Originally Posted by Jereld

Hi everyone, I am a new member here! I have a ton of questions, but I have not had much luck finding answers on the forums. My questions are pretty loosely scattered and not often related, so I am hoping someone can possibly point me in the right direction. I am willing to do my own research, but just looking for someone to point me to the right forums/posts, etc.

My main question is #4 below, that is why I am doing all of this research. It might help to take a look at that first for context.

1. What are the best SkyTeam partners for flying US to Asia? When I say best I mean from the standpoint of:
   1. Lowest cost for flying D1 (if on Delta metal), or a similar class on partner metal?
      garykung mentioned KE. DL also has a partnership with MU (China Eastern), which may be an option when normal service levels return. I've seen decent MU fares out of West Coast gateways like LAX, or at least I did pre-COVID when I was looking at trips where MU was an option. MU has a decent looking hard-product (J seat), at least on their 777s but there are very mixed reviews on the soft-product (service, food, etc.) along with other gripes.
   2. Best point redemption options?
      "Best" is debatable but generally with DL/SkyTeam, the "best" redemptions are when you redeem on partner metal but that product may (or may not) be better than DL's options and some airlines only release 1 seat to partners for award redemption so trying to plan award trips for more than 1 person could be difficult.
   3. For reference, a user on Reddit tipped me off that I can transfer my AMEX MR points to Virgin Atlantic with a 30% bonus, and then I can book D1 US to EU on Virgin Atlantic for approximately 39k miles (with 30% bonus) one way. I am looking for similar types of deals, but US to Asia.
      If you can find it, that'd be great but know that using SkyTeam partners to book award redemptions on DL requires DL releasing award seats to partners, just like booking award seats on partners with SkyMiles requires those airlines releasing award redemptions to DL.
2. When flying Delta, are there any tips or tricks to doing an upgrade with points? As I understand it, there is no way to know if a points upgrade will be available until after you book?
   1. Is it better to book further out, or closer to departure date to get a point upgrade offer?
      DL does generally offer buy-ups for cash or miles once your reservation is ticketed but these buy-ups are dynamic. Even for domestic First Class flights I've seen the buy-up be $1200 one day and then $100 the next day on a short domestic hop and then the next day, it may be gone completely with no offer, then return the following day and be $1200 again.
   2. Has anyone compiled any charts for points upgrades? i.e. If I want to fly from MCO to SGP is there a redemption rate that I should anticipate/aim for? 60k miles each way? 80k miles?
      N/A - I don't know
   3. I am guessing the upgrade cost will be based on the purchased fare? Do I have a better chance of getting an upgrade offer if I purchase premium select vs main cabin or C+?
      N/A - I don't know
3. Any thoughts on the "best" (cheapest) airport in the US for trips to Asia? I live in Orlando, but am finding fewer options (especially for award redemptions) than if I pick DTW or JFK as my departing airport.
   As garykung noted, check LAX (and other West Coast gateways). Don't be afraid to book positioning flights on a separate ticket. We ended up taking another trip but at one point we were considering a trip to Thailand while I was living in Texas. SAT/AUS-Thailand was $5K+ in J. LAX-Thailand could be purchased for around $2-2.5K. A positioning flight from SAT/AUS to LAX could be obtained for just a couple hundred bucks in Y, and slightly more in F. If you do this, I recommend trying to stay within the same alliance. Further risk reduction can be taken by building in an overnight at LAX (though this does add to cost as well as time). If you do it on the same day, DL will through-check luggage across separate tickets to certain airlines, including MU and KE.
4. The questions I am asking above are ultimately me doing research for several trips to Asia next year. I want to do my own research, but if someone wants to look at my specific trip and provide some guidance, here are those details:
   1. Planning 2-3 trips to Asia in 2022 for a family of 3. I want to go to Manila, Singapore, and Seoul, and I want to try to do D1, however I don't want to pay the approx. $8k per ticket, per trip.
      As mentioned, check major gate-ways for possibly cheaper fares and look to use positioning flights. Don't be afraid to combine cash and award tickets too. I.e. you could look for an award ticket to ICN/PVG, etc. and then book an onward trip with cash to MNL, SIN, etc.
   2. I am Platinum with Delta, and will be trying to get to Diamond in 2022. I will be fine on MQM's, but will need MQD's.
      1. Completely fine using another airline, but would prefer at least to use SkyTeam so I can get the miles/MQM/MQD's.
         While you can always ask and get a million different opinions on FT, only you can evaluate and determine whether it's worth it to fly a SkyTeam carrier to get MQMs/MQDs or pass up the opportunity costs there to go with another product. Of course if you fly enough trips, you may also be able to obtain status within Oneworld or Star Alliance.
   3. I have around 275k miles, 250 AMEX MR points, and 800k Marriott points. Pretty sure I can't transfer Hilton points, but if I can, I have around 1.3M Hilton points.
      Transferring hotel points to airline miles is generally a bad redemption value unless there is some crazy transfer bonus going on (and even then it's still probably not great, but at least better). You're better off using your hotel points for hotel redemptions.
      With DL miles, you can use "Pay with Miles" (I think this is still only an option if you have a DL-branded AmEx linked to your SkyMiles account but I could be wrong) that translates to $0.01/mile. So if you use 10,000 miles, you can reduce the fare by $100. One caveat to this is all flights must be operated by DL/DL Connection metal. So you can't use this option to book KE to ICN or even an onward flight from ICN. You would have to book it as DL metal to ICN and then book ICN-XXX on KE as a separate ticket, which may or may not be worthwhile.
   4. I am trying to keep my per-ticket price to $2500 for each person per trip.
      As noted, some options may offer that but could require significant playing with/searching through various options.
5. Any recommendations for tools/sites that can help?
   1. I already got some great info from the r/awardtravel sub-reddit.
      N/A - I have minimal experience with Reddit
   2. Some folks recommended I check out award hacker, however I am not finding as much there as I would have hoped.
      N/A - no experience here

I realize this is a lot, but really just looking for a place to start.