Upgrading with miles on international flights
 

Doing JFK to Johannesburg in September. I'm anticipating my colleagues will fly me in coach. Once they book through there reservation system, anyone have experience going back to Delta and upgrading with miles?

It depends on fare class, marketing and operating carrier (codeshare?), whether travel agent was used, whether consolidator fare was used, availability of upgrade inventory, etc. My guess is that it won't happen, especially if you're not willing to spend more money too.

HKG-SEA
 

I was just thinking the same thing. I just read Delta's website and now I'm confused on upgrading :confused:

I want to upgrade from HKG-SEA one way. So what fare class do I purchase to ensure I'm flying up front in business class? Currently I see economy running at $7xx for the one way. How many miles will it cost to upgrade and is there a co-pay? I'm not a regular DL flyer so appreciate the help. Thx

In my experience, if you have a K or higher fare you can upgrade with miles.. Mileage upgrade cost is now variable I think; last time I was quoted something like 65,000 (!)

Also, there needs to be upgrade inventory availible. You can waitlist a mileage upgrade request, but if it doesn't clear before day of departure, there is no official way to transfer the UG request to the gate.

K or higher for international
T or higher for domestic

http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_...de-awards.html

Mileage required will vary with fare class. Some recent pricing (incomplete) on upgrade mileage amounts can be found in this post --
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/26780186-post353.html

As noted, the WIKI here could use some updates as it is not accurate --
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...ements-24.html

WOW - I didn't think it would be cheap! By the time you cost out the mileage value for the upgrade + buying the applicable fare seems more reasonable to just buy the J fare and call it a day! They must be nearly the same value to me between costing both options out.

Alaska shows J class on Hainan 787 for 50,000 one way. Seems a better deal though I don't know Hainan as an airline. Thanks for the quick replies.

I never understood Delta's absurd mileage pricing for upgrades either. Better to either buy biz-class outright, or get a straight award ticket in "low" if at all possible.

Other FT threads say nice things about Hainan 787 biz-class.

The "if possible" is the tricky part. As has been discussed many times, these are really aimed at people who are not buying their own tickets and are not allowed to purchase biz tickets. If one already has a trip scheduled and paid for by someone else, the (updated) prices are not that unreasonable (particularly if you have a YBM fare). Just because they are useful to "you" personally (paying out of pocket), does not mean there are not others out there who find them useful and for whom DL has made a business case for the pricing.

I've tried to do this a number of times, and the mileage required is absurd. I've literally had times where the upgrade mileage is 75% of the miles for a J award ticket.

Up until a few months ago, it was "only" 25,000 miles. Seems to be absurdly priced now, but since every flight seems to be different, it is really hard to say.

And only YBM fares were eligible -- and everyone here claimed they were useless back then too because you could often find discounted J fares that were cheaper than YBM fares.

I swear there was a period last year where it was K or higher, but still only 25,000 miles.

I had a SEA -> HKG flight that I used a GUC on... Should have used miles; they only quoted me 25k (was a K fare).

Nope, I lied. Just double checked; was an M fare on the outbound (due to a last minute change).

Definitely should have used the miles/saved the GUC then! ;-)

I have a transpac Y fare booked for a couple weeks out. 7 seats available upfront--called Delta and couldn't make it happen--about five seats left in economy so I'm hoping for an op-up

Y as in full Y fare class, or Y as in a coach seat in some random coach fare class?