opasgirl

Hello! It's been a long time since I did the kind of work that required frequent travel, so revisiting this site is like trying to translate a new language...I apologize in advance if I've violated some rules of the road!

I have about 270k miles banked on Delta (no current medallion status). My husband and I are thinking about surprising our son to celebrate his college graduation and acceptance to med school next year. It's been a hard slog because he worked all through college while running collegiate cross-country and track. We're really "average Joes," so we're very proud of him and want to do something uncharacteristically over the top to celebrate. We've saved about $5k for travel/lodging, & will likely have another $2k by graduation.

Our son traveled to London on a school trip and loved it, so that's our planned destination. Neither my husband or I have been there, so I'm learning lots. We are likely to rent a flat, given that there's 3 of us, but would like to squeeze every ounce of mileage (pun unintended) from my 270k on Delta. Son attends school in MSP, so we'd depart from there. Tentative travel dates would be 5/21 to 5/31.

So here's where I would really value some guidance:
* Miles for Tickets - I've been on DL website, and our tickets for economy would run us around 202k miles. At this point, I'm not sure about paying the $600 additional to upgrade to economy comfort as I'm not sure it's worth the cost. (advice on this appreciated)
* Miles for Upgrades to Delta One AKA Dream Option - I've also looked at purchasing the tickets, and right now they're running $1,300 each for "V" class, which is apparently NOT eligible for upgrade using miles? (It appears that I would need to purchase Y, B, or M class to upgrade, but would appreciate a correction, if I'm wrong on this.)

Can anyone provide thoughts/advice on whether Delta One is remotely do-able? I'm really OK if it's is just too much stretch, but I didn't want to dismiss it without seeking advice. I've read posts on the lack of value for Comfort+ pricing, but does anyone think it's worth it on a 9-hour flight? Are there any other options that I should consider? (i.e. using part of our budget to purchase miles?)

Many thanks for taking the time to read this long post and for providing any guidance or ideas!

mnbp

I would suggest focusing your attention on the destination (where to stay, what to do), and not on the 9 hour flight. D1 is nice, but it's the visit to London landmarks that your family will remember next year let alone a decade from now.

mattp1987

If you can get your balance up to 277,500 you can fly one direction in Delta One and the other in coach. Right now, there are 7 Delta One seats on DL 10 MSP-LHR departing on May 21 at the price of 62.5k/person. You don't say where you and your husband live, so I didn't do any searching for the return, but coach seats shouldn't be hard to find at 30k/person.

Alternatively, you could deal with coach on the redeye and try to fly Delta One on the return when you'll be awake to enjoy it. Flying Delta One or Virgin Atlantic Upper Class on the return from LHR would mean access to either the SkyTeam Lounge or the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse, which I assume are both nicer than the MSP SkyClubs.

Finally, you might consider whether it's worthwhile for you to take Eurostar to Paris to see another European city for a few days at the end of your trip and then fly back on the many Delta and Air France options from there. This avoids the very high UK departure tax although you'll have to pay for the train tickets of course.

opasgirl

Thanks for the response, mattp1987! We actually have been contemplating the Eurostar to Paris for a few days, but are finding that the one-way flights from CDG to MSP are running about $3k each, less there's something I'm missing about booking it. I'll keep looking, but appreciate your taking the time to respond. Best--

Felixishim

Hey also, do not forget that LHR has hefty fees and tax for premium cabin on some flight.
it is great for award if you can look for other nice places in europe too then go to UK for cheap through local european flight or let's say euro star from france

you can message me, i can try helping you find some tickets

Update:

ALL mileage are base on LOW is available as many days are now with May departure.

MAY 21 MSP-LHR/AMS :has 3 seats on Delta One Award lowest level for 62.5k each. X 3 = 187,500 (Driect flight) BOOK SOON!!!!!
**little thing that is not very important but can think about is that to CDG/AMS is a slightly longer flight for the business class like 30mins with little more taxes

also you can fly the same price for MSP-ATL-MAD so a lot of europe cities you can consider on top of London which then you can easily visit other countries around including LHR with cheap flights.

