Status Currencies Explained: Tier Points, MQDs, PQPs, XP and Loyalty Points

Ask ten frequent travellers how close they are to their next tier and most will give you a number without a unit. The number means nothing without knowing which programme it belongs to, because every major airline and hotel chain measures status qualification in a completely different currency, and none of those currencies are comparable to each other.

Why a shared language for status does not exist

The loyalty industry grew programme by programme, carrier by carrier, with each operator designing a qualification system that suited its own pricing model and customer base. The result is a set of currencies that share almost nothing in common: one programme counts the dollar value of tickets you buy, another counts a weighted interpretation of miles flown, a third counts calendar nights in its hotels. All of them get called "qualifying" something, but that word does the heavy lifting of disguising how incompatible they are.

The practical consequence is this: there is no exchange rate between these currencies. Saying you have 75,000 Loyalty Points and 300 XP and 50 qualifying nights is like saying you have dollars, euros, and apples. Each figure is precise and meaningful within its own programme. Across programmes, comparison is simply not possible.

This guide is a plain-English Rosetta Stone. For each currency: what it is, which programme uses it, how you earn it, and one worked sense of scale. For the bigger picture of how to manage all of them at once, see our guide to tracking elite status across programmes.

American AAdvantage: Loyalty Points

American redesigned its qualification system in 2022, moving away from the older Elite Qualifying Miles and Elite Qualifying Dollars model and replacing it with a single currency called Loyalty Points. American's official Loyalty Points page describes a system where almost every kind of engagement with the programme earns qualification credit: flights, co-brand credit card spend, and a wide range of partner activity all feed the same qualifying total.

The tier thresholds in the calendar year are Gold at 40,000 Loyalty Points, Platinum at 75,000, Platinum Pro at 125,000, and Executive Platinum at 200,000. There is no minimum flight requirement alongside the points threshold: a member who earns 75,000 Loyalty Points entirely from credit card spend qualifies for Platinum without boarding a single American flight. That makes AAdvantage one of the most accessible programmes for cardholders who travel infrequently but spend heavily, and one of the most generous for road warriors who do both.

Sense of scale: a transatlantic round trip in economy on a base fare typically earns in the range of 1,000 to 3,000 Loyalty Points from the flight itself, depending on fare class and route. The co-brand card earns one Loyalty Point per dollar spent. A member who puts USD 40,000 per year on the co-brand card and flies occasionally can reach Gold without flying at all.

United MileagePlus: Premier Qualifying Points

United MileagePlus qualifies status on Premier Qualifying Points, commonly abbreviated PQP. United's Premier qualification page sets the thresholds at Premier Silver 5,000 PQP, Gold 10,000 PQP, Platinum 18,000 PQP, and 1K at 28,000 PQP. United also offers an alternative path using Premier Qualifying Flights alongside PQP for members who fly frequently on lower fares, though the PQP-only route is the primary one for most members.

PQP is earned primarily from the dollar value of eligible United and partner fares, so a more expensive ticket earns more PQP than a cheap one on the same route. Co-brand credit card spend also contributes PQP, though the earning rate is lower than from flying. The system rewards actual spend rather than distance, which means a short but expensive business-class trip can earn far more qualification credit than a long economy bargain.

Sense of scale: a domestic round trip in United economy at a typical mid-range fare might earn 200 to 400 PQP. To reach Premier Silver at 5,000 PQP from flying alone, a member would need the equivalent of roughly 15 to 20 such trips in the calendar year, or a combination of flights and card spend that reaches that total.

Delta SkyMiles: Medallion Qualification Dollars

Delta's qualification currency is Medallion Qualification Dollars, or MQDs. The unit measures the dollar value of qualifying purchases on Delta and eligible partner activity, which means the mechanism is conceptually similar to United's PQP: spend more, earn more qualification credit. Delta's official Medallion qualification page is the correct reference for current tier thresholds, because Delta adjusts MQD figures periodically and the current numbers should always be confirmed there rather than from a third-party source.

