Delta Air Lines has today put out a press release celebrating its most frequent flyer, and he sure has some miles under his belt…
In this post:
Delta Diamond celebrates 14 million miler status
Delta SkyMiles offers lifetime Medallion elite status. One million miler gets you lifetime Silver Medallion status, while six million miler gets you lifetime Diamond Medallion status. Note that all Medallion Qualifying Miles count toward lifetime elite status, including those earned through credit cards.
Someone named Todd from San Diego holds the record as having racked up the most lifetime elite miles, and he just earned 14 million miler status. He made it from 13 million miler to 14 million miler in just 18 months.
The reached the 14 million mile threshold on March 6, 2023, after flying from Zurich to New York. This flight also happened to be on his birthday.
The flight attendants surprised him with a custom birthday cake in Zurich.
The crew was even sent an ACARS (Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System) message, normally reserved for operational updates, with a message from Delta’s Operations and Customer Center:
“Please take a moment to have the crew acknowledge his achievement and wish him a happy birthday. On behalf of the Delta OCC it’s been an honor to help [Todd] achieve this milestone.”
When the plane landed at JFK, he was whisked through customs by Delta’s Elite Services, and brought to the Delta Sky Club for more celebration (maybe he even got to skip the line?!). 😉 He was given champagne, dined on a specially prepared menu, and enjoyed another slice of birthday cake.
Then rather than returning to San Diego, he flew… right back to Zurich? Todd describes himself as an avgeek, and has loved flying since he was a young child.
Congratulations to Todd… I think?
Achieving 14 million miler status with Delta is quite a milestone, no doubt. I’d of course be curious about the breakdown of this:
- How many actual “butt in seat” miles has he flown, and how many of those miles have been earned through credit card spending or class of service bonuses?
- Is he doing mileage runs, or why is he flying so much? The fact that he flew from Zurich to New York to Zurich the same day on his birthday suggests that a lot of this flying is for fun
- What percentage of his flights are in premium cabins, and what is the breakdown of short haul vs. long haul flights?
- Does he ever fly any other airlines, or is he 100% committed to Delta?
When it comes to ultra frequent flyers, United’s Tom Stuker also comes to mind, who has earned 20 million miler status with United. United’s million miler status is based on revenue butt in seat miles flown on United, so that’s even harder to earn.
While Stuker has gotten quite a bit of publicity for his flying on United, it’s not clear whether he’s actually paying for these flight, or if he purchased some sort of an unlimited business class flying pass decades ago, which is what I’ve often heard rumored, but never confirmed. If the latter is the case, you’d think he’d be United’s least favorite frequent flyer, but I guess the airline might as well try to get good publicity out of it.
I enjoyed being a super frequent flyer when I was in my teens, while I couldn’t imagine wanting to fly as much as I used to anymore. Furthermore, I couldn’t imagine having the desire to fly so much on a single airline, since I think that would get quite boring. But hey, to each their own…
Bottom line
Delta is celebrating its most frequent flyer, who has just earned 14 million miler status with the airline. He passed that threshold on March 8, after flying from Zurich to New York, before flying… from New York to Zurich the same day.
What do you make of this Delta million miler milestone?
Todd, it was a pleasure taking care of you.Delta, JFK took away my job accused me of checking in bags of passengers.
Hope someday WE will meet again.
Marlene, who worked Sky Priority .
Thank You
I had the great pleasure of being a crew member on many of Todd's flights. He has an incredible knack for remembering not only the names of flight attendants he had met on previous flights but also details about them that had come up in past conversations. He is truly a rock star among Delta's passengers.
What is a teenager doing in life to be a “super frequent flier” is what I am wondering.
I know Todd O, and he flies a lot for work and for leisure (as in visiting different places when on vacation). Lately, he travelled a bit more for personal reason. Delta is a prefer transatlantic airline but he flies to all over the world, so yes, he flies other airlines as well (he has other preferred airlines too). He's a nice, low key guy, and I'm sure he wasn't expecting this kind of celebration.
Before I retired I had the pleasure of flying Mr. Todd back-and-forth from New York to Zürich several times. My wife was on those flights as a flight attendant and thought he was the best passenger ever. I was honored when he showed up at my gate on my last departure from JFK as a Delta Captain!
He is one cool dude! Best wishes from M& M
The refreshments that Delta served looked like a child's tea party.
Delta just denied my request to regain my diamond status...they can kiss my ass.
Interesting story and comments. I used to do that kind of flying because of working in California and living in Florida. Luckily my job paid for all that travel on Delta, and we were able to take fon trips to Europe, and numerous other locations such as New Zealand and Australia. The other plus out of all that travel is that it put our son on an Aviation path to Embry-Riddle and to now currently at Delta Airlines as a Flight Superintendent. So a win-win.
Glad frequent flyers are recognized. It's good business practice. My wife and I just flew first class from Atlanta to Honolulu to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. The Delta crew didn't seem to care. Passengers like it when significant life events are celebrated on board as well.
Iam a 2 million miler all of them are butt in seats.
Flying northwest/ delta since 1984. Took almost 40 years to achieve the feat.
But 14 Million that's crazy achievement.
Appreciate DELTA for their appreciation of their loyal customers.
Always fly DELTA
So what was your recognition when you reach 1MM and 2MM beyond an email for you to chose a gift?