MAY 31 LHR-DTW/ATL-MSP : on the way back also has the lowest on business for 62.5k ( have to connect via DTW/ATL)
so OP can choose either way she wants.

if you want to have business there Direct or back to US with connecting flight BUT
MSP-LHR is much better because of the european originate fee which will be more then 300 EUR per ticket!!!! if it is from EU
so I recommend doing it on MSP-LHR for 187,500 for this flight which will cost $16.80 for 3 tickets

then OP will left with 82.5k miles if you have 7.5 miles to add up to 90k miles, you will be able to get 3 Coach ticket for free
but remember again the tax and fee flying from AMS has lower tax then other city like LHR/CDG

AMS-MSP is one of the better option the tax is still 180 EUR this is if you have that extra 7.5k miles which you may as you say you had roughly 270k miles.


there is cheap option as to flying one way to Europe to US as well like

CDG-KFZ-YYZ which means Paris to Toronto with a connection in Iceland on WOW air

it is a cheap budget airline flight but the price is so favorable that one should really consider for just $200!!!!
It is cheaper if you book via the UK site of Wow air or some EU country then US or Canada site IF
you have a card with no foreign transaction fee, you will probably save $10-15 bucks each ticket
a check bag for 20kg will cost about 50 bucks so all in is still only $250

OR

CDG-KFZ-BOS or BWI which is Paris to Boston or Baltimore via iceland on WOW air as well with the ticket being about $60 more

Boston is the cheapest to go back to MSP but it is on spirit so be aware BUT as you didn't spend your left over delta miles you can also get flight from YYZ/BOS/BWI to MSP with miles that is possibly available in Low.

though you can always use 62.5k for one on business to MSP and the two of you fly the budget airline lol
the 20k left over u can book one of them a eonomy award to MSP




so with all your miles WITHOUT the extra 7.5k
you can get

62.5k each person each way:
MAY 21 MSP-LHR for 3 on business at O (tax $5.6 one way for 2)
June 1 LHR/AMS/CDG- MSP for 1 on business at O (round trip for 1 tax ONLY $48.8!! for AMS) ($120-130 for CDG) ($314 for LHR!!!)
(62.5k+62.5k+62.5k+62.5k)=250,000

this will also save some of the taxes as the LHR/AMS/CDG/FCO - MSP can be added in the same reservation as the MSP-LHR therefore has NO European originating fees. (AMS has lower taxes but ofcoz it is worth to pay a little more if you want to go visit let's say Paris instead)
so instead of getting those economy seats with award (as there is no mix cabin award) plus hefty fees, those fees are enough to get the WoW air flight.

YYZ/BOS/BWI- MSP for 1 on economy at N ($5.6 for domestic) 12.5k miles


this option will spend all your miles

approx $650 will get you two ticket from CDG-KEF-BOS/BWI with 1 20kg bag, about 50 dollar less if to YYZ.
approx $600 will get you two ticket from CDG-KEF-Toronto

all the taxes for those award ticket will be likely in the low end depending where you fly as it is only $11.20 for the first 2 biz ticket
the last one depending on where in Europe you fly back from if AMS then it will only be $48.8 round trip for This person.

one way BOS/BWI -MSP at the saver level $5.6 tax only
Toronto -MSP has higher taxes for direct at about $65 CAD ($48 USD) but depends on the other pay ticket to cost back to MSP it may be cheaper to fly to Toronto with Wow unless you have enough miles for 2 economy award.

one way Toronto-MSP with a pay ticket is $188 on AA or $198 on DL


$650+$48.80+$11.20+$5.60+$198=$883 + 262.5k miles

if you have 5,000 more miles then you will have enough for another Toronto-MSP!
so if you have 275k and use it all, you will only pay $721.20 possibly less as wow flight to Toronto is cheaper!! $60 each for 2!

DO NOT FORGET ABOUT BAG FEES!!

in business you have no bags fee and you can check up to 3 bags
the $650 in wow air has factor in Bag fees.

but the YYZ-MSP 12.5k award will have bag fees!! of $25 for the first one.

if you have enough miles for TWO 12.5k miles each (so you have 275k miles total) the first bag fee will be waived
IF EITHER of this two person on this reservation has a Delta Amex Co-brand card either Gold/ Platinum/ Reserve






*******BTW if you have 270k only IF you have a decent credit and do not have a Delta Credit card yet,
with this link: https://www.delta.com/content/www/en...dit-cards.html

you will be able to get the Gold Delta Skymiles Credit Card with the 50k bonus miles after $2000 spend in 3 months
with $0 introductory annual fee 1st year and $95 a year thereafter. (you can possibly convert it after a year if you don't fly enough to justify the fee with the bag fee waiver)
It also come with a $50 statement credit after you make a purchase with Delta!
so you can use the card to pay for those taxes!

DO it ASAP as the award inventory for 62.5k in biz one way may be gone soon!!!!

with the 50k bonus you can get

MSP-LHR for 3 in biz and
EU-MSP for 2 in biz!!!

you will have 7,500 miles left again and if you have that 7.5k you can get the last person home from any US gateway at Low award so you can really shop around for it and with the card the person flying in economy does not have to pay bag fee.

With the card bonus miles you pay even less!!