What is worth noting qualitatively is that Delta's approach, like United's, has shifted the industry's centre of gravity from miles-flown models toward spend-based models. The logic from the airline's perspective is straightforward: a passenger who buys expensive seats is more valuable than one who flies long distances on deep-discount fares. The MQD system encodes that preference directly into the qualification currency.

British Airways Executive Club: Tier Points

British Airways uses Tier Points, which are awarded per flight segment based on a combination of route distance and the fare class booked. British Airways' tiers and benefits page sets the thresholds at Bronze 3,500 Tier Points, Silver 7,500, and Gold 20,000, with Gold Guest List beginning at 65,000. The qualification year runs from April to March, which is an important distinction for members who also hold US-based status on a calendar year: the two clocks do not overlap.

Tier Points are entirely flight-based: there is no credit-card spend route into Tier Point accumulation. A long-haul flight in a high fare class earns far more Tier Points than a short-haul economy booking. A Club World (business class) return from London to New York earns around 320 Tier Points on a standard fare; a hand-baggage-only economy ticket on a short European route can earn as few as 20. The spread is enormous, which makes fare class selection the most important lever in any Tier Point strategy.

Sense of scale: reaching Silver at 7,500 Tier Points from London typically requires roughly 24 to 30 short-haul economy returns or around 8 to 12 long-haul economy returns, depending on route and fare class. Booking business class compresses that significantly.

Air France-KLM Flying Blue: Experience Points

Flying Blue uses Experience Points, abbreviated XP, on a rolling 12-month basis. Unlike most programmes that use a fixed qualification year, Flying Blue recalculates your XP total daily across the most recent 12 months. That means your status can rise or fall at any moment, which creates a fundamentally different planning dynamic than a calendar-year reset.

Flying Blue's official earning page describes XP as earned from eligible flights on Air France, KLM, and partner carriers. The tier thresholds are Silver at 100 XP, Gold at 180 XP, Platinum at 300 XP, and Ultimate at 1,500 XP. Those numbers are deliberately small, because XP is a tightly rationed unit: a long-haul return in economy typically earns somewhere in the range of 4 to 8 XP, while a business-class long-haul return can earn 15 to 30 XP or more, depending on fare.

Sense of scale: reaching Platinum at 300 XP requires the equivalent of roughly 10 to 15 long-haul business-class round trips per rolling year, or a higher number of shorter or lower-class trips. The rolling window means a member who flew heavily six months ago and has since slowed down will see their XP total gradually shrink as older flights age out of the 12-month window.

Lufthansa Miles & More and Singapore KrisFlyer

Not every programme fits the four models above. Lufthansa Miles & More qualifies status on what it calls Status Miles, a unit derived from the distance flown and the cabin and fare class booked. Miles & More's official status qualification page describes the current tier thresholds and how Status Miles are calculated per flight segment.

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer uses a similar distance-and-class model, with Elite Miles as the qualification currency. KrisFlyer's elite qualification page covers how Elite Miles are earned on Singapore and partner flights. Both Lufthansa and Singapore require flight activity to qualify: unlike AAdvantage, neither programme offers a meaningful card-spend route into status. They reward travellers who actually fly in premium cabins on their metal, which is a genuinely different strategic target.

Hotel programmes: qualifying nights, not points

Most major hotel loyalty programmes measure status qualification in qualifying nights rather than any kind of points currency. This is a significant structural difference from the airline world. The points you accumulate from hotel stays are a redeemable balance for award nights and transfers. They are separate from the qualifying night count that determines your tier.

Marriott Bonvoy sets Platinum Elite at 50 qualifying nights per calendar year and Titanium Elite at 75 nights. Hilton Honors sets Diamond at 50 qualifying nights. World of Hyatt sets Globalist at 60 qualifying nights. IHG One Rewards sets Diamond at 70 qualifying nights. In each case, a qualifying night is a night actually spent at an eligible property in a paid or award rate: time spent in meeting rooms or day-use bookings generally does not count.

The qualifying-night model makes hotel status more directly tied to physical presence than most airline programmes. You cannot earn your way to Marriott Platinum on credit card spend alone: the 50 nights must be actual stays. That is the trade-off for a system that is also more transparent, because a night is a night regardless of what you paid.

