mfong

I wanted to vent a little here

I was supposed to fly out to HKG on a Y class fare, however my employer only gave me $5k for my family and I. If I was by myself, that would be enough, but they said that they couldn't provide me more funding. Ugh =(

I calculated the miles from Mile Calc, and when I returned home, I would be a silver with 36k miles already. 36k is from BOS-DTW-HKG, HKG-NRT-DTW-BOS, Y class bonus, and the 10k MQMs from the Delta reserve card. Now I won't have that Y class bonus and when I return home, I'll be at 27k miles with the 10k MQMs from the reserve card =(

Then again, I can't be a brat, because they're going to fly my family out there as well, haha.

What sucks too is that now I have 3 credit cards, which in my opinion is dangerous. AMEX blue, gold, and now the reserve, I should have applied for the reserve after I talked to my boss, but when I got the confirmation web page, I called him to make sure that I can book the $5k fare to HKG, and that I needed an extra $3.8k for my family. Now I'm committed to the reserve card for the year.

Cellisttoo

Next time try taking China Southern Premium Economy. You earn 150% mileage bonus and you don't have to sit in crappy economy seats. I think Guangzhou and HK are close enough to make this easily possible.

rwoman

Did you look at the M fare? I'm sure for the whole family it would exceed $5k, but it should be cheaper than a full Y fare and you'd earn the bonus miles.

mfong

Would this count towards Delta's MQMs? Sorry I'm still a noob around here =)

Would an M class still allow me to change my flight without any penalties? And I just took a peek over at Delta with the M class, I think I could have still been rejected too, haha. Can you explain further which classes can be changed without a penalty? So then I can book those classes in the future.

Thanks for your input guys

Cellisttoo

Yes, China Southern earns MQM on Delta in most fare classes (but NOT all- be sure and check the chart on DL.com). For premium economy you earn the 50% MQM bonus on DL (note that this is in the small print at the bottom of the chart- PE is P or Z fare class). Depending on how big your family is you still might not have been able to do it for under $5,000, but it probably would have been close for a family of three.

My understanding of China Southern, which I have never flown, but am considering, is that you do NOT want to fly their regular economy product. It is a 3-4-3 seating arrangement on a 777 with 31" pitch. Sounds miserable to me.

mfong

I should have consulted FlyerTalk before I booked my tickets =)

My family is a family of 4, me, wife, and 2 kids. So it's still kinda tough to work out $5k, unless you're getting all regular econ tickets. I don't know if he knew how much Y class tickets cost to HKG.

javabytes

The fare class does not uniformly describe this. You have to look at the text of the fare rules. Some M fares may permit changes while others will not. Some M fares might be refundable while others are not. Even refundable fares can have cancellation fees, especially for international travel, so watch out for that as well.