$325+$48.80+48.80+$5.6+$5.60=$433.8 + 312.5k miles (7.5k miles left)

instead of $325 on WOW air, plus more miles for the domestic leg as now is only for 1 person,
you can also book CDG-FRA with Lufthansa then FRA-MSP with condor (Operate by Thomas cook airlines) $448 only on June 2
with no bags fee to worry about and all get back to MSP i think is ideal and simple. (1 bag at 23kg i believe)

Felixishim

it is prob confusing so this is the easy version for the miles portion!

270k gets you

MSP-LHR X 3 in Biz
CDG/AMS/LHR/A LOT OF EUROPEAN PLACES to MSP X 1 in biz
Toronto to MSP X 1 in Economy

if you have 275k you can get Toronto to MSP for 2

i do not recomeended getting 3 economy from Europe as the EU originating fee is too high
unless you can find an agent who will find a way to dump that tax as they can see the MSP-LHR flight in DL system but you only trying to mix cabin award. A supervisor is possible to do so.

but to get the most out of your miles in term of price it is something to think of getting business class instead of economy as most of us (Average Joe) will not pay outright for business class and you have note this is a special occasion

as you have enough miles to get it for $55 ($81.60 to CDG) (over $200!!! to LHR) + 62,500 miles each
to fly economy MSP-AMS + AMS-LHR for 3

Felixishim

one thing about booking it this two one way is that you can basically save one flight.
if you fly MSP-LHR and then AMS-MSP you can just buy one additional ticket from LHR-AMS and visit 2 cities!
it is not hard to find cheap flight within the Schengen area!!

I don't know can you still book an Award with mix business and economy award as they were eliminating it but many have success doing so by calling or when there is a flight that has no First Cabin or it is full etc.

last time I went to Europe with a Delta ticket, I bought a SkyTeam Go Europe Pass which is pretty nice.
you can select that flight as long as one of the fare bucket is available which this far in advance, most partner will have those seat in those fare bucket except some route that the airline just don't give inventory.

it will help you lower your one way travel fees on SkyTeam partner for me i got 3 segment it was each about 118USD per segment only, my itin was:
SVO-FCO-AMS-CDG as we want to go to Rome but one way or multi city ticket are too expensive compare with roundtrip.
the pass HAVE to have 3 segment or more but as OP have no status it will not give extra bags and such therefor i think there may be enough budget airline flight that is a better option then the pass.
I bought CDG-TXL and TXL-SVO individually as it was cheaper and i believe TXL-SVO does not have the booking class it needed for cheap for the Pass.

if you planning only for 1 week+ it is ideal to visit 2 cities IMO 3 max, more will be a bit rush this case.
so you can train to Paris with Eurostar or a cheap flight from

London to Rome $90 on BA
Rome to Paris for less then $60 on AF/AZ!!
then Paris to Amsterdam is also less then $60 on AF/KL!!
this is when you want to buy Rome to Paris to Amsterdam on two different ticket instead of one if you want to fly to Amsterdam instead of Paris. as a one way flight is only $60 each but a connecting flight is insanely expensive!! You have risk if your flight is delayed though that you will miss the next flight so don't forget to leave a lot of time for transfer!

devans999

With limited miles, D1 is potentially worth it on the way over, given the night flight. If I can't get decent sleep on the way over, then that first day is essentially lost to me. I'm a zombie, irritated and just want to sleep. However if I can sleep, stop at the yotel @ LHR to take a shower (included in D1), then I'm ready to tackle the day.

Then take economy or C+ on the day flight back home.

I'll also echo what others have said, the memorable moments will be the time you're together there, don't put a real dent in your bank account just to make D1 work, you'll forget all about the flight after a few days anyway.

Felixishim

+1

PLUS One way from US instead of EU also save hundred in EU originate fees when the ticket isn't round trip

opasgirl

Wow...I'm so grateful for all the helpful responses! I'm not much of a risk-taker, but I went ahead and took the plunge and booked the D1 seats on the outbound from MSP to LHR. My husband and I are not getting any younger, so the good rest will help make Day 1 on the ground in London much more productive and enjoyable.

I'm going to take Felixishim's advice and try to find a discounted fare from LHR to CDG, then fly out of CDG back to MSP. From what I'm seeing online, I don't think it will be too hard to find reasonable prices on the LHR to CDG, but the leg home might be a bit tough.

One last question for the group: on booking the CDG to MSP, are there any guidelines on when I should book this? We're about 6 months out now, and besides the deals on IcelandAir, it's pretty horrendous pricing ($3-4k one-way) if we return on AirFrance or DL. Not sure how long I can/should wait, but advice on that matter would be great!

Thanks again for all the great advice! You folks are clearly much smarter than I, and I'm grateful you're willing to share your knowledge. Best to you all--

P.S. I'm also going to look into the Delta cc, too. We've got good credit, so hopefully that will also help.

Dieuwer

Condor flies FRA-MSP direct. Economy fare is $490 one-way on 5/30/2016.

