EQM vs RDM

Airline miles are not hard to earn these days, but not all miles are created equal. Do you know the difference between of EQMs and RDMs? Do you want to get upgraded every time you fly or do you just want a free ticket?

Elite Qualification Miles (EQM), often times also known as Butt-in-seat miles (BIS) are miles that you earn the hard way, meaning you actually have to sit for these flights to get the miles. These miles count toward your qualification for elite status with the airline. 25K EQMs can get you Silver with the major U.S. Airlines. Granted, Silver will not get you the best upgrade percentage, but it's still better than nothing. You get free checked bag, some bonus miles for flying, priority check-in, etc...

Redeemable Miles (RDM) include bonus miles you earn from flying aside from EQMs and miles you earn without flying. Such as promotional miles you earn from credit cards, hotel stays, rental cars, shopping, dinning, etc... These miles do not count toward qualification of your elite status. They, however, can get you free ticket to your dream destination provided that you have enough of them for an award redemption.

25k miles may sound like alot of flying consider NYC-Hong Kong is less than 8k miles. But occasionally, airlines will run promotions that give out bonus EQMs. This year's example is Delta and American's Double EQM promotion for RT flights from/to any of the 4 airports (BNA, STL, PIT, RDU). I did one run out of PIT which I will discuss later.

Also these days, you can have enough EQMs to be a Silver or even Gold Elite without even stepping your foot on an aircraft. Although I think that sort of defeats the purpose of having Elite status in the first place. If you're not flying enough, you won't really benefit from having status with your preferred airlines. There are numerous credit card offers that reward EQMs when you sign up with promise you additional EQMs when reaching a specific spending threshold. Airlines often transfer from one program to another. This year's example is Delta's offering of 25K EQMs for transfer of 50K Amex Membership Rewards points into Delta's SkyMiles account.