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Middle East Airlines Cedar Miles Program Review

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Middle East Airlines, or MEA, is the flag carrier of Lebanon. It flies to 39 destinations in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa out of BeirutRafic Hariri International Airport. MEA does not fly to the United States.

The airline’s frequent flyer program, Cedar Miles, generally offers decent redemptions, and it also has some excellent sweet spots. MEA is a SkyTeam member, so your Cedar Miles are good on a large number of partner airlines worldwide.

Middle East Airlines is a SkyTeam member
Middle East Airlines is a SkyTeam member

MEA imposes fuel surcharges on its flights, as well as those of some of its partners. The good news is that the airline cut its own fuel surcharges in half in the spring of 2015, when fuel prices dropped. The surcharges are tied to the price of the ticket, and are currently 7.5 percent of the fare. Even at that reduced rate, the fees can be quite expensive on long-haul flights, especially for business class.

PROGRAMALLIANCECURRENCY
CEDAR MILESSKYTEAMMILES
POINTS TRANSFER PARTNERS

NONE
AIRLINE PARTNER

QATAR AIRWAYS

Hubs:

  • BeirutRafic Hariri International Airport

How Can You Use Cedar Miles?

MEA is unique in that it’s a purely international airline. Lebanon is a small country without a domestic airline network.
The Cedar Miles program has three redemption charts: one for its own flights, another for SkyTeam members and a third for its nonalliance partner, Qatar Airways. All three charts are region-based.

MEA award chart
MEA award chart

All of the economy class redemptions on the MEA award chart are a decent deal. Business class, or Cedar Class, is not, though, since most of the flights are relatively short.

Unless you’re flying to or from Doha, it’s best to avoid redeeming awards on Qatar Airways. Connecting flights through Doha to other destinations are considered separate awards. If you’re heading to Doha, business class round-trip flights from the U.S. are well-priced at 140,000 miles.

The Cedar Miles program doesn’t offer a miles-plus-cash option, so you’ll have to have enough miles in your account to cover the entire cost of the award ticket.

Cedar Miles members cannot share miles, and it’s difficult to redeem miles for someone else. You have to send a physical letter to the airline requesting the redemption.

Program Perks:

  • Free stopover in Beirut on MEA flights
  • Free open jaw
  • Some sweet spots in the SkyTeam award chart
  • Miles can be used to pay for excess baggage
  • Change fee is only $50
  • Miles don’t expire for five years

Booking Quirks:

  • Fuel surcharges added to most award flights
  • One-way tickets are more than half of the cost of a roundtrip on MEA flights
  • No one-way awards or stopovers on partner airlines
  • Only some awards are bookable online
  • Limited changes allowed to existing itineraries

Best Value Awards:

MEA flights between Beirut and London take about five hours and cost 35,000 miles in economy, and 70,000 miles in business. Although that’s a good redemption rate, the best values are on the SkyTeam award chart.

All of South America is lumped into the same region, which means that round-trip flights between the U.S. and Brazil, Argentina or Chile on Delta, Aeromexico or Aerolineas Argentinas cost only 45,000 miles in economy, and 90,000 miles in business. Both are excellent values that beat the redemption rates offered by Delta, United or American.

The SkyTeam award chart. Prices are for economy class in thousands of miles.
The SkyTeam award chart. Prices are for economy class in thousands of miles.

Also on the SkyTeam award chart, Hawaii is in the same region as Central America, the Caribbean and Mexico. That means that you can fly between Hawaii and any of those destinations for only 35,000 miles in economy, and 70,000 miles in business.

Russia is another area that offers bargains. Eastern Russia, which is everything east of the Ural Mountains, is part of the North Asia region. So you can fly from the U.S. to Vladivostok or Petropavlosk-Kamchatsky for only 65,000 miles in economy, or 130,000 miles in business. That’s less than it costs to get to Moscow, which costs 70,000 in economy, and 140,000 miles in business.

