I am 5,000 points away from 25,000 MGM miles for 2012. As I am sure you guys know, Delta is letting people purchase MQM miles to reach 2012 status until January 31.
The simple question is: Is Silver worth it for $595? Are upgrades frequent enough for Silvers? One of the benefits I would like - Same Day Standby - doesn't appear to be available with Silver.
I fly mainly out of LGA and have 8 or so domestic round trips with Delta a year.
Upgrades from LGA are probably tough for FOs.
Next time, plan ahead and calculate if you can reach 25,000 MQMs before the end of the year. If necessary, do a mileage run at <5 cpMQM instead of the purchase rate of 12 cpMQM.
Programs: Delta Gold Medallion, American AAdvantage, Southwest Rapid Rewards
Posts: 742
Worth $595 for 8 trips? Probably not but that would depend on which benefits you use the most. Do you have any of the DL AmExs? If so, then you'd already get one free bag. How often do you need two checked bags? If you usually check two, then the $50 per round trip on 8 trips would be $400, which is already starting to make the $595 look like it *might* be worth it once you add in the additional benefits.
Upgrades depend heavily on route and day of the week/time of day. I averaged about 25-30% on flights where I was upgrade eligible (ironically I did decent when going in or out of LGA, but I never went through ATL or any of the main hubs; just RDU-LGA-RDU and CVG-LGA-GSO).
One perk is access to premium seats (Exit Row) at time of booking, Discounted Economy Comfort when purchased in advance, and then free Economy Comfort when check-in opens. But that $595 could buy a lot of Economy Comfort Seats.
And no, Same-day Standby/Same-day Confirmed is only available to Gold Medallions and up.
Mileage Bonus of 25%. Every little bit helps but it's not that much.
To answer your question I would initially say "probably not" but that really depends on your travel habits.
__________________ Life Happens 10 Yards at a Time New York Giants - Super Bowl XXI, XXV, XLII, & XLVI Champs
Upgrades from LGA are probably tough for FOs.
Next time, plan ahead and calculate if you can reach 25,000 MQMs before the end of the year. If necessary, do a mileage run at <5 cpMQM instead of the purchase rate of 12 cpMQM.
Worth $595 for 8 trips? Probably not but that would depend on which benefits you use the most. Do you have any of the DL AmExs? If so, then you'd already get one free bag. How often do you need two checked bags? If you usually check two, then the $50 per round trip on 8 trips would be $400, which is already starting to make the $595 look like it *might* be worth it once you add in the additional benefits.
Upgrades depend heavily on route and day of the week/time of day. I averaged about 25-30% on flights where I was upgrade eligible (ironically I did decent when going in or out of LGA, but I never went through ATL or any of the main hubs; just RDU-LGA-RDU and CVG-LGA-GSO).
One perk is access to premium seats (Exit Row) at time of booking, Discounted Economy Comfort when purchased in advance, and then free Economy Comfort when check-in opens. But that $595 could buy a lot of Economy Comfort Seats.
And no, Same-day Standby/Same-day Confirmed is only available to Gold Medallions and up.
Mileage Bonus of 25%. Every little bit helps but it's not that much.
To answer your question I would initially say "probably not" but that really depends on your travel habits.
I don't have a Delta branded Amex and I avoid checking bags at all costs. But I do have a $200 incidental reimbursement from Amex Platinum that I will likely use to cover Delta expenses like baggage.
The mileage bonus could work if I were to gun towards Gold status on delta; however, it appears unlikely that I will do that in 2013 given my current travel habits.
I do enjoy Economy Comfort on Delta, but as you point out, that tends to be available for $20 bucks or so a flight. That's $320 a year (and I do believe these are reimbursable with platinum as well)
The main value for me would be F upgrades, and it seems like those are hard to come by
I was FO for 5+ years. I enjoyed the exit rows and occasional upgrade. Free bag too. If you have the $, do it. Give it a year and see how you like it . When you do get the occasional upgrade ill admit as you sit there with a drink in 1st, it all seems worth it
C'mon guys. Get upgraded twice and you've already leveled off that $600. Let's not forget the value of that "free" seat you're sitting in. Not to mention the numerous other perks like the free bag and getting to select a seat in Y that isn't suicide encouragement. Plus, though we FOs technically don't have this privilege on paper, last year in BOS I arrived Mon morning and the security line was hundreds deep and moving at a snail's pace. Screw that... I flashed my Silver card at Sky Priority and instead of watching everyone in the airport do the TSA dance, I was enjoying breakfast.
Plus, though we FOs technically don't have this privilege on paper, last year in BOS I arrived Mon morning and the security line was hundreds deep and moving at a snail's pace. Screw that... I flashed my Silver card at Sky Priority and instead of watching everyone in the airport do the TSA dance, I was enjoying breakfast.
Sounds like you got lucky - the bouncers in the SkyPriority line at BOS are usually pretty good about keeping out the lowly FOs. I wish the GAs were half as adept at enforcing zone boarding as the security folks are at enforcing the SP line.
Only you can decide, but I am going on my third year of FO. It gets parroted on here over and over that it is worthless but I think folks are just repeating what they have seen parroted, so the myth continues.
If you are only going to make FO for one year the value may be minimal. In order of importance to me are,
Ability to select exit seats on a crj 200 I can also pick row one. The 200 is awful and even with the purchase of a first class ticket you cannot choose the preferred seat on this plane, but I use the word preferred loosely in the case of the crj
EC seat at 24 hours is okay. If I care I usually purchase in advance
Rollover MQMs is the biggest benefit for me. If you don't hit FO you lose it. I was lucky this year and rolled over 18k.
I would have to check but I rode in first at least 12 times out of 56 segments, but many of this segments were on the crj with no first. That is a nice surprise.
I have been able to use sky priority in many airports even when I was not upgraded. In on instance it save me at least 30 minutes at MCI at the baggage drop.
I have taken a VDB voucher twice in 2012 at both times I was rebooked into Y and was at the top of the upgrade list and got the upgrades each time. You don't get this with Amex
2 times I have missed my connection due to weather delays. Again I was rebooked into Y and hit the top of the list and rode in the front of the plane.
FO line who knows if it is better, but I get a real person quickly.
).
