satman40

beachmouse

As a bag-checker who home airport typically takes 22-23 minutes to get bags to the carousel (hiring of contract ramp agents at the local outstation hasn't kept up with passenger growth) I do well with the '20 minutes or 2500 redeemable miles' bag guarantee.

MSPeconomist

joeyE

ijgordon

I'm inclined to disagree with the last part. Both DL and B6 effectively have a semi-fixed valuation per mile that lets you redeem on virtually any flight, and the mileage requirement will be proportional to the cash fare at the time of booking. For DL, I find a skymile is generally worth 1.3 cents, so a $130 flight will cost about 10,000 miles. B6 is about 1.4 cents IME. Of course this is not set in stone, sometimes you can find better value. It's also not the case with partner redemptions on international tickets on DL, where you may be able to get much better redemption values especially in business class. But if you can accept the semi-fixed value of the points, it's not hard to use Skymiles. As a DL Gold (50k), you basically earn 1 SkyMile for every $0.125 you pay in airfare (before taxes), so you're effectively getting a 10% rebate. More for PM/DM and credit card holders of course. I haven't done that math on B6. Oh, and you can get much better value by using SkyMiles at the bar in the SkyClub, I think it's like $0.02/point.

But at the end of the day, virtually every flight DL sells has a corresponding award mileage price, just like B6.
What's different about AA, is there are only really two levels of awards for a given route - Saver or Anytime, which can be 2-3x the mileage. Saver space can be hard to find which makes it harder to use AA miles unless you want to pay through the nose.

Syzygies

I switched from United 1K to Delta Platinum after a decade commuting between New York City and SFO. I now buy best-priced beds whenever possible. This lead me to recently try AA's business class service JFK to SFO. I was overall impressed, though the touchscreen entertainment controllers had all the usual problems of a cheap GPS, not an expensive iPhone. I felt no urge to switch from Delta to AA, on balance.

I'm flying half as much the next two years, but I'm able to maintain my Delta Platinum status with the help of rollover miles and the Delta Reserve Amex credit card, through which the qualifying dollars are waived and I score additional qualifying miles through my spend. Delta Platinum is not out of reach on 50k actual travel. The club access is nice, and Delta clubs are actually worth visiting. The food is good, good enough to also use as an arrival lounge to catch a quick bite.

I always managed to use most of my ten United upgrades (six international) for friends, but never on my EWR-SFO route. I get four Delta domestic upgrades, and each year I've cleared them all at the time of purchase, same day that I get them. Buying business otherwise, this is merely a faint discount (huge psychological bonus that my status matters) with a hidden gotcha: I love switching flights last minute, knowing any seat up front is adequate. One usually can't switch upgraded seats, unless one is lucky with last-minute availability.

Taking the perspective that one always pays for domestic first changes how one perceives status. United 1K starts to look a lot better again.

I still had and accumulate some United miles. For a vacation last year from SFO to Morocco, I was able to fly round trip business class for 150k miles, including nonstops each way between SFO and Zurich in SwissAir business class, including a "1" from their "1-2-1-2..." seat pattern. This was a better seat and flight than any first class I've experienced (though obviously there are much better cabins out there I haven't flown). The idea that my Delta miles would never do anything like this for me made me queasy. By itself it would be reason to switch back to United when 1K is again in reach.

Zorak

Comp upgrades no, but instrument upgrades are supposed to be able to SDC into any available F seat.

xliioper

DL recently had a summer D1 award sale to Europe for 128K miles roundtrip that lasted for several weeks and was mentioned several times in the DL forum. It was unannounced, so you probably would only have found out about it if you frequented this forum. They also have monthly 48-hour award flash sales on the second Tuesday of each month (they send out an email for these). Usually they are for coach awards, but they've offered D1 awards several times as well. Yes, these opportunities are somewhat rare and irregular, but they do pop-up. You just have to be paying attention.

If you ignore the travel bloggers and are willing to use miles for something other than long-haul J, there can be other opportunities out there as well. I recently booked two RT ticket for DTW-MBJ for 19K each back in February. They were in coach, but got upgraded both ways on ATL-MBJ segments, so it all worked out. Revenue fares were going for $450+.

lost_perspicacity

You can buy a USB condom for like $7 if you're woried about that.

Syzygies

Is this in writing somewhere? I was turned down last time I asked.

Zorak

The SDC page says

• If you have a premium cabin fare like Delta One®, Delta Premium Select or First Class you may make a Same-Day Confirmed change as long as a seat is available in the cabin purchased or a lower cabin

This is not as explicit as we'd like it to be, but it hinges on the interpretation of "premium cabin fare". The argument is that a certificate/miles are a form of payment (vs a complimentary upgrade).

TuxTom

If you're serious about skiing, this really is hard to beat. I believe it's currently two flights a day between BOS-SLC and compared to other airports, you really can't get any closer to the mountains. Plus, SLC is a great hub for connections to Reno/Tahoe, Jackson Hole, Bozeman, etc... if you want to follow the snow. Lots of great options for multi resort passes now too so you're not shelling out $150+ for day tickets.

Syzygies

It's hard to be sure what happens when a certificate SDC succeeds. Did one get lucky with the agent? Was there in fact upgrade-eligible space? We just don't know, and they don't tell us. In United's expert mode one could look for R capacity. Delta deliberately keeps us in the dark.

There's a distinction between "form of payment" and actual fare class. My upgraded flights earn 2,586 MQM's each way, while my purchased premium fare classes earn 3,879 MQM's. This is pretty clear evidence that Delta keeps track, and considers my upgraded flights to be a coach fare class.

For United downgrade compensation ($500 for EWR to SFO), the idea that the certificate has value is enough to qualify for the compensation; fare class is not part of the wording. So while I'm happy to ask for what I can, my read here on how Delta's rule is worded is that a certificate upgrade on a coach fare class is not entitled to automatically SDC into any available premium seat.

Still, on Delta one can have this debate. For United, the idea of being upgraded on a certificate for this route is rather hypothetical. For Delta, the upgrades clear at purchase, the day I earn them.

gitismatt

I think the device itself is plenty of a risk without worrying about what I'm plugging it into