diamondwannabe

I am considering treating a family member by flying first class to SFO from ATL.
The award travel rate is 90-100K for 1st class, yikes! This seems excessive to me, is it? Can I use Delta award miles on a partner for less? If so, how can I book that?
I appreciate any insight.
Thanks!

The BNA Gentleman

I don't think there are any partners that you could redeem for that particular route.

WheelsFirst

How much is the cash fare? Delta doesn't have any partners that fly that route, only Southwest and United fly it.

dll

Well, you *could* fly Aeromexico via MEX, I guess. That's out of the way and would very likely require two separate bookings (int'l transborder transit is not technically permitted on a domestic US itinerary per US law and seems to break the DL.com search engine), a passport and bit of luck. I don't think AM serve ATL, either, only DL via codeshare, so you'd still have to find low band inventory on ATL-MEX.

That's about the only thing I can think of that would get it done. That would be 60k per ticket so actually prices out higher.

You might be able to find some obscure routings within the US that have low band inventory. DL's network out of SFO isn't that great - it's served by hubs and not much more. You might want to try pricing individual city pairs to see if there is a lower option.

LAX, JFK, MSP, DTW, SLC, SEA, ATL (nonstop) are the inbound destinations that come to mind for me.

jiburi

I would think combining AS and DL awards might do the trick. Not sure if it's a valid routing though.

Giving us a date and/or time range might allow us to do some checking.

MSPeconomist

In addition to MEX, there might be ways to do this with two tickets through Canada. I wouldn't try to check in for both of them together or expect any IROPs protection.

If you're spending so many miles, can you route through JFK and get the D1/BE transcon service? That would be worth more than domestic FC, although DL does pretty well with dinner on the longer business oriented routes, which ATL-SFO nonstop should be.

6P&E

Knowing the travel dates and whether your trip is one way or round trip would help to ascertain whether 100k is excessive, but based on my recent experience with DL on a nonstop BNA-LAX one way, DL wanted 50,000 for a one way F award for a non holiday trip not in summer.

diamondwannabe

Thanks for the responses. I've only booked award miles a few times before and found that to be very challenging.
I will be going June 18-21. I can be a little flexible on the dates but not earlier in the month because I'm taking a teenager who is turning 16 in June. I thought first class would be a nice experience for her. We may have to settle for Delta Comfort seats.

avidflyer

I was thinking it seems obscene...but if they can get it...

3Cforme

For non-stops, your choices are Delta (7x today), United (2x) or Southwest (just 1x). If you have United miles or a way to get some, that path is worth investigation.

I don't believe delta.com gives the option of AS-operated ATL-SEA-SFO without breaking the fare/additive redemption, at least in a cursory look.

JHIN

Excessive! Ya think?

Doc Savage

16 year olds are very flexible and generally have no real aches and pains. I can't see it being very important to the kid how big a seat she's in. Just get a non-stop so she's not dealing with plane changes, possible delays, etc.

MSPeconomist

Excessive is in the eye of the beholder. If tthe OP must travel on these dates and paid tickets are very expensive, 100K RDMs could be a reasonable option in the circumstances, although I would hate to use the miles this way versus adding a few more miles and getting a low international business class ticket.

Could the OP save miles by using pay-with-miles, if eligible, for this trip?

diamondwannabe

Thanks for the posts; we're going to go coach. We'll do first class another trip.

rylan

Unfortunately yes that is quite high, but its also around the beginning of summer vacations and highschool graduations so there is probably a lot of travel around that weekend.