Moving from SEA to CPH -- Should I switch to Delta Skymiles?
 

Hey everyone,

I have been a long time Alaska MVP based out of Seattle. I'll be moving to Copenhagen for a couple of years as part of a work assignment! As part of my role I expect fairly significant travel, with ~6-12 business class flights between SEA<>CPH per year as well as various personal trips to the US east coast and around Europe. I have essentially three questions:

1) I presume switching from Alaska to Delta makes sense given the situation? There are British airways flights between SEA<>CPH that is a partner with Alaska, but with Delta it appears I'll have a lot more options with KLM, Air France, Virgin Atlantic, and of course Delta itself.

2) Would there be a reason to credit the miles to a different SkyTeam partner (e.g. KLM or Air France)? I'm presuming I'll be flying most often on Delta metal.

3) I don't have any status today with Delta. Is there way to ask for status based on anticipated travel? For instance I'm expecting at least two business class trips between SEA<>CPH in January alone and likely more in Feb and March.

Only answering part 3:

You can complete a status match challenge which will allow you to quickly switch to the Delta Medallion equivalent of Alaska MVP status. More info here: https://www.delta.com/us/en/skymiles...atch-challenge

I travel BOI-CPH/SLC-CPH several times a year, and find it very convenient, usually through SEA when from BOI. It is fast and convenient, connecting either in AMS or CDG with frequent departures to CPH (and to several other smaller cities in DK like AAL (KLM) or BLL (both KLM and AF)). DL Flies to CPH directly from JFK, but I find there is really no time advantage to taking that route when you live out West.

I honestly have not looked into other ways to do it as I try to fly only DL, but there is a SAS CPH-SFO if you are interested in Star Alliance - know close to nothing about One World

Regarding matching, there are multiple threads explaining the possibilities in detail

Look at your employer's travel policy. You might be required or expected to use SAS, for example, from CPH.

I don't think there are DL partner or SkyTeam nonstops from CPH to LHR, so connecting onto VS for TATL travel is unlikely to work well and/or be priced reasonably, but YMMV.

What will be your typical routes in addition to travel to SEA? On SkyTeam, your realistic options will be KLM through AMS (probably better) or AF through CDG. It sounds roughly like you'll probably qualify for DM (top published tier at 125,000 status miles) status with DL which as SkyTeam ElitePlus (GM/PM/DM on DL with corresponding FB tiers) gives access to all SkyTeam partner lounges on international itineraries, but DL is stingy about giving access to third party lounges, including at some airports where AF/KLM do make such arrangements.

How many options do you actually need to fly CPH-SEA? I assume there's only one daily LHR-SEA flight on BA (maybe 2 in summer?), but are there really more varied options on SkyTeam/VS? Or are they all around the same time anyway.

I don't know much about AS's program or its partnership with BA, but generally AS miles are considered quite valuable, no? (DL is called SkyPesos for a reason!) So maybe it's worth putting up with BA? To the US East coast there should be multiple options (depending upon what city) on BA. I guess the problem is intra-Europe, you're not going to want to fly CPH-LHR, but then frankly flying via AMS/CDG isn't a whole lot better. For those short hops you might be better off on Norwegian (if they're still around) or SAS or whatever's most convenient.

Lastly, on #3 , I'd just note that elite status benefits are limited on business class flights, basically just the elite mileage bonuses. And if these are pricey tickets in the first place, DL caps the earnings at 75k per ticket (so if you pay more than $9k as a DL Gold, for example, your miles earned are constrained anyway). Of course if your company is buying expensive tickets, then you'll accrue miles rather quickly and SkyPesos may not be such a bad thing.

I would expect a VS ticket would pair with a BA-operated flight on LHR-CPH, and those combinations are usually quite reasonably-priced (at least they are from NYC to Europe). But you'd likely have to transfer T3<>T5 at LHR and they'll probably lose your suitcase. :) And of course no DL miles on the BA flight, but I guess you could still get AS miles.

Thanks MSPeconomist and everyone else for their replies!

I did look at my company's travel policy and we need to fly on our preferred airlines. However that list is inclusive of DL, KLM, BA, AA, LH, UAL, SAS, AF, and AC. There is no expectation or requirement to fly SAS to CPH, and I believe Delta is generally preferred. SAS isn't very convenient from Seattle as all the connections would be in the US vs. Europe resulting in a much longer trip.

Here are the typical routes with the best times and shortest layovers:

SEA->AMS->CPH (operated by Delta)
SEA->CDG->CPH (operated by AF)
SEA->CDG->CPH (operated by Delta)
SEA->LHR->CPH (operated by AA)
SEA->LHR->CPH (operated by BA)
SEA->FRA->CPH (operated by Lufthansa)

Each of the airlines has similarly reasonable CPH->SEA routing

There doesn't appear to be an obvious routing on VS that I can book through my corporate travel site.

Great point regarding lounge access! I have Priority Pass which should be helpful for non-Delta trips, and also Amex Platinum (which presumably won't be much help in Europe).

Thanks ijgordon!

I do agree that AS miles are among the most valuable and preferable to 'SkyPesos', and that flights on BA would accrue. I'd have strong preference for connecting through a European city than the US...from Seattle the flight distance is a lot shorter. I also have ~400,000 AS miles, so diversification might not be a bad thing. Right now AS miles are pretty good for going to Asia but much trickier to find availability to Europe (particularly with the high fees added at BA making it not a great option for redemption).

My thinking is the DL Diamond status would be a lot more valuable then AS MVP Gold 75.

Great point on the 75k per ticket cap! I wasn't aware of that. Our company is very large and has pretty good negotiated rates, do I'm not sure a single round-trip ticket would ever exceed $6-7k.

If you are looking J awards, DL will seldom have good deals on it's own metal to Asia, but you can sometimes find decent deals on partners. Particularly out of west coast gateway cities of SEA, SFO, and LAX. As far as Europe, they will sometimes have decent 48-hour award flash sales for D1. These are announced around the second Tuesday of each month. In November, they had one for 98K miles roundtrip to Europe. These were seasonally restricted to flights prior to Apr 19th. Last spring/summer they had a longer running sale for D1 flights to Europe for flights from July through early September for 128K miles roundtrip. These both required roundtrip bookings (can't book one-way's for half price) and required a Saturday night stay. Also can have lengthy advance purchase requirements (the summer award sale had a 60-day advance purchase requirement).

Having a European address means a waiver for MQDs. Look how much you will be flying.

It doesn't sound like OP would have *any* issue meeting MQD requirements.

You will also want to look at the earnings in each FFP. AS has really good mileage earnings from BA flights.