Delta Fare Class Problems
 

Hey guys and gals,

I fly down to Brazil for work, 6 round trips a year Denver>ATL>GIG. My company gets one of the super discounted tickets for us, which used to be an "L" class and now its a "T" class. So I've made Silver peon status for this year, but it looks like I won't even make that next year.

Anyone know anything I can do to get more miles (other than book personal travel apart from it). I'll only get 18,000 or so next year for these flights, which really sucks.

Thanks,
Jeff

There's your problem.

If these were "regular" (published) L and/or T fares, you'd be banking ~72,000 MQM/yr. They are obviously unpublished/consolidator fares, hence you're earning 25%, which happens to work out to 18,000 MQM.

Aside from getting a new job or changing your employer's travel policy (many would pay for J on this route), I think you're stuck.

Call your head hunter. DEN-ATL-GIG for a reputable employer is in BE.

First off welcome to FT and really review thoses tickets

I'm sorry, BE?

Anyways, I'm wondering if there is anything I can do to get around that "T" class. I realize I'd be able to make Platinum if I got full miles, but my company buys so many tickets for Brazil, then they qualify for the deep discounted tickets.

I doubt there is anything to do, and it'd probably be wise to just stop trying to only buy with Delta if I won't even make Silver status next year.

Thanks

BE = Business Elite = business class. The BE comment was basically saying your employer is shafting you, and you should find a company that will put you in business class on those long hauls.

Ah yeah, gotcha. No joke, there are plenty of guys that work in the same industry that either make platinum/diamond or are on BE class tickets. We'll see what I can do in the near future to make that happen.

Hell, I am in academia and they fly me business for such a long flight. Unless it's a startup and these cost savings are because you decide to take stock options instead of compensation you are definitely getting screwed.

My company is FAR from a start up, and certainly not able to buy us the BE tickets. Privately owned as well, so no stock options either. My only thought is that since there are so many of us flying to Brazil, then it starts adding up.

Can you credit them to another program?

Alaska Airlines is a DL partner. Air France/KLM?

Yes, I have thought about doing it through Alaska, and forgotten about that, thanks for reminding me.

New question: What do I lose out on with going through a partner airline?

Thanks

by crediting to AS, you wouldn't be as high on the upgrade list - however, if it's only miles you're concerned about, then it's fine

Well without going through Alaska, I wouldn't make a status at all, and not even enough miles for a flight with Delta per year. With Alaska, I get miles and make some sort of status within their program.

Since no one really stated it in a way that's fully clear . . .

It has nothing to do with L vs T class. Those both will earn 100% mileage if booked directly through Delta.

If you purchase those tickets through another travel agent, they might be special versions of fares called "consolidator fares" and will only earn 25% mileage. It's a new rule in 2013. There's no easy way to know whether you'll get the full mileage or 25% mileage just by the single-letter fare class.

You'll need to either call Delta on your ticket after it's booked or else use a service like Expert Flyer (with some training) to identify whether or not it's a consolidator fare. (It's sort of a complicated process, but you can compare the 5-letter full fare class--starting with "L" or "T" in your case--from the detailed fare rules, with a list of published fares on Expert Flyer. If it's not in the Expert Flyer list, it's generally an unpublished consolidator fare.)

If your company will let you book your own tickets, buy them through Delta.com and you'll always get full mileage.

Certainly not the norm. Count yourself lucky...or part of the problem of high tuition rates.

"Special" T fares earn 25%. L fares earn 50%. OP's employer is buying T now, not L, which is causing his dilemma.

Exactly right. I know that its an unpublished fare, its always cut down, now all the way to 25% its not even worth it to keep using my delta FF number. However, with Alaska, I can make at least their middle tier for status. Plus have about 72,000 miles or so for booking flights.

Part of the problem for sure

So what kind of a shady arrangement do they have that they are purchasing multiple international tickets through a consolidator regularly? Don't mean to be snide, but I have some issues with employers who make it a habit of buying tickets that way, especially since those tickets can be treated worse in case of delays or cancellations.

You're not going to get around the reduced earning with them buying tickets through an opaque 3rd party. Are they even saving much over the standard published T fares?

Damn, lucky you. This academic is in coach for all business travel, including round the world tickets.

+1

(Though most academic travel doesn't come out of tuition dollars; in my field, it's all federal grant money, which helps subsidize the teaching mission of most US research universities. But no way, no how are governments going to explain paying for business class for academics to politicians' constituents, most of whom don't understand the realities of business travel.)

Crediting to Alaska certainly seems sensible in your case. MVPs get access to exit row seats on Delta, and MVP Golds (50k, which you should reach based on your travel patterns) get Sky Priority as well.