Worst Value Awards:

Award flights on SkyTeam members between the Australia and Pacific region and Europe are expensive at 120,000 miles in economy and 240,000 miles in business. On MEA, flights between Gulf countries and Africa are overpriced at 80,000 miles in economy and 160,000 miles in business.

The Good Stuff: Upgrades and Elite Status

You can only purchases upgrades with miles on MEA flights. You can upgrade from economy to business class, and the cost is determined by the flight’s origin and destination.

MEA upgrade award chart
MEA upgrade award chart

Cedar Miles Elite Levels and Perks

Each level includes the perks of the previous level.

  • Silver: Preferred seat and meal selection; priority reservations, wait list, boarding, baggage handling and airport standby; extra baggage allowance of 10 kilograms or one piece of luggage; access to MEA lounges for member and one guest
  • Gold: 50 percent bonus miles on flights; guaranteed seat in economy; priority tickets at the Beirut Airport sales office; excess baggage allowance of 20 kilograms; access to SkyTeam lounges for member and one guest
  • Platinum: 75 percent bonus miles; access to MEA lounges for member and two guests

Associated Credit Cards

There are no MEA credit cards available for U.S. residents.

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How to Reach SkyTeam Elite Status Using Credit Cards

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skyteam elite status

Did you know you can get elite status on an alliance? Well you can. Here’s how to achieve it on SkyTeam. There are 20 member airlines that make up SkyTeam Alliance: Aeroflot, Aerolíneas Argentinas, AeroMéxico, AirEuropa, Air France, Alitalia, China Airlines, China Eastern, China Southern, Czech Airlines, Delta, Garuda Indonesia, Kenya Airways, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Korean Air, Middle East Airlines, Saudia, TAROM, Vietnam Airlines, and XIAMENAIR.

Benefits of SkyTeam Tier Status

SkyTeam has only two levels: SkyTeam Elite and SkyTeam Elite Plus. SkyTeam Elite has only a few benefits, but one of them is quite tangible – the Extra baggage allowance:

  • Priority check-in
  • Priority seating
  • Priority boarding
  • Priority airport standby
  • Extra baggage allowance: 22 lbs or one extra piece
skyteam
See your SkyTeam privileges

While an extra baggage allowance is a nice benefit, the real value comes with attaining the Elite Plus level. SkyTeam Elite Plus includes all the benefits of SkyTeam Elite plus the following perks:Guaranteed reservations on sold-out flights:

  • SkyPriority recognition
  • Priority at transfer desks
  • Priority at immigration and security lanes
  • Priority baggage handling
  • Access to over 600 airport SkyTeam lounges worldwide for member and a guest
  • Extra baggage allowance: 44 pounds or one extra piece

Earning SkyTeam Elite Status With Delta

  • Delta Silver status gets you SkyTeam Elite
  • Delta Gold, Platinum and Diamond get you SkyTeam Elite Plus

To reach Silver, you will need 25,000 MQMs (Medallion Qualification Miles) or 30 MQSs (Medallion Qualification Segments ) and $3,000 MQDs (Medallion Qualification Dollars). To reach Gold, you will need 50,000 MQMs or 60 MQSs and $6,000 MQDs. Reaching Gold will get you the highest SkyTeam Elite Plus level.

Credit Cards Can Help

Delta is the only U.S. airline that makes it extremely easy to reach the top alliance status with credit card spending alone.

Granted, going down that route requires paying a few high annual fees and channeling a lot of spending through cards. But if you regularly fly on SkyTeam airlines regularly, it may well be worth it.

Four Credit Cards That Can Get You to the Top SkyTeam Status

There are four American Express Delta SkyMiles Credit Cards that offer MQMs for meeting spending requirements:

One of the unique features of Delta-co-branded credit cards is that you can combine MQMs earned from any combination of these cards. Not just that, but you can even gift MQMs to another person or have them gifted to you. And Delta also has a feature called Rollover MQMs in case you’ve earned more MQMs than you need in a single year. The MQMs accrued beyond what you need for the qualification in any given year will roll over to the next qualification year.

