The race is on: With less than two weeks until the new year, Delta flyers are reviewing their Medallion status progress…and racing to close the gap before the year is out.

There aren’t many options this late in the game. You need to earn those all-important Medallion Qualifying Dollars (MQDs) by spending with Delta—and after last year’s unpopular overhaul, you need more of them than ever. Booking a flight for next year won’t help you: you have to actually sit in that seat by December 31 for the MQDs to count.

But if you’re desperate to get to the next level of Delta status next year and are still a few thousand MQDs short, all is not lost. You could open (or upgrade to) a premium Delta SkyMiles credit card and automatically receive 2,500 MQDs.

It’s the easiest way to get a big boost quickly – and with 2024 fast approaching, one of your only options. This is how it works.

Get (or upgrade to) a Top Delta Card.

Like it or not, these days having a Delta co-branded Amex card is practically essential to earning Delta status. If you don’t have one yet (or maybe you already have one), adding the right Delta card to your wallet could give you a huge boost.

Delta quietly added a benefit to some of its top cards last year that eluded even some die-hard Delta flyers — and confused many others. It’s called MQD Headstart: Just for having one of these cards in your wallet, you’ll automatically receive a $2,500 MQD boost:

Even if there are only a few days left in the year, you can take advantage of this benefit. If you’re done flying this year but are still about $2,000 MQD away from Delta Gold or Platinum status, this is by far the easiest way to get over the hurdle.

These automatic MQDs may take up to eight weeks to be credited to your SkyMiles account. But Delta also made that clear Anyone who opens an eligible card in November or December will receive the MQDs in 2024.

Instead of opening a new map, you could even update an existing one *Delta Skymiles Gold Card* if you want. Although we typically advise against upgrading Delta cards, this is the easiest way to get $2,500 worth of MQDs quickly.

Unfortunately, you cannot use MQD Headstarts twice by upgrading. For example, you wouldn’t receive a total of $5,000 in bonus MQDs if you upgraded from a Platinum card to a Delta Reserve card mid-year – you would have to open the Reserve card completely and leave your existing Platinum card open.

And that brings up an important point: You can own multiple Delta cards and stack each of these MQD bonuses. Do you already have a Platinum Card? You could open a reserve card and get another $2,500 MQD boost. Are you eligible for a small business credit card? Technically, you could open all four eligible cards and receive a total of 10,000 MQDs, instantly reaching Gold status.

At $350 for the Platinum Card (see Rates and Fees) and a whopping $650 per year for the Reserve (see Rates and Fees), none of these cards are cheap in any way. But they are still the fastest and probably cheapest way to quickly get a few thousand MQDs before the end of the year.

Really, Really Close? Spend money on your Delta Card

If it’s really you, Really If you’re close to the Medallion status you crave, it might be a smart move to get your Delta card out more often.

In the new world of Delta status, there’s a way to earn extra MQMs on everyday spending with select Delta credit cards – sorry, *Delta Skymiles Gold Card* Cardholder, yours is not enough.

Let’s say you’re expected to be $50 MQD short of the Delta status you want for next year. Pay $500 toward a Delta Reserve Card and you’re good to go. With the Delta Platinum Card, you would need to charge $1,000 to earn the same $50 MQDs.

Crucially, you don’t have to wait for your credit card statement to clear for these MQDs to be credited to your account: Processing occurs on a daily basis, usually on the same day that a purchase is actually posted to your account. This means you can accumulate MQDs pretty quickly as you spend your day to day.

While I wouldn’t wait until December 30th or 31st to make a purchase to exceed the threshold, any purchases with an eligible Delta card within the next week or so should be possible to top up your Medallion balance.

Is this the most efficient way to earn a lot of the Delta MQDs you need before the end of the year? Not even close. But if you’re just shy of a dozen or so MQDs, have a big purchase coming up, and can’t (or don’t want to) get another credit card, this is your next best choice.

Who should (and who shouldn’t) go this route?

Travelers do stupid things to gain airline status. Believe me, I’ve been there myself. Don’t make my mistakes.

If you’re still a long way from reaching entry-level Silver Medallion status, it’s hard to see how paying $350 or more in additional annual fees for a new credit card would be worth it.

For example, I’m still more than 2,000 MQDs short of Silver, and I wouldn’t dream of even purchasing a Delta Platinum Card to fill the gap – the paltry perks (and non-existent upgrades) are just that money not worth it to me.

But if a rise of 2,500 MQDs would help you close the gap for gold, platinum and… particularly Delta Diamond status? This is a completely different scenario. Hell, I would even consider opening it two new Delta cards if this would help upgrade from Platinum to Diamond status next year.

You might want to take a step back and think more broadly about how other benefits of the cards might help you (or offset the cost). Combined with a final stat boost, perhaps this is the deciding factor you need to pull the trigger?

• Have you been looking for a way to gain access to Delta lounges… or are you worried about strict new restrictions on Sky Club entry coming into effect next February? The Delta Reserve Card gives you unlimited access to the Sky Club until January 2025, then 15 days a year from February 1st
• While you’ll only get them for the second full year with either card, the Delta Companion Certificates on both the Platinum and Reserve cards can be even more valuable – and with recent changes, they can take you further than ever before, even after Hawaii, Alaska and throughout the Caribbean and Mexico
• Both cards with MQD bonuses now also offer a handful of savings for dining through Resy, hotel reservations through Delta Stays, and ridesharing. If you can use these over the next year, perhaps you can offset the cost of the higher annual fees even more?

There is no black and white answer here. As with all things traveling, you need to do what far too many flyers forget when chasing airline status: You have to do the calculation yourself.

Conclusion

The clock is ticking, but there is still a chance to close the gap quickly and improve your Delta status for next year before 2024 comes to an end.