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It’s mid-December and I find myself about 10,000 Medallion Qualifying Miles (MQMs) away from retaining Platinum Medallion® status. I’m evaluating my flying options for 2023 and want to have this status locked in. I could have taken a quick trip to Europe on a SkyTeam partner, but where is the fun in that?
I decided that a trip to check out all nine of Delta’s hubs was in order. These are located in:
- Atlanta (ATL)
- Boston (BOS)
- Detroit (DTW)
- Los Angeles (LAX)
- New York (John F Kennedy – JFK)
- New York (LaGuardia – LGA)
- Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP)
- Salt Lake City (SLC)
- Seattle/Tacoma (SEA)
Delta.com would not let me book one ticket, so I ended up with five reservations in order to make this trek. I’m praying for no weather or mechanical issues as it’s going to be a sprint. This will put me well over the MQMs needed and I’ll have some roll over into 2023. I set some rules (in my mind) and then got to booking.
Here are the rules for my Delta Hub Dash:
- Must fly to each of the nine hubs within a 48-hour period
- Cannot duplicate hubs
- Visit as many SkyClubs as possible (some connections will not allow)
I’ll be in the NYC area visiting family for Christmas and then heading back to Tampa where I live in the winter (JFK to TPA is still within the 48 hours, but not a hub so not listed).
Here is my itinerary:
- New York (LaGuardia – LGA) to Minneapolis St. Paul (MSP)
- Minneapolis St. Paul (MSP) to Seattle/Tacoma (SEA)
- Seattle/Tacoma (SEA) to Salt Lake City (SLC)
- Salt Lake City (SLC) to Los Angeles (LAX)
- Los Angeles (LAX) to Atlanta (ATL)
- Atlanta (ATL) to Boston (BOS)
- Boston (BOS) to Detroit (DTW)
- Detroit (DTW) to New York (John F Kennedy – JFK)
With this itinerary, I’ll get to check out many of Delta’s aircraft types including:
I’ll be writing, posting to social media, and sharing updates as I go. Any advice before I set out in a few weeks? I’m feeling a little crazy, but it’s been years since I’ve done a mileage run.
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9 comments
Waste of time and money. Half the world is Platinum now. RUCs are generally useless on any flight over about 600 miles. Regular upgrades without a RUC? Haha good luck on that. Award redeposit fee waiver meaningless now that everyone gets it.
What is total cost of all these flights?
Don’t do this. Two days of your life is worth more than the benefit
100% agree with everyone here. Platinum is NOT worth it!
I’m a Diamond and the benefits are meh.
Totally cool trip though. I would do this for fun if I had the time.
I think Jeb did all UA hubs in 24 hours.
I would have made sure this was 1 itinerary & NOT 5 by just booking the flights by dialing the 800 telephone #
Why? I do all my bookings one way and keeps things clean and simple, esp if any changes are needed.
in case of weather related cancels you will see why
Obviously, he has too much time, and money, on his hands, but what the heck, have fun!! It will definitely be an adventure!!
I wanted to requalify, so this was a way to do it that I thought would be fun to fly and to share here. I’ll be posting as I go. Stay tuned.