The Platinum Delta SkyMiles® Business Credit Card from American Express card gives a substantial MQMs welcome bonus among other perks. Earn 5,000 Medallion® Qualification Miles (MQMs) and 35,000 bonus miles after you spend $1,000 in purchases on your new Card in your first 3 months. In addition, earn a $100 statement credit after you make a Delta purchase with your new Card within your first 3 months. Also you will earn 2 miles on every dollar spent on purchases made directly with Delta and 1 mile on every eligible dollar spent on purchases. Miles don't expire. Miles Boost® - Make $25,000 in purchases on the Card and earn 10,000 bonus miles and 10,000 MQMs each calendar year; make $50,000 in purchases on the Card and earn an additional 10,000 bonus miles and 10,000 MQMs each calendar year.

Each card carries a $195 price tag, but the statement credit in the first year will offset the cost.

Each Delta Reserve card (personal and business) also gives you MQMs welcome bonus. You will earn 2 Miles on every dollar spent on purchases made directly with Delta and 1 Mile on every eligible dollar spent on all other purchases. Also you can get 15,000 Medallion Qualification Miles (MQMs) and 15,000 bonus miles after you spend $30,000 on purchases on your Delta Reserve for Business Credit Card in a calendar year. Each of these cards have a $450 annual fee.

Two Approaches to Qualify for SkyTeam Elite Plus Without Flying

As a reminder, you need to earn 50,000 MQMs to achieve Gold and the corresponding SkyTeam Elite Plus. The MQD requirement will become a non-issue because Delta will waive it if you spend $25,000 or more across all your American Express Delta SkyMiles Credit Cards. To earn 50,000 MQMs you will need to spend much more.

While it’s unlikely that you will need to earn the whole 50,000 miles (because your flights on Delta or its SkyTeam partners will also contribute), but if you had to do this without ever stepping foot on a plane there are two paths to reach this goal.

Use Two Platinum Delta SkyMiles Cards to Save Money

If you get both personal and business Platinum Delta SkyMiles cards (you can apply for a business card even if you don’t have an official business), you will receive the following twice:

  • 5,000 MQMs after spending $1,000 in the first 3 months
  • 10,000 MQMs after spending another $25,000 in a calendar year
  • 10,000 MQMs more after spending another $25,000 in a calendar year

So, if you spend $51,000 on each card (or $102,000 total), you will get 50,000 MQMs and reach the Delta Gold/Skyteam Elite Plus status.

This is the most economical way to earn status, because you will also get a $100 statement credit, which will reduce your annual fee to $95 per card.

Use the Platinum Delta SkyMiles and Delta Reserve Cards for Less Spend

If a Platinum Delta SkyMiles card lets you earn 20,000 MQMs after spending $50,000 in the first year, the Delta Reserve card lets you earn 40,000 MQMs.

Let’s recap. You get 10,000 MQMs after the first purchase, 15,000 MQMs after spending $30,000, and an additional 15,000 MQMs after spending another $30,000 in a calendar year. However, you don’t need to spend all $60,000 on Delta Reserve.

Add the 20,000 MQMs you earn after spending $50,000 on the Platinum Delta SkyMiles card, and that’s enough to reach the Delta Gold/Skyteam Elite Plus status.

Cost/Benefits Comparison

With two Platinum Delta SkyMiles cards, you must spend $102,000 to reach Skyteam Elite Plus. You will only spend $195 in the annual fees and you will get more bonus redeemable SkyMiles. Follow this approach if you don’t have a problem putting $102,000 on your credit card.

With the Platinum Delta SkyMiles and Delta Reserve cards, you must spend $81,000 ($21,000 less) to reach SkyTeam Elite Plus and you get free access to SkyClubs. However, your annual fee for the first year will be $545, and you will earn less in bonus redeemable SkyMiles. Use this approach if you are struggling to put enough spend on a credit card and/or if you value free SkyClub access.

Please remember that the math will change after the first year, since there won’t be any statement credits or welcome bonuses. On the other hand, the MQM rollover feature ensures that whatever “extra” MQMs you earn in the preceding year won’t go to waste. So if you can spend more, do it to ensure you get the status beyond the first year.

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