Where does the Delta term “FO” Come From?
For those of you who may not know, Delta uses the designation “FO” to refer to their Silver Medallion Members, or those who fly 25,000-49,999 miles per year. But have you ever wondered where the term comes from? I mean there is absolutely no F or O in “Silver.”
While perusing FlyerTalk today, I came across this post, which seems to have the definitive a few posts down:
FO does indeed stand for “Flys Often” and was the designator for the original Medallion member (back before there were multiple Medallion levels). To this date, it remains the designator for Silver Medallion. The original qualification requirements for Medallion level were much the same as they are today for Silver Medallion.Funny how an airline really used to value people who flew 25,000 miles a year on the carrier (and at that time there were no MQMs and each flight earned a minimum of 1000 miles), which was the qualification requirement for Medallion level. Now, fly 25,000 miles and you mean very little to the carrier.
I find it funny that one who flew 25k miles a year was thought to fly a ton.. O how the times are a changin…
O those good ol’ flying days….
Point Me to the Miles 