galacticb

Hello everyone,

This is my first post, so please be gentle on me if I happen to have put this post in the wrong place. My wife and I are taking a Mediterranean cruise for a belated honeymoon this May/June. We are super excited but are trying to figure out if there is any way to upgrade our airfare for a more comfortable trip (since it is our honeymoon after all ).

We fly the following itineraries on Delta:
5/29 DL 2344 Seattle (SEA) --> New York (JFK)
5/29 DL 1041 New York (JFK) --> Rome (FCO)

6/15 DL 9685 Venice (VCE) --> Amsterdam (AMS)
6/15 DL 233 Amsterdam (AMS)--> Seattle (SEA)

Note that DL 1041 is operated by Alitalia and DL 9685 is operated by KLM.

We booked our itinerary through Celebrity's ChoiceAir program and really wanted to fly Business class since it was our honeymoon. However, the price was too expensive, so we compromised and booked the last leg of our flight (DL 233) in Business class and the rest in Economy. Our fare class is V for DL 2344/1041 and Y for DL 9685.

My question for all of the savvy travelers out there: Is there any chance to upgrade part or all of the other 3 legs of my flight to either Economy Plus or Business class using charm, miles, or an amount of money that won't make me forever poor?

I'm assuming that the days of free/cheap upgrades for honeymooners is over, but I'm totally willing to play that card if it would help at all. Otherwise, I have about 30,000 miles on Delta, and my wife probably has around 15,000 miles. Unfortunately, neither of us has any sort of status with Delta. We would be willing to pay cash for upgrades, but the original cost of roughly $1,000 per ticket (to upgrade to Business class) was too much for us to stomach.

Thanks in advance for any help that you might be able to provide! We really appreciate it.

- GalacticB

rwoman

On an international itinerary, you'd need an M fare (expensive) or higher to upgrade with miles. Delta does not offer a paid upgrade option other than rebooking the fare as a business class fare.

To be honest, your best bet would've been the +$1k per person at booking.

Also, if you're looking to earn miles (redeemable and/or MQMs), keep in mind the 3rd party booking may be a consolidator or unpublished fare which earn fewer miles.

Zeeb

Your best bet is to just pay for economy comfort. Not a huge upgrade, but for a long flight those extra inches can make a huge difference in comfort.

mnbp

On Delta, Economy Comfort is a "for sale" assigned seat in the coach cabin, so you don't "rebook" your ticket, rather you just pay the fee for the seat assignment.

Since you've got Business on the AMS-SEA leg, you are in for a treat - the new A330-300 interior is awesome!

galacticb

Thanks for the super-fast replies everyone.

Regarding Economy Comfort, I see that is a $99 option for the SEA --> JFK flight operated by Delta. However, I don't see any options like that for the JFK --> FCO flight operated by Alitalia. Is there any upgrade that would be possible on that flight, or am I basically stuck in standard Economy?

Thanks again for all of your help!

P.S. Slightly off-topic but on my mind at the moment: We have a 2hr 30min layover in JFK for our outbound flight. If I understand correctly, I likely will have to go outside security to get from Terminal 2 (where Delta is) to Terminal 1 (where Aitalia is). Is this correct, and do you think that this should leave me enough time? Thanks again!

rwoman

Probably not many options with the Alitalia TATL flight.

At JFK, you will have to go landside from T2 to T1. You can walk or take the AirTrain

fti

Note that Choice Air tickets are highly restrictive tickets. I would be surprised if you even get 25% miles.

No economy comfort equivalent on Alitalia that I am aware of.

fredjr

Congrats to you both.
I am more comfortable on the cruise forums like Cruise Critic, but I can address booking through Celebrity and the RCI Cruise Air ticketing.
You are, more than likely on a consolidator series of tickets. It is extremely difficult to determine the appropriate fare code, regardless of what your ticket shows. The Cruise Air ticketing upgrade is also almost totally impossible without both additional fees from RCI and the airlines.
The only option I see is adding the economy comfort portion from SEA to JFK. You can do this on the Delta website if there are still seats available.
Wish I had better news for you.

galacticb

Thanks for the information everyone. I really appreciate the help (even if it isn't the best news).

I'm sure that we will have a blast regardless!

- GalacticB

brocklee9000

Here's my two cents. Last year, my parents booked a cruise for all of us on Royal Caribbean and unbeknownst to me, booked air travel for themselves and for me via Choice Air. Had I known, I would have steered them away, as it ended up being a bit of a headache due to schedule changes, flight number changes, and other factors. Luckily, they knew to book all my flights on DL. They earned full RDMs and MQMs (and had MQDs been in effect, they earned those as well). I was also able to secure economy comfort seats, and as a newly minted FO, scored a couple upgrades. Maybe some of the fares Choice Air provides are consolidator fares, but when I did a search on DL.com last year and compared the itinerary sent from Choice Air, they provided the exact same flights, times, and prices.

nebraskaboy

Not necessarily true. In the past there has been one Alitalia flight JFK-FCO that leaves from T4. Made the mistake myself of assuming I needed to walk over to T1. Barely made the flight when I had to rush back to T4.

Moral of the story - always check your departure gate!

galacticb

Thanks for the information! I too was able to find the exact same itineraries on Delta's own website. We used Choice Air as a way to book two one-way itineraries since we wanted to arrive in Rome and end in Venice. I'm crossing my fingers that we will get the full credit.

Yikes, that is really good information to know!!! I will be sure to triple-check the terminal/gate information before we leave. Hopefully we will have enough time to make it to whichever terminal we need to reach.

Thanks again to everyone!

JTmoney

If you can find a way to get into Magnifica class (J) on that Alitalia leg, you won't be disappointed! They have really improved that service and equipment.

rwoman

Thanks for the update...I just avoid AZ.

rylan

As others have mentioned, upgrade with your ticket on SEA-JFK and JFK-FCO aren't going to happen, especially with JFK-FCO being a codeshare operated by Alitalia. V is the lowest available fare bucket. Sure you can ask the Alitalia gate agent in JFK, but expect the answer to be 'Sorry that is not possible'.

For the segment booked in Y from VCE-AMS you should at least be able to select preferred or EC seats on KLM. You'd probably need to get the record locator for KLM and pull up the flight on their website to select a seat and have it 'stick'.