davenull

I'm flying roundtrip to Tokyo/NRT from ATL in November and am trying to figure out my best options. I am GM on Delta, all domestic though so international is new territory for me. The regular bizclass fare for the direct flight I see is $8500+ vs. coach $1083, or couple hundred more for the M fare. As a GM, what are odds I would get an upgrade if I bought the M fare?

I also see I can fly NWA bizclass from LAX for $2900 (plus cost of flight to lax). Would I be better off going that way or connecting somewhere else?

Any experienced travellers on this route have some recommendations for me?

castle

I don't know your odds, but I'd book with a First Guarantee. It is to long of a flight to gamble. I'd also check CO. These and NW miles will transfer. I flew BF a few months ago on CO for about 6k and 12,500 miles.

DLfan

Hi davenull and welcome to FT and the DL forum.

How are you planning to upgrade? The unlimited medallion upgrades do not apply to international flights. Your options for upgrading as a GM basically come down to using miles on an M, B, or Y fare. You can ask the DL agent on the phone to check your dates and upgrade award availability. If available, it can be confirmed immediately. If not, you'll have to decide if you think its worth the extra money for the M+ fare with no guarantee that the upgrade will clear (and ATL-NRT v.v. is notoriously difficult to get upgraded).

If the difference is only a couple hundred dollars, I would probably gamble. Some posters here have had success with waitlisted upgrades clearing on that flight. Others simply refuse to book the M+ without a confirmed upgrade. Remember if you do opt for the waitlist, DL does not clear international upgrades on the day of departure AND you'll likely be in competition with a PM or two for the B/E seat.

Good luck.

Delta Hog

Does anyone else look at paying for upgrades the way I do? No way I would ever pay $1000 (or more) more for a biz-class seat anywhere in the world, versus the coach rate.

My calculus is, if I already had a biz class seat, and someone said "I would pay you $1,000 to sit in coach for this flight," I would take it in a heartbeat. Every time, even on an 18-hour flight. That's still 50+ dollars/hour just to endure the difference between biz and coach. Nice work if you can get it.

Therefore, the reverse -- not paying 1k more to sit in biz versus coach -- must hold true. Does anyone else look at it this way?

Spiff

I do. If there's a premium to be paid, it better be tiny. That's why I don't fly internationally with DL anymore except on awards and that's one of the main reasons I've abandoned flying DL pretty much at all...

indufan

On an 18 hour flight? No, I wouldn't take the $1,000. On a 1 hour flight, yes. Where the breakpoint is, I am not sure.

heckler

Only way to go is to buy a M, B, or Y fare and upgrade with Skymiles (25,000 each direction). If you can confirm that you are upgraded to "Z" class with miles at time of purchase, then that would be the way to go. No pacing or worrying about whether you'll clear the waitlist.

I might also recommend that if you do end up waitlisted (or decide to go that route), that you fly the flight during the mid-week period (tues-thurs), as the loads seem to be lighter - and some business people travel on weekends to be at their destinations for monday mornings. The benefit? Potentially more free seats (in Business to upgrade to and clear the waitlist), and in coach to sprawl or stretch into, if you don't clear the waitlist.

No real science here, but my travels and investigations have led me to believe mid-week flights are less crowded, in general..

FlyingDoc

I was recently faced with a similar decision; I was flying from my home in LIT to NRT, but on DL I would have had to connect to the ATL-NRT flight (or I could have connect to a code share Korean Air flight in LAX). They wanted $7800 RT in business on DL for LIT-NRT for a trip last month.

I chose the $2900 Northwest LAX-NRT flight, got a ~$450 LIT-LAX roundtrip on DL which I could (and did) upgrade using Medallion upgrades and for less than half of what Delta wanted to charge, I flew in First and business to NRT.

The NW LAX-NRT flight was very nice. They were flying an older NW 747 with their "old" World Business Class, but it was really pretty comfortable. I understand that their new World Business Class is even better. There was probably a little less leg room than DL BusinessElite, but not much difference. The food was much better than what I've seen on DL recently. The service was attentive and the flights were on time. And I got Skymiles for the whole trip.

So, at least in my experience, the LAX-NRT Northwest option is a good one. I would definitely do it again. Good luck in planning your trip.

coplatua1k

For comfort I'd choose CO and BF. Its better than BE and WBC on the 747. On CO you have the option of either IAH or EWR. Getting the upgrade can be difficult but if you score it you'll enjoy the trip. Before you do anything check http://www.1stair.net

davenull

Thanks for all the tips - I definitely did not know any of that so I'm glad I asked. The first time I called up Delta to check availability the service rep said these flights were NOT upgradeable with miles and I finally pressed her to talk to a supervisor and she corrected herself.

I ended up getting M fares for $1308 tonight, with a confirmed upgrade for 25k miles on my return flight but I'm on-request for the upgrade on the flight there. At least with BE on way back I can mutter to myself "I'm never doing THIS again" if I end up in coach on way out.

I did look at the alternate routes suggested, but it was much more money and the real inconvienence of going through a connecting city rather than the direct flight from ATL.

Is there anything I can do at this point but wait and pray? If I am upgraded will they call or email me or do I need to keep checking? Do I need to worry about checking my upgrade status or refreshing it at any point or can I be confident that if there is an upgrade to be had for me being on the list will get me it?

heckler

Not much you can do except hope that there are lots of free seats in BE on your non-confirmed leg. DL will open the waitlist and clear skymiles upgrades at a time of their choosing (based upon seat sales), so best thing is to keep up on how full BE is every couple of days. You can check this by using:

Ben Edelman's Seat Map Tool

My experience is that DL clears the waitlist later on International flights which LEAVE the United States, than those return to the US. Theory here is that more US people have the means to actually buy BE tickets, hence DL keeps the seats in limbo for a longer period of time before they throw in the towel and upgrade all those on the waitlist.

underpressure

These are very tough flights to upgrade on, forget about the weekends. If you are flexible, look at a Tuesday or Wednesday departure from ATL and a Tues, Wed return from NRT.

It is just about impossible this late to get a guaranteed upgrade on these flights. Think about the pool, there used to be NRT flights from ATL, JFK, LAX, and PDX, these are all narrowed down to the lone ATL-NRT