Hi everyone,

I was looking into the 100% bonus when buying miles with DL, and I am lurking towards the 60K for $2100 = 120K miles = business award trip to the middle east, which is valued around $6K - $9K

Besides the transaction fees, are there any hidden fees that I am missing?

Good deal no?

It would be a great deal if you could get the low ticket. That is very difficult to do though and you need to be extremely flexible yet prepared to not change anything inside 72 hours. If that is the case then $2100 for a J seat is a great deal....I would research your route right now and see how likely it is you can get a seat for 120k.

Before spending money on something that can be taken away from me, consult this thread a bit.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...le-change.html

Yes I noticed the thread on the recent changes.... looking into it in more detail now. Thanks for the quick replies!

[QUOTE=Dieselmania;16958826]Hi everyone,

I was looking into the 100% bonus when buying miles with DL, and I am lurking towards the 60K for $2100 = 120K miles = business award trip to the middle east, which is valued around $6K - $9K

Besides the transaction fees, are there any hidden fees that I am missing?

Good deal no?[/QUOTE

Have you considered doing Mileage runs?
Some great fares ....

a. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milea...mi-2-8cpm.html

b. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milea...-238-4cpm.html

c. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milea...hx-150-ai.html

A few of these for less than $2100 and you will get EQMs (get you status) and RDMs (that will get you the 120k RDMs required for the DL award trip to Europe).

Living in the Middle East I can tell you that finding a r/t in Biz Elite for 120,000 SkyMiles is only slight more difficult than getting all the nations in the region to agree to a permanent peace treaty.

The cheapest I have been able to get in the past 3 years was 175,000 miles and that was for a "low" ticket in one direction and a "medium" for the return. I was very lucky to get that -- it would be more common to find "mediums" in both directions, meaning 230,000 SkyMiles.

On the other hand, there is also no reason to fork out $6K -$9K (unless you are buying at the last minute).

My last three itineraries cost considerably less:

June 2010: TLV-ATL-PHL-ATL-TLV, in M Class, with all segments upgraded to Biz Elite or FC with SWUs: $2957.67, including taxes and fees.

Feb 2011: TLV-ATL-LAS-ATL-TLV, in M Class, with all segments upgraded to Biz Elite or FC with SkyMiles (50,000 in total): $3,382.01, including taxes and fees.

August 2011: TLV-ATL-LAS-TLV, in M Class, with all segments upgraded to Biz Elite or FC with SkyMiles (25,000 in total on half-mileage offer): $2433.02, including taxes and fees.

If you don't have the SkyMiles to upgrade, you can usually find an I Fare or an S Fare which is reasonable. Just choosing two days at random (Sept 14 for the outbound flight and Sept 21 for the return flight) I found TLV-JFK-TLV, non-stop, for $3,131.95, all in.

In addition, if you buy SkyMiles and use them for an award ticket, you do not earn either SkyMiles or MQMs for the flight.

So, if 120K SkyMiles costs you $2100, in real life you would have to pay $4025 to get enough SkyMiles (230,000) to get a reasonable chance to get an award ticket -- as opposed to $2400 to $3100 to buy a ticket which will earn you both SkyMiles and MQMS.

Transferring miles between accounts is the better bargain so explore the option. The last travel companion did not have an account so I setup an account in his name some weeks ago. Due to an error the companion received miles for one leg of the journey. So the account met all of the requirements for transfers and I transferred 30,000 miles into the account and immediately reversed the transaction by transferring 30,000 X 2.

We've just had a report of DXP-GPT//SAN-DXB (I think) for 120K using AF/KL for the long segments in the award ticket success. Possible, but non-trivial.

When you're looking at M and I fares, remember that EU or Mideast origination RTs can cost considerably less that the reverse, although if the OP is starting from JFK, that's one of the cheaper places in the USA for these fares.

Lol it sounds like a Bigfoot sighting

I just looked for a Biz Elite fare (S fare) to TLV for the dates I mentioned above (Sept 14-Sept 21) originating in JFK and the price was $3,259.95 (all in). That is only $128 more than in the opposite direction.

Assuming that the OP has no status, and thus no medallion SkyMiles bonus, he would earn 17031 SkyMiles and MQMs for the trip. That leaves him only 8000 MQMs to earn Silver Medallion.

Compare that to him paying over $5000 for the 290,000 SkyMiles Delta wants for that non-stop itinerary -- and earning no miles or MQMs.

It is possible for him to fly JFK-TLV r/t in Biz for 120,000 SkyMiles, but that would mean his outbound itinerary would be 44 hours, with connections in DUB and CDG, and the final (5 hour) segment would be in Economy.

The return trip would be only 15 hours, and have only a connection in CDG, but the segment from CDG to JFK would be in Air France Economy.