customized rewards, offering them extra flexibility. This concept is great, as it allows frequent flyers to choose the benefits that matter most to them each year.
In this post I wanted to take a closer look at Delta’s Choice Benefits program, as the reward choices have recently been revamped.
In this post:
Basics of Delta Choice Benefits program
With the Delta Choice Benefits program, top elite members can select up to four additional perks per year:
- Upon earning Platinum Medallion status, you can select one Choice Benefits perk
- Upon earning Diamond Medallion status, you can select three Choice Benefits perk
Once you qualify for one of these tiers, you have quite a bit of time to make your selection. For example, if you qualify for elite status during 2023, you can make your selection all the way through January 31, 2025 (when your status would otherwise expire).
Benefits have different expiration policies, so it makes sense to be strategic with when you make your selection (I’ll note those policies below, when relevant).
Delta Platinum Medallion Choice Benefits
Delta Platinum Medallion members can select one of the Choice Benefits perks each year, and can choose from nine different options. These options are as follows:
- Four Regional Upgrade Certificates, each of which is good for an upgrade to first class or Delta One on a flight within North America (excluding Hawaii) or select destinations in South America; these are valid through January 31, 2025
- A $200 American Express statement credit, for those with a co-branded Delta Amex Reserve or Platinum card (personal or business)
- 4,000 Starbucks Rewards Stars; for context, 200 Stars will get you a drink or hot sandwich, so that’s like 20 drinks or sandwiches, and this is valid for six months
- A boost of 500 Medallion Qualifying Dollars (MQDs) toward status in the following year, which can help you earn status
- The ability to gift Delta Silver Medallion status to two people, which is Delta’s entry level elite tier; this is valid through January 31, 2025
- 20,000 Delta SkyMiles bonus miles, which you can add to your own account, or gift to someone else
- A $400 Delta Vacations credit, to be used toward a flight and hotel package; this is valid for 12 months from when it’s issued
- A $250 donation toward Delta’s sustainable aviation fuel initiative
- A $250 Delta travel voucher, which you can use toward a Delta flight; this is valid for one year from when it’s issued
Which Delta Platinum Choice Benefits are best?
In general I think the option to beat is the Regional Upgrade Certificates. Not only can these be used to confirm an upgrade on some flights where you otherwise wouldn’t be eligible for elite upgrades in advance, but they also give you upgrade priority over other Platinum Medallion members hoping for a complimentary upgrade. Four upgrades on a transcon flight really add up.
I think most reasonable people would value those four upgrade certificates at well over $250, as that would be just ~$63 per upgrade. With that in mind, I’d consider that to be a better deal than the Delta Amex statement credit, 4,000 Starbucks Rewards Stars, 20,000 bonus Delta SkyMiles, a $250 donation toward Delta’s sustainable aviation fuel initiative, and a $250 Delta travel voucher.
What about the other options? The 500 bonus MQDs is of minimal value, and the $400 Delta Vacations credit is pretty restrictive. That leaves two nominations of Delta Silver Medallion status. That could in theory be worth it, though definitely manage your expectations with Silver status.
Assuming you’re not exclusively a long haul international traveler, and/or always pay for first or business class, I think the Regional Upgrade Certificates are the way to go.
Delta Diamond Medallion Choice Benefits
Delta Diamond Medallion members can select three Choice Benefits perks each year, and can choose from 12 different options.
First of all, you could choose from three different combinations of upgrade options (these are valid through January 31, 2025):
- Four Global Upgrade Certificates
- Eight Regional Upgrade Certificates
- Two Global Upgrade Certificates and four Regional Upgrade Certificates
You can find a rundown of the differences between upgrade certificates here. As you may have guessed based on the name, Global Upgrade Certificates are essentially systemwide upgrades, and can be used to upgrade any Delta flight systemwide.
Then you could choose from the following nine non-upgrade options:
- A Delta Sky Club Executive Membership, valid through January 31, 2025; this would ordinarily cost $1,495 per year, and you need to use all three of your Choice Benefits for this
- A $500 American Express statement credit, for those with a co-branded Delta Amex Reserve or Platinum card (personal or business)
- 4,000 Starbucks Rewards Stars; for context, 200 Stars will get you a drink or hot sandwich, so that’s like 20 drinks or sandwiches, and this is valid for six months
- A boost of 1,000 Medallion Qualifying Dollars (MQDs) toward status in the following year, which can help you earn status
- The ability to gift Delta Gold Medallion status to two people, which is Delta’s second lowest elite tier; this is valid through January 31, 2025
- 25,000 Delta SkyMiles bonus miles, which you can add to your own account, or gift to someone else
- A $500 Delta Vacations credit, to be used toward a flight and hotel package; this is valid for 12 months from when it’s issued
- A $250 donation toward Delta’s sustainable aviation fuel initiative
- A $250 Delta travel voucher, which you can use toward a Delta flight; this is valid for one year from when it’s issued
Which Delta Diamond Choice Benefits are best?
The Diamond Choice Benefits decision making process is a bit different than with Platinum Choice Benefits, since you can make three selections, but some options are only available once.
I think for almost everyone it’s worth selecting one of the three upgrade packages (you can only select one of these per year, in addition to the Platinum selection). Whether Global Upgrade Certificates or Regional Upgrade Certificates make more sense depends on your travel patterns.
Which other options are most attractive? If you ask me, the two other things that stand out most are the $500 Delta Amex statement credit, as well as the ability to gift two people Gold Medallion status, as I figure each of those gifts are worth at least $500.
