DL One offer
Mar 24, 2017, 10:46 am
#31
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Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: ATL
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Mar 24, 2017, 10:56 am
#32
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Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: 10 months VLC, 2 months everywhere else
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Mar 24, 2017, 10:57 am
#33
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Join Date: Mar 2017
Programs: Delta-pm, Hilton-Diamond, Marriott-PP
Posts: 271
For leisure travel, not to much. All factored in. Have 14 weeks vacation. I have to use it, so why not take my time and travel in style? Plus a nice stopover in beautiful Dubai is not really a bad thing.
Mar 24, 2017, 10:58 am
#34
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Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: San Antonio
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Mar 24, 2017, 11:10 am
#35
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 3,698
My opinion is the only one that matters. If I was in a rush to get to London for business etc, then yes, direct from Atl works, but when flying for leisure I would rather have a nice experience and there are many aviation publications/blogs that agree with my opinion on Delta not even coming close to having the same hard product on international routes as middle eastern airlines. We shall see if the A350 changes this.
Mar 24, 2017, 11:51 am
#37
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: MSP; SM with status & many BIS miles
Programs: AA, WN & many Hotels... avoids UA like the plague!
Posts: 1,019
Was offered buy up (iirc was under $700) to D1 during OLCI earlier this year out of MSP, declined as had an entire C+ row to myself. Have also down miles at gate to D1 at other US departure points to Europe.
Mar 24, 2017, 12:13 pm
#38
Join Date: Nov 2008
Programs: DL PM, MM; Marriott Plat
Posts: 458
More data on this. My non-status wife flew solo from SEA-LHR this month and when we repeatedly checked her in, a $799/79.9K miles upgrade offer would appear intermittently. When we actually tried to use it, it would not go through. I called in and after about 20 minutes, they actually got it to go through.
Mar 24, 2017, 12:18 pm
#39
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Posts: 10,745
While I agree that the DL hard product is nothing special, EK business class isn't that amazing either. No need for the detour to Dubai in any case. If we're talking about paying $11K one way, doing BA F from ATL to LON would be a step up for either DL or EK business ("BA First--the best business class in the skies"), and if you're willing to make a connection in FRA could do LH F which is a serious step up in quality from any business class product and much more direct.
But if flying on my own for business, I'd actually very much prefer a DL 1-2-1 setup. I'd even consider a DL 767 a better hard product than the EK flight I took (granted, I'm apparently one of the few that doesn't have a problem with the 767 footwell).
Soft product between the two was basically the same IMO.
Aside from direct aisle access when flying alone, I don't feel like there's enough of a difference between the flat-bed J offerings on various airlines to justify a significant price difference. Certainly not enough of a difference to justify added connections or significantly longer travel time. I enjoy great flights in F/J as much as the next guy, but I also very much enjoy getting to my destination and doing whatever it is I'm travelling for in the first place.
Mar 24, 2017, 12:45 pm
#40
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: YYZ
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Mar 24, 2017, 4:00 pm
#42
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Mar 24, 2017, 6:30 pm
#43
Join Date: Oct 2005
Programs: DL 2MM PM;VSGld;EKGld; HilDia; HrtzPC; AvisPC; PP; AmbPlt; JumeiGld; MeliaPlt; TajPlt; ShangriDia
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Thanks for the outstanding advice! Does that apply also to KLM? Maybe I thought it was not generally offered because I did not routinely receive paid upgrade offers on AF at internet check-in until I had started booking on AF ticket stock.
Mar 24, 2017, 6:38 pm
#44
Join Date: Oct 2005
Programs: DL 2MM PM;VSGld;EKGld; HilDia; HrtzPC; AvisPC; PP; AmbPlt; JumeiGld; MeliaPlt; TajPlt; ShangriDia
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Good point bubba-- I have a close friend who is flying with a group from the East Coast to VIE in April on a vacation trip. I searched fares, suggested that she have the whole group book IAD-IST-VIE roundtrip, because the Turkish Airlines fare is $2200 roundtrip in business class and it is hard to obtain four award tickets together in business class. I also suggested that the group make a free sightseeing stopover in IST on the return. She came back to me and said that her friends had already booked, IST appeared dangerous and that it was a roundabout way to travel to VIE. Thus, for her pleasure trip, I recently learned that she booked the $8K roundtrip non-stop on Austrian Air in biz to save the four to six hours extra in each direction on Turkish Air. You are right, some people do value their time! Her whole group could have booked biz together on Turkish for nearly the same price as her single vacation ticket on Austrian!
Mar 24, 2017, 7:19 pm
#45
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: ATL
Programs: Delta PlM, 1M
Posts: 6,365
Once you get to lie flat, direct aisle access C product, there really is not that big of a difference. Yeah, many will ..... about the DL767. Or love the old 747 upstairs. Or wait eagerly for the 350.
But in reality the difference is not that big compared to the friggen huge difference between Y and C.
On a 0 to 10 scale, Y is 0, F on a ME3 or SQ is a 10. All the "modern" Cs are 7.9 to 8.1
On service, they all bring me my food and drinks. Don't know what else they are supposed to do.