I'm just trying not to give out my company's name here is all. They are flying quite a few people down to Brazil on similar rotations as me. They even have their own travel agency. Thus they take advantage of these low rate tickets because they buy so many of them (at least from what I can gather that's how they get it). I'm assuming they're saving quite a bit. Believe me, it's aggravating to not make any sort of status, and really wish there was another way, but unfortunately not.

Any Diamond's out there wanna gift me Gold status? :)

Do you have to fly Delta, or can the corporate travel agent get consolidator fares on other airlines? I don't think AA reduces mileage credit for consolidator fares.

From a business point of view, the company's approach seems entirely sensible to me, much as I'd dislike it from a frequent flyer point of view. I don't understand the argument that it's better to pay more for a service than the company has to, assuming there are no negative impacts on IRROPS handling and that the company is factoring in any costs of changing tickets. At the end of the day, consolidator fares put you in the same seat published fares put you in. But it seems strange that the company can't negotiate contracted fares that do as well as the consolidator prices but still count as "published" fares.

If its a 'well known' corporate travel agency you should be getting full earning credit... but if its 'another' travel agent who is getting whatever tickets they can find then nothing you can do.

If you have corporate negotiated fares then you should be earning full credit as mentioned.

Oh Darn, I just made Diamond today, but already gave the GOLD status to my wife as a gift.

Just a few minutes too late.

Totally agree about grant-funded academic travel. Academic administrators on the other hand...

Also keep in mind that PM status doesn't offer any benefits on your long laugh flight ATL-GIG. Unless you select SWU's as your medallion choice. And then you need M+ fare to use that so that won't help you.

Just not sure your complaint is worth the juice from that squeeze. PM is nice but unless you have other domestic travel its not going to be that beneficial. Except mileage award changes without a fee. That's about it.

Free EC?

Baggage allowance and lounge access, too.

GM+ get lounge access on SkyTeam international itineraries.

Before the OP decides to credit to AS, make sure that DL consolidator fares earn full miles on AS. Since DL supplies the info and pays for the miles, I wouldn't be surprised if they also tell AS to just give 25% credit on these fares.

I'd be curious what the actual consolidator fares are. Sometimes the further discounts on low fare buckets are quite small (2% - 5%). If that's the case, perhaps you could somehow pay the difference out of pocket.

...also fly in coach, unless they're very senior, are involved in a prestige overseas campus, or fall into a number of other limited exceptions. Indeed, I suspect most academic administrators rarely travel out of the country, unless they're recruiting foreign students or donors.

okay, several of you are saying that only reputable employers put people in BE and I'm sorry but sounds like a lot of you are also out of touch with reality. I've worked for 3 major software companies in my life. During the 90s; yes--it was common that any flight over X hours was in BE; but then it shifted to only execs, then finally it shifted to "we dont buy business at all for anyone." I've talked to several people at several different larger companies to find out if this has been a trend and they all seem to have similar policies plus I read about everyone having those same policies on this forum.

I think it's safe to no longer assume that only "reputable" employers put you in BE. With fares for BE ranging between 4-15k; it's just no longer feasible for most companies who are making a profit.

I won't try to represent everyone--I'm a corporate trainer by trade and my company has a small team (13 of us) who do this every week. If we were putting everyone in BE; we'd barely make any return/margin on the classes we teach and our parent company might honestly just do all of our training/certification classes online.

And academics traveling when consulting for private industry....

Yeah sometimes BE doesn't make sense for the company... however the unpublished fares don't seem to make sense to me either. Sounds like if employees are really flying that often/much the company would be better off getting a corporate contract rate/deal directly with DL instead of buying through 3rd party channels. As bennos mentioned, gray market consolidator fare discounts on low fare buckets usually are not a significant discount anyway.

You can also get more MQM's with Amex Delta Reserve card.

Well, in my case it is funding I get from industry partners so it is not tuition, not government grants and not from the university. I bring in the $$ so I should have some say as to how they are spent, and a couple extra thousand of dollars over the lifetime of multi-million dollar contacts is worth it when I have to fly to Mumbai or Rio for 48 hours of meetings...

I have no problem with this in terms of buying BE, but it's not the common model for people working in higher ed and academic research.

Exactly. See George Clooney's job evaporate in *Up In The Air*.

my point is that even at other large corporations; it is no longer "common" that you automatically get a BE seat if a flight is over x hours.

I have no idea what the fare rates are, and I know they use an in house travel agency to arrange all this travel for people.

Alaska has already told me that they give full miles for Delta flights. There really isn't any point in sticking with Delta skymiles program now, I get the benefits through the end of next year, but I'll have Alaska Gold within the first half of the year. all very silly i guess.

thanks for the replies