Originally Posted by
gardengirl
I'm looking for ways to get home from HNL. I would like a lie-flat seat between midnight & morning.
I have reservation with UA using 135K miles HNL-ORD-DTW. It's the closest to a nonstop since it has the long stretch in the lie-flat. Compared to Delta One @ $2230 it's $.0165.
I can find HNL-SEA-DTW on Hawaiian for $1181. The lie-flat gives us just a nap in that midnight to morning time. Comparable UA flights can be 90K so comparing those 2 the ratio is $.013.
Delta has the best with nonstop at $2230. I've been told one of the best ways to use Delta miles is to pay cash and use miles for upgrades. If I buy the seats in main will I get an offer to upgrade with miles? The main is $780; $1124 (Comfort); $1430 (Premium).
I'm lost on this one. Help would be most appreciated.
The mileage online seat upgrade offers are just based on cash upgrade pricing at a fixed rate of 1.0 cent per mile (less 7.5% US domestic excise tax charged on cash upgrades on domestic flights). Definitely not "one of the best ways to use Delta miles" as you can generally get in 1.2 to 1.3 cent per mile range in value with awards (and sometimes considerably better with the Delta Amex 15% discount on award redemptions). Delta award redemptions do not use fixed ratios from revenue fares to award mileage pricing.
As noted above, no way to predict if there will be upgrade offers or what the pricing will be until after purchase. The cost may actually be more than just "upfaring" which involves paying fare differential between Main/C+ fares and D1 fares. You shouldn't necessarily assume they are all about making cheaper offers available. There's no hard evidence they take into original booked class/fare price into account with the online seat upgrade offers (unlike upfaring which will use price differential from original fare price). The upgrade offers generally coorelate with fare class availabilty - J, C, D, I, Z with the cheapest offers generally being found when there is Z class availability on a flight. The $2230 one-way fare is a Z fare. So if there is an upgrade offer available after purchase, it will likely be the cheapest one on route and you shouldn't count on it going any lower than that price.
As also noted above, if you have a Delta Amex, Pay with Miles can be used to pay down fare difference at same (not great) 1.0 cent per mile rate as the online seat upgrade offers.