For a complete breakdown of how hotel qualifying nights are defined, counted, and credited, see our guide to how hotel elite nights are counted.

The core lesson: no conversion is possible

Holding all of these currencies in a single comparison is a category error. The question "is 75,000 Loyalty Points better than 300 XP?" has no answer, because the two figures exist in entirely separate systems with no exchange rate between them. 75,000 AAdvantage Loyalty Points earns Platinum status. 300 Flying Blue XP also earns Platinum status. The identical outcome does not mean the inputs are equivalent: they are just two programmes that happen to use the same tier name.

The same applies across the airline and hotel divide. Comparing 50 Marriott qualifying nights with 5,000 United PQP tells you nothing useful. Each figure only has meaning relative to the thresholds and benefits of its own programme.

This is the reason that cross-programme status management requires a fundamentally different approach from managing a single programme. You cannot summarise your position with one number. You need a view that shows each programme in its own unit, with its own threshold and its own renewal date. A cross-programme tracker like Miles Mosaic shows each programme in its own unit and can forecast renewal from your booked trips, so you can see whether you are on track for each programme independently, without opening a separate app for each one.

Qualification years: another axis of incomparability

Beyond the currency mismatch, the programmes do not even measure time the same way. Most US airline programmes and the major hotel chains use a calendar year, with the clock resetting on 1 January. British Airways runs its April to March year. Flying Blue operates on a rolling 12-month window that recalculates daily. Several programmes tie the qualification year to the member's personal anniversary date.

The practical result is that you can be in the final weeks of one programme's qualification year while being in the middle of another's, and halfway through a third that has no fixed end at all. The only safe habit is to record each programme's renewal date explicitly and treat it as a separate deadline rather than assuming they all expire together. We map the reset dates for every major programme in the status qualification calendar.

A reference table for 2026

The figures below were verified against the official programme pages listed in the sources section. Always confirm the current thresholds before making a status decision, because programmes do change these without advance notice.

• American AAdvantage (Loyalty Points, calendar year): Gold 40,000 / Platinum 75,000 / Platinum Pro 125,000 / Executive Platinum 200,000. Earned from flights, co-brand card spend, and partners.
• United MileagePlus (PQP, calendar year): Silver 5,000 / Gold 10,000 / Platinum 18,000 / 1K 28,000. Earned primarily from ticket spend; co-brand card contributes at a lower rate.
• Delta SkyMiles (MQD, calendar year): Current thresholds on Delta's Medallion qualification page. Earned from eligible ticket spend on Delta and partners.
• British Airways Executive Club (Tier Points, April to March): Bronze 3,500 / Silver 7,500 / Gold 20,000 / Gold Guest List 65,000. Earned from flights only, weighted by distance and fare class.
• Flying Blue (XP, rolling 12 months): Silver 100 / Gold 180 / Platinum 300 / Ultimate 1,500. Earned from eligible flights on Air France, KLM, and partners.
• Marriott Bonvoy (qualifying nights, calendar year): Silver 10 / Gold 25 / Platinum 50 / Titanium 75 / Ambassador 100 nights plus USD 23,000 qualifying spend.
• Hilton Honors (qualifying nights, calendar year): Silver 10 / Gold 25 / Diamond 50.
• World of Hyatt (qualifying nights, calendar year): Discoverist 10 / Explorist 30 / Globalist 60.

What to do with this knowledge

Understanding which currency each programme uses is the foundation of any multi-programme strategy. Once you know the unit, you can plan: which trips contribute qualification credit to which programme, how far you are from each threshold, and which year-end deadline is closest. Miles Mosaic, for example, never asks for a loyalty password and never logs into your accounts; you enter your qualifying totals directly, and the tool handles the projection.

The next step is to decide which programmes are worth defending and which are not. Status is worth the effort only when the benefits you actually use exceed the cost of requalification. That calculation requires knowing the threshold in the right unit, which is exactly what this guide gives you.

If you want to start tracking your qualifying totals in one place today, you can create a free account and add the programmes you already hold. Add your booked trips and you will see a renewal forecast for each programme without sharing a single loyalty password.