How to manage to find a reasonable priced M fare ？
 

One year ago, when you booked an M fare on NWA.com for the round trip SFO-HKG (PVG/PEK) , the prices were always be around 1500USD. I missed those days, now how to find a reasonable priced M fare for the said routes? Thank you！:confused:

Go back in time about 12 months. Seriously, they seem to be up across the board. Last April I did AUS-SIN for about $1760. Now it's over $2800.

Even with corporate discounts you can't get it down to $1500 anymore. A lot of corporate discount programs have moved to a rebate system. The more you use a particular airline the bigger the rebate. The downside of this is these savings aren't visible to the individual flyer.

All part of Delta trying to make you pay close to discounted business class fares for the hopes of trying to use a PMU. And even then, good luck actually finding Z inventory for the upgrade.

Exactly.

Every firm employs strategies to maximize revenue. You got a problem with capitalism? :p

To the OP: M fares and rules are published. Use expertflyer to find a qualifying fare for your dates, then perhaps ITA Software to find availability. As noted, discounted business fares I/S/D can be compelling if Z inventory isn't available at time of booking.

No problem with capitalism. The problem is creating an upgrade instrument, then raising the minimum fare required to use it by $1,000 at a time when other fares are stagnant, and calling it a reward for your loyalty. It's pretty insulting.

+1. Couldn't have said it better!

To the OP: Delta has made sure that there are no more "reasonable priced M fares". It's as simple as that. This PMU fare rule is the number 1 reason DL has lost me and all my relatives as customers!

+1. Perfecto...

Name any company in any industry that didn't try to spin any change, positive or negative, as anything other than positive marketing b.s. That sir, is capitalism.

I think I used 1/6 of my 2009 PMUs. Won't be choosing those as part of my Diamond package in 2010.

Completely agree!!

and watch how you'll be kicking yourself halfway through the year when M fares plummet and you have no PMU's.

Not so much, you can still u/g the M fares with miles. If you fly enough to turn down the PMUs, you generally have plenty of RDMs in your account to spend on u/gs IF the M fares actually do go down. (and I wouldn't bet a stick of gum that they will go down)

Im gonna be DM in 2010 and talked myself into not getting the 6 PMU's for 2010. It was actually rather easy to do. However, then I came across a cheap (at least I think its cheap) M fare from lga to hkg (via dtw) to nrt to jfk for $2600.00, all with Z available. I bought two tickets, both fully upgraded (expect for the HGK to NRT leg) so now I will opt for the 6 certificates to save the 100,000 miles it would have cost me without the certs.