Felixishim

Honey you shouldn't worry about the $3k airfare as it has no where near to that if you look beyond DL, I sent you a message on Flyertalk you can message me for more detail answer as i feel like i wrote way too much lol

but if you go to the delta.com link with the 50k offer after you spend $2,000 quickly,

270k+50k +2k($2000 you spent) miles will get you = 322k

Get 2 Round Trip in Business!!
MSP-LHR + AMS-MSP ON BUSINESS FOR 2 = 240K (less then $50 in tax)
you can also do CDG-AMS-MSP as well for a little higher in taxes $120-130

+

ALSO Get 1 One Way in Business!!
MSP- LHR FOR ONE .... ON BUSINESS FOR = 62.5K (less then $6 in tax)

you will have 9,500 miles left for just after spending 2k on the gold delta card if you apply with the link above and approved.

as you two are buying the trip it is fair for you two to fly in business and let your son fly the way to LHR in bis as well.
but have him fly economy back for less then $500
or pay $1.5k for business or $2k for Round-Trip!! as i wrote detail below


then just buy a cheap CDG-MSP which is not hard to find!!!! try flights.google.com !!!!
i.e the fare that i have suggested you on Lufthansa to Condor is only $447 on June 2!!!

this will help you guys a lot with two ticket in roundtrip in business class which is way better reward then using it on Economy and if this is one of a lifetime premium business class trip that you want to take, 2016 is the year to do it because Delta Miles are set to devalue more soon!!!

$3,000 is crazy!!!! do not ever pay that as you can fly let's say Poland base airline LOT
for just $1,500 one-way in Business to New York in flat bed!!!

AMS-WAW-JFK for the whole Month of May and beyond, this price is available as far as i can see and what is cool is that
WAW-JFK is on a new 787 as well and lie flat seat so not a bad option at all when you can fly way cheaper with Air Europa,
it is not a real lie flat seat

after you get into JFK you can just simply buy a cheap domestic flight or even use portion of your miles on it if you have the Delta Credit card!!

The LOT 787 in business class has a 2-2-2 seatings so if you don't get an aisle you may have to climb or someone has to climb through you unless you choose seats in the middle but then you will have no window.

Those seats does go 180 degree lie flat tho which is way better then a lot of other cheap airlines who has business like Iceland air only with reclining seat a lot better as it is an 8hours flight.

Here is a link from boarding area of a review of this particular route and aircraft:
http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.c...w-york-warsaw/

""as a small reminder if you are planning if let's say if you want your son to return to Europe for fun or if you have a work trip etc, for less then $2,000 so you can book AMS-WAW-JFK in MAY but then have a JFK-WAW-AMS for just $400 dollar and return in September or august or many other days in BUSINESS for ROUND TRIP , more if you want to origin from Paris but is only about $60""..... do not pay $3,000 ever!
(Essentially if you divide it is only 1k each way for an international long haul business lie flat seat. I don't think that's a bad price at all as many airlines charges north or 4K)

ALSO

It will be too early right now to buy your JFK-MSP Flight in May as closer to the departure date usually there are lower fare some even less then $100 like Dec 9 AA is only $86! while $140 is almost always clear to have on AA. $162.5 on DL (DL may be a little cheaper after you factor free bag in some cases $162.5-$25= 137.5 so it beat AA 140 by a little but also come with priority boarding.



you can email me at (my flyertalk username)@gmail.com i will delete this later if i remember >.< but yea i am happy to help

MSPeconomist

As a general rule, you don't want to be purchasing (for money) one way TATL tickets from a major legacy carrier. They're horrendously expensive. For one ways, you should either get award tickets or look for some sort of deal from a discount carrier (which is likely to be inconvenient and painful for a TATL flight).

Similarly, to upgrade TATL flights with DL miles requires purchase of at least an M fare which is about $4000 RT MSP-Europe and return.

BTW, this trip would be after gruaduation, right, rather than at the end of your son's final semester in college. Would you return to MSP after the trip, perhaps to pack up his apartment and move out then? Or do you plan to pack and ship (or even stuff it into the trunk of your car???) his stuff before the trip and then fly directly home from Europe? Where is home for you? Have you thought about how you would get to/from MSP from your home? If you plan to drive, where would you park during this period?

mattp1987

100% agree. I would NOT do one way on miles and one way paid unless able to find a deal on some LCC like Norwegian or WOW! Air. You will likely end up spending more on a one-way than a round-trip would have cost, plus burning your miles.

opasgirl

Yes, we would plan on leaving following his graduation (5.21). We're from South Dakota, so we'd drive to MSP for the graduation and leave son's and our vehicle in campus parking while we're away. When we return, we'll drive both vehicles back to SD. I'd love to fly directly home on the return, but we'll have all of his stuff loaded in our vehicles, so it'll add some extra drive time.