DeltaFan4Now

I have to assume you mean Australia... Flights to my hometown of AUS can be expensive, but rarely *that* expensive

MSPeconomist

However, M fares RT to SYD are typically over $5K IME.

FederalFlyer

Thinking back, I got seriously into SkyMiles sometime around 2011 with the singular purpose of flying Business Elite roundtrip to Tokyo in lie flat seats on DL. At the time, that was the epitome of luxury flying as I understood it and I figured, with any luck, I might achieve that goal in 2 or 3 years. After all, it had taken me nearly a decade to earn the measly 30,000 or 40,000 SkyMiles I had at that point.

So, in an effort to realize that goal, I joined Flyertalk. In the 3-ish years since then, I've earned somewhere approaching 1.5 million SkyMiles. And at least another 3 million in other airline/hotel currencies. Today, I average around 25,000 - 50,000 miles/points a month over various programs. And I just finally booked that luxury flight to Tokyo for April 2015. Although flying Singapore Airlines Suites instead of Delta.

But it all started just like you are starting. By flying Delta. And spending on a Delta Amex card. And with that in mind, I encourage you to stick with your plan. For now. But, at the same time... visit the manufactured spending forum. Really sink yourself into it. Learn. Ask questions. Experiment. There are many ways to earn SkyMiles for around 0.3 cents (yes, 0.3 cents, not dollars) per mile. Or, for that same amount, other much more valuable points. And with a little extra work, you can even offset that amount to break even or turn a slight profit.

JayTeaBee

Yes, I should have said SYD instead of AUS, amateur kettle FT status here still. But when I was looking at dates in Nov normal LUT fares were pricing around 1700 and M fare was around 2500$ (and BE 7500-10k).

That's great to hear, congrats on hitting your goal (or should i say CRUSHING the goal). That is really encouraging to hear. I am diving in deep and my wife & I have a decent spend on our own without any MS, but I have been checking that out. I'm super new but MS seems complex and time consuming. I'm not sure I'm ready to go that deep yet but I'm not ruling anything out!

JayTeaBee

Thanks for this tip too. I have no plans to "churn", just use, but I wasn't aware of the Amex forum (or the MS forum) so both those have been good to dive into.

gooselee

Well done on the Suites award! Enjoy your trip! ^

JayTeaBee

Since you guys have been so awesome helping me get acclimated to the DL lifestyle I thought I'd try to ask another question in this thread instead of starting a new one. This time my question surrounds domestic upgrade with miles.

In this thread I learned that to even be eligible to upgrade long haul international flights one would have to be booked in M, B, or Y fares.

What are the fare classes eligible to upgrade with miles for domestic flights within the continental US? The website says this: "From Full Economy Fares" 5k miles and "From Select Fares* 12,500 miles

*Applies to select published fares and specific fare classes. Please check with a Delta reservations representative for eligible fares applicable to your itinerary.

So my question is, what fare classes are apply to the 5k and to the 12.5k reward levels? And is this something that can only be done at the gate?

davisew

Y

B-K

Only in advance. Technically. You'll find the occasional report here on FT where a particularly knowledgeable GA was having a good day, and the moon was in the proper phase, with the wind blowing from the East, but expect any at-gate request to be denied.

JayTeaBee

I <3 FT, this place is so awesome, thanks for the quick response and LOL at the last comment about wind blowing in the east haha.

So I just reviewed my upcoming itinerary for PWM>LAS (via ATL) and on the way out i'm in X and on the way back I'm in V. Right now I have no status. There is a chance I'll be FO by the time this trip takes place but that's cutting it close.

Could I call right now and attempt to upgrade those fares for 12.5k miles per person each way? Since I'm travelling with my wife this would be 50k points or 500$ roughly the same cost it would be to upgrade us to EC on these flights. I'm not convinced I'm going to do this but just want to know my options. I want to keep banking points and not spend them but I also want to live the dream up front at least one time before I die. ha! Thanks.

xliioper

X and V are the 2 lowest fare classes (besides E fares) and are well below K fares. Thus, they do not qualify for mileage upgrades.

JayTeaBee

Ohhh.. (light bulb goes off), thanks for that, I was reading the fare charts backwards! Guess there shall be no temptation to use any of my hard earned miles then....

davisew

Not right off the bat. You would have to buy up your tickets to K (with $$) first and then you could use the 50K to upgrade, but only if RP/OP inventory is available, which is allocated on a per-segment basis. There is a waitlist - but I wouldn't expect much if any inventory to get released on the ATL-LAS legs. Prevailing wisdom is not to buy up unless the agent can confirm inventory availability on the spot. Personally, not worth it in my book. Save your miles for an international biz trip later on.

JayTeaBee

Agreed, I'm certainly not going to buy up to another fare and then donk off miles on top of it. I've lived the dream in coach for this long, let's keep it going..... It will all be worth it when I head to SYD in BE.

gooselee

On the plus side, once you make FO you'll be able to reserve exit rows at booking and EC at checkin for free. DO check in right at T-24 as an FO, as that's when the bulkhead EC row on many planes gets released and it tends to be snapped up quickly. I had probably a 95% rate of being able to move into EC at checkin during my FO days, and that depended heavily on checking in early.

JayTeaBee

Thanks Gooselee! I was loosely aware of all that from reading different threads here on FT but hadn't really seen it broken down. To continue showing my kettle status, I must ask, when you say "bulkhead EC row" do you mean the first row of EC?