As a point of comparison, the $250 travel voucher, $250 donation toward sustainable aviation fuel, and 25,000 bonus SkyMiles, boost of 1,000 MQDs, and 4,000 Starbucks Rewards Stars, are all worth significantly less than that. Furthermore, the $500 Delta Vacations credit is quite restrictive.
Some people might find it worthwhile to use all three choices for a Delta Sky Club Executive Membership. I just think the opportunity cost there is too big, and I’d rather access Delta Sky Clubs with the Amex Platinum.
Bottom line
With the Delta Choice Benefits program, SkyMiles Diamond and Platinum Medallion members can select special perks when qualifying for status. These perks range from upgrade certificates, to Amex statement credits, to bonus miles, to the ability to gift elite status to others.
Personally I think the upgrade certificates are the most valuable perks offered as part of this program, and then beyond that the value differs depending on whether you’re making your Platinum or Diamond selection.
To those who are Delta loyalists, what’s your take on the Choice Benefits program?
I have been diamond for a minute and I always choose executive delta sky club and regional upgrades. I get my fellow employees and my family in the club. I even help people having difficulty figuring out why they can't get in because of a glitch or something. I save my regional certificate upgrades for when I travel with family. I get comfort plus or first class most trips already. I fly from California to East coast every week.
@Ben, one correction. If you click through on the skyclub membership, there are more options. For example, if you have a DL CC that gives skyclub access, you can use one choice benefit to receive a guest pass that for two people. My partner has her own card, but I travel with members of my team sometimes and its awkward to go to the skyclub and leave them outside. So, I'm thinking of using one...
@Ben, one correction. If you click through on the skyclub membership, there are more options. For example, if you have a DL CC that gives skyclub access, you can use one choice benefit to receive a guest pass that for two people. My partner has her own card, but I travel with members of my team sometimes and its awkward to go to the skyclub and leave them outside. So, I'm thinking of using one of my choices for that this year. I believe you can also select a standard membership for one choice.
The rationale for Executive SkyClub membership is if you regularly travel with people (e.g. business associates/clients or kids under 13) who don't have an Amex granting access (and you're not making them an AU), you're otherwise paying $50/visit. So at 30 guests per year the exec membership is $1500 and it continues to scale up from there. This is the option with the highest ceiling for cash value.
Since GUCs are now basically either super-RUCs...
The rationale for Executive SkyClub membership is if you regularly travel with people (e.g. business associates/clients or kids under 13) who don't have an Amex granting access (and you're not making them an AU), you're otherwise paying $50/visit. So at 30 guests per year the exec membership is $1500 and it continues to scale up from there. This is the option with the highest ceiling for cash value.
Since GUCs are now basically either super-RUCs (clearing into domestic F with last seat availability immediately, IIRC) or otherwise in most cases only do Y->W or W->J (setting aside DL's use of W for Comfort+, not Premium Select), the value can be surprisingly limited, so the point at which the Exec membership outweighs the GUCs could be a fairly low number of guestings.
The 1000 MQD could be worth another set of choice benefits, so if it's possible that you might use this, holding back a selection until you know if you need it or not might be prudent. With the new expiration rules, since this would tend to be chosen late in 2024, the logical fallback if you were holding one back for this would be the SkyMiles.
Another factor of your choice should be the difficulty using the certificates. For both regionals and globals, you are supposed to be able to see availability online and even apply these at checkout, but it rarely works as intended. Oftentimes, the availability listed on the website is ghost availability or it won’t properly ticket when you go to check out. Then, your only option is to call and usually spend at least an hour on...
Another factor of your choice should be the difficulty using the certificates. For both regionals and globals, you are supposed to be able to see availability online and even apply these at checkout, but it rarely works as intended. Oftentimes, the availability listed on the website is ghost availability or it won’t properly ticket when you go to check out. Then, your only option is to call and usually spend at least an hour on the phone with an agent who may or may not actually know how to help you. This has happened for me and countless others in various Delta forums. Don’t get me wrong, the certificates are still great value, but you need to factor in a significant time investment to actually use them.
The online booking has only been available since January, but I've never had a problem booking online at checkout. Nor have I found "ghost availability" when checking online and calling. And, it's never taken more than a few minutes for a phone agent to process an upgrade for me. Sorry you're having challenges, but I've found it to be an amazing improvement.
Is the D1 Hawaii exclusion new? A friend just used RUCs for D1 from JFK to HNL in February.
I searched this past weekend and there were some flights to HNL that offered F (not Delta One) with RUCs. So it is possible to get an RUC upgrade to Hawaii. However, I was searching 10 months out. I'd imagine the opportunities for RUCs to Hawaii are fairly limited and you're not going to get them on an ATL-HNL nonstop or DL One.
The Delta Vacations options are a fairly new choice. If you can "stack" the Plat and Diamond awards together it could present an interesting option for a quick weekend somewhere getting outsized value. For years I've always gone with the RUC/GUC or the miles options.
One word. Confusing.
Upgrade certificates are no longer valid for 1 year from issue but rather expire with your status year. So selecting upgrade certificates for your 2024 choice benefit would have them expire Jan 31 2025 regardless of when they're issued.
@ Tony -- Whoops, thank you. Fixed!
May be worth pointing out that you can’t nominate the same person to silver or gold status two years in a row
Is that a new rule? That has not been the case in the past (though you have had to wait until any old status expired before you could gift new status).
“ as well as the ability to gift two people Diamond Medallion status, as I figure each of those gifts are worth at least $500”
@Lucky I think you meant to say “gift two people gold medallion status”
@ DT -- Indeed, thanks. Fixed.