Any word from any employee for the milestone flight or trip?
to fly a million air miles in 14 months one would have to fly around 3,000 miles EVERY DAY
perhaps this is a combination of air miles and credit card purchases and I say this as someone who
has flown almost 5 million air miles on another legacy airline.
I once met a couple and we began discussing flying. I had flown 126,000 the year before and this fellow over 300,000. he...
to fly a million air miles in 14 months one would have to fly around 3,000 miles EVERY DAY
perhaps this is a combination of air miles and credit card purchases and I say this as someone who
has flown almost 5 million air miles on another legacy airline.
I once met a couple and we began discussing flying. I had flown 126,000 the year before and this fellow over 300,000. he was President of an American subsidiary of a European company and flew weekly to Cologne, Germany he had just bought a home in Georgetown and proudly said, "now my address is no longer 4A Lufthansa"
All that extra radiation in the air may mean cancer down the road. Hopefully it isn’t all bis miles
The sensibility in the comments never ceases to amaze me! probably having it very difficult back in the 3rd world during most of my young life made me much more thick skinned I guess.
But surely not as thick skinned as Todd, choosing to voluntarily do this LOL!
This Todd guy's pretty good, but we all know Delta's most loyal customer is a frequent commenter on OMAAT.
Maybe its him? and TD is just his nom de plume
And Todd is his nom de gare! (French pun intended!)
Nice to know what that is.
He looks old enough to have earned some of those millions back in the day where every mile you earned counted. That means actual miles, class of service bonuses, miles transferred or purchased, everything. My first million was WAY easier than my second million and I often kick myself for not loading up my account after the change was announced.
Would love to see Todd's FlightMemory. Congrats.
Wow. The tone of this post is why I rarely read your site any more. Used to visit several times a day. Not that it matters, I’m sure your traffic isn’t hurting by losing me! Even your trip reports are boring and follow a pattern now: complain about service, order the fish, complain more…
Looks like the term "grapes are sour" comes to mind lol.
He's probably close to being able to redeem a business class round trip ticket to Europe with that amount of Sky Pesos.
Sheesh Lucky what's with the shade
Unqualified congrats to Todd for a remarkable commercial aviation milestone
I was just excited to hit 4MM and 360 this year!! I have a new goal now…..
Lifetime miles on Delta include the milestone MQM awards from CC spend. With these you can "easily" earn 120,000 miles annual by spending $120k on a personal Reserve and $120k on a business Reserve. If you have Platinum cards you could earn an additional 40,000 miles annually by spending an additional $100k.
Happy for him that this was achieved on Delta vs United or American as Delta is by far the best of the 3 in my opinion. Sad to see someone has this type of lifestyle that allows him to get so many miles while spending time on planes vs with his family and friends. I learned that the hard way and won’t go back to that lifestyle myself.
You make a very good point regarding the human cost of traveling so much.
@Santastico- I hear ya, but we all fall short. Who are we to judge?
Lol what? Maybe he doesn’t have a lot of family and friends and this is where he feels he belongs. Maybe he does have family and friends and manages his time. Who are you to judge?
What does DL count towards lifetime miles. AA way back in 2011 went to BIS. If you flew half a million miles a year (nearly impossible year in and year out for most) it would take you 34 years to get 17 million.
How convenient, you do sameday return, on your birthday, crossing 14M, having many 'surprise' along the way, and end up on the PR site.
Odds are easier to land a plane on Burj Al Arab than to believe it's not a well planned PR stunt.
To normal people.
Got no recognition when crossed a million.
Not even a happy birthday recognition when flying on birthday.
I'm not sure when they ever said it wasn't a PR stunt?
Hand couriers fly a lot. Having a person take all the cargo on a plane to a different country is the fastest way to pass thru customs. It's a rare job, but it's been around a long time.
"Someone named Todd from San Diego"
Lol.
The cake is quite clear: his name is Delta Todd :D.
Wow 14 million miles?!? Kudos to him but as I've gotten older, I prefer to fly nonstop and less frequently. I guess I'm more of a homebody nowadays. If flying is his passion and he has the means to do it, then good for him and good for Delta on recognizing this milestone!
The author of this post needs to watch his mouth. You don’t even know him personally. Sorry you missed out on Hugs as a child. Create drama and curiosity in the brains of others else where. Not with Todd. Choose your words carefully. You need to remove that question mark and remove the assumptions. You probably write from the basement of your mother’s house. Watch yourself
LOL what.....Todd's mom is this you?
Oh Todd!
So you can reach 14 million miles with a US airline, on your birthday, and the food in the lounge is still that bad compared to Asia & the Middle East?!?
Is that a knife?
No no, that's a special Cake Slicing Device. But, they're not on a plane, so it doesn't matter.
Nice!
Wow! With 14 mm miles, he has enough for 5 award tickets to Australia… maybe
I booked RT to SYD last fall for 80K miles. Definitely value to be had out there but you're not going to get Delta One for cheap.
If he can find any of those available.
Ben, I would love you to do an interview with him like the one's you did when covid started.
I would love to read this interview too. Please do it, Ben!
That’s great for him, he now hopefully has enough Skymiles to book an LGA-ATL flight
Hhahahahahahahahahahah
I doubt it. Certainly not enough for the return trip
That route is less than 5,000 miles fairly regularly. Most of Delta's best redemptions are in coach which seems to make people angry for some reason.
With the Delta credit card you can pick up an LGA-MCO for just over 7,000.