The July issue of Kiplinger's has an article on using ff points and the problems and some helpful thoughts starting on page 88. Happy reading!

Many of the people interviewed for that article are regular contributors to FlyerTalk. I have not seen the article yet, but look forward to reading it.

Anyone know if this is available online anywhere?

Go to this webpage, and you can find it through there:

http://www.kiplinger.com/magazine/maghome.html

As one of the people quoted in this article, I want to clarify my comment for FlyerTalk - and for anyone from Delta who might read this. (There wasn't space for everything I said in the article. On balance, I think the authors did a great job.)

1. It was the L fare issue that pushed me over the edge with Delta, but their lack of non-stops from Boston to my regular West Coast and European destinations was also a factor. I put up with connections as long as I could get upgraded regularly. As soon as that stopped, with the L fare bit, I figured non-stops were worth switching airlines for.

2. Technically, Delta does not require "full coach fare" for an upgradeable seat. I don't recall saying they do. (That's not attributed to me. It's just in the same paragraph.) There are upgradeable fares at slight discounts from full coach. In my experience, the figure of 3-4x the lowest coach fare for the lowest upgradeable fare isn't far off, though I would probably have said 2-3x. (I know Delta denies the premium is this high, but many people in the Delta forum here and in other places have confirmed it.)

3. The $30,000 figure for Delta's annual revenue loss includes family and colleagues who accompany me on my choice of flights.

As far as I can tell, the July issue is not yet online, which I think would be why I can't find the article ...

As for the whole DL thing ... geez ... there you go scaring away more people ... more upgrades for me!