XandrdC

United 1K here. Have a leg on Delta next week for work, so decided to burn a status match (to Platinum) for the helluvait.

I have about 58k Amex MR that I could transfer to DL at 1:1. With my current Skymiles balance, that'd put me at about 65k Skymiles.

Questions:

1. Will my status match to Platinum give me access to better award travel options/rates with DL?
2. If I book award travel for dates AFTER my status match ends, will that impact my booking after the 90 days?
3. What's the best way to burn 65k with Delta? Doubt that'd get me transPacific in DeltaOne, eh?

Thanks in advance from a wanna be Deltoid who lives in the wrong damn city.

Zorak

1. No, DL doesn't have any different award inventory for elites the way UA does

2. "impact" how? The inventory isn't different, per (1). If you satisfy the challenge to retain PM then the main relevant thing is that you will have free award cancellation/redeposit (similar to UA Plat/1K)

3. nope :-/

Award Ticket Success - Post It Here

or the flip side

Highest skymiles award ticket you've seen?

Is this Correct?_500,000 miles one way biz class USA to London?

XandrdC

Thanks for the quick, concise reply.

Took a look at some of my preferred award itineraries on DL, and OMFG.

Not thinking an MR to DL transfer would be the wisest move on my part.

xliioper

It would be helpful to know if you intend to meet the Match Challenge terms or if you are just looking for temporary status. If you don't meet the terms and your status expires after 90 days, you most likely not retain any of the benefits if your flights are after that. No, 65K won't get you a international D1 award. DL had a summer sale recently for Europe D1 awards for 64K each way, but they required a roundtrip booking (you couldn't buy a one-way award at that rate). Partner (AF/KL/AZ) one-way business to Europe is 75K miles, but availability is pretty limited. If you don't want to use miles for anything other than long-haul international business, then yes, there's probably no point in transferring your MR points to DL.

tearex

Only good for a top off if you already have an itinerary in mind that you're short some points on. You do also get charged taxes for the transfer, assuming a US AmEx.

You can find decent redemption during a DL award fare sale (TATL D1 comes to mind), but even that is around 98k mi r/t.

Far From Home

To redeem the lowest number of miles for international flights, avoid Delta. The mileage cost to fly on SkyTeam partners is almost always lower than the cost to fly on DL (and my recent searches for TPAC flights are finding DL flights at 2x, 3x, or even 5x the cost of partner flights). Figure 85K miles one way TPAC if you avoid Delta.

I switched from UA to DL a couple years ago, and in general I find the mileage redemption options to Asia are less appealing on SkyTeam than they were on Star Alliance (possibly with the exception of flights to mainland China).

CI is quite nice, but that's been the lone bright spot so far. I quite miss all the *A options on OZ, TG, ANA, SQ, BR, etc.

And it's still possible (at least for now) to book F on some *A partners with UA miles. DL miles will get you J, never F, on partners.

Wimsta

Everything appears to be covered, but I'll add two additional points.

You've matched to PM. One of the nice benefits of PM status is UG to C+ shortly after booking. If you know that you're not going to make the match but book future flights before it expires you'll be able to select C+ seats and will not lose them when you lose your status.

If you make the match but do not expect to earn the status going forward you can select RUCs as your choice benefit towards the end of your status. You'll still be able to use them when you're not PM for up to one year from when they were chosen as a benefit.

MSPeconomist

ASA_1

Hi all, I'm looking to do a status match from Alaska gold. One of the requirements is the below bullet. Can someone help clarify examples of these? I'm assuming a screenshot of my current elite status, and the email saying welcome to gold? Is that what they're referring to?

• You are able to present both a valid, current elite credential and a statement showing your earned elite status

xliioper

They want an activity statement showing your flying for the year to verify you actually earned your status rather than received it from a status match. An email simply saying welcome to gold would probably not be sufficient. A screenshot from the AS website showing your activity to date in the overview and tier status section which shows miles and segments to date would probably be acceptable if you hit the Gold threshold this year already. A screenshot showing flying/air activity over the past year from the Mileage activity section of the website would also be something they would find acceptable.

MSPeconomist

ASA_1

Alaska only has a miles requirement, no spend requirement. So any suggestions as to what I actually need to show?

xliioper

Did you read my post above? They want a statement that shows your mileage activity from flying (similar to a bank statement or a credit card statement that shows your activity on those).

See definition number 5 below --

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/statement

ASA_1