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Old Jan 24, 2019, 11:40 am
  #145  
ijgordon
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Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: NYC
Posts: 27,190
Originally Posted by btonkid12345
If you had taken the 38K miles offer, yes, you would earn 50% bonus MQMs.

Both your current OY upgrade or the 38K miles upgrade booking into probably Z make you eligible for domestic SDC, but you will have a much easier time with a Z class ticket than an OY class ticket.

The email confirmation shows O and it doesn't show the 2nd letter. That's normal.

I personally would call back and press for the 20K. They can undo what they did and reinstate your previous ticket. If not, and I had decided to burn 35K on JFK-SLC, I would pay the 38K (3K difference) for the 50% bonus MQMs, plus you will probably make up the 3K in more RDMs rewarded (as the system will give you at least 5x and up to 11x for your extra ~$400 in "spend")
Thanks for the commentary. Just spoke to another agent who chalked it up to there not being the appropriate inventory for the lower-level 20k mile award, so it came out of a higher class. I didn't have high confidence in the info received though. She kept referred to the higher level as the "new" process that lets you upgrade to any available seat depending on the inventory and said it was 35 because there was only full J inventory available. That is true now, but when I upgraded it was also showing D1 C1 I1 Z1. And before that D/C/I/Z seat was released (thanks ExpertFlyer!), they wanted $800+ for the upgrade into J.

Also, I asked what class the traditional upgrade should normally book into and she threw out L/U/T, but I think she must have been confused between the original booking class and the upgrade class, as she was also by that point talking about a 25k upgrade price.

I don't want to undo anything in case the release of my seat doesn't go back into Z inventory. So I'll just hold for now and maybe write in for clarification anyway.

I guess I am a little bummed about the 50% bonus MQMs and as a Gold, I'd earn ~3,200 RDMs extra which would have funded the difference. But I was on the phone and had to make a go/no-go decision quickly and didn't think it all through.

I think I do get SDC as Gold anyway, and while having unrestricted ability to change to any other available flight in FC is nice, I'm unlikely to use it in this case.
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