How to Transfer Delta Status to American

I’m getting a fair amount of questions lately on how to transfer Delta SkyMiles Medallion status to American’s AAdvantage program, since a fair amount of customers are unhappy with Delta removing reward charts and moving to a revenue based system.

I previously wrote a post on how to status match to American using the Platinum Challenge, though wanted to expand on that more here, specifically talking about the move from Delta. It’s worth noting that you don’t need to prove status on another airline in order to challenge into American’s program, but American only offers a “challenge” and not a traditional “match.” Essentially, you’ll pay a fee, be required to earn a certain amount of Elite Qualifying Points and then earn that status for the remainder of the year.

Here’s what I recommend for challenging:

• If you’re a Silver Medallion, status challenge to AAdvantage Gold
• If you’re a Gold Medallion, status challenge to AAdvantage Platinum
• If you’re a Platinum or Diamond Medallion, status challenge to AAdvantage Platinum and then be sure to earn 100,000 EQPs, fly 100,000 miles or fly 120 segments to earn Executive Platinum status. You cannot challenge to Executive Platinum status from Delta.

By challenging to Platinum you’ll gain a great deal of elite benefits, and while they aren’t as valuable as Executive Platinum benefits, it gives you a leg up on upgrades and standby privileges against the lower ranking Gold members.

Here’s what you’ll need to earn when you challenge:

• You’ll need to earn 5,000 Elite Qualifying Points for Gold within 90 days
• You’ll need to earn 10,000 Elite Qualifying Points for Platinum within 90 days

Keep in mind that EQPs are based on the fare/value of the ticket and how many miles the ticket is flown, so it is a revenue based calculation, and is not similar to Elite Qualifying Miles, which is simply on miles flown.

Once you earn your required EQPs for the challenge, you’ll have the status through the remainder of the status year, though will need to re-qualify based on the standing requirements for the following year (25,000 miles or EQPs for Gold, 50,000 for Platinum).

Is Now the Best Time to Status Challenge?

I’d say yes, simply because of the EQP promotion that’s going on right now, whereby you can earn bonus EQPs based on what fare code your purchased Business or First Class ticket is. While it still may be cheaper to earn your EQPs off of economy tickets, using this promotion to buy discounted First or Business tickets (which in many cases are similar price or just a tad more) will help speed up the process.