Lrtalk

I'm Diamond; wife is Diamond for this year and next year and likely back to Platinum after that. We have to book airline for our first trip to Europe July 2023 to board a cruise from Amsterdam. I always book my own flights using either airline sites or Kayak. Are there any tips out there for using other sites for booking tickets including Delta, and I would appreciate any tips for finding best premium select or FC flights to Europe. We can get GUC's and forego RUC's, which I hate to do since typically use a lot of RUC's, but prices for PS and D1 are pretty steeps. Thanks in advance for any idea.

Adam1222

Delta doesn't file cheaper fares on certain websites. You can keep an eye on the Mileage Run forum on this website for good deals.

xliioper

RUCs are only good for use on tickets between SJU and US48. They can't be used for international travel (or on domestic flights that are part of an international trip). GUCs can only be used to upgrade one cabin now on Delta flights (coach to Premium Select, or Premium Select to Delta One). You can only go directly to Delta One if flight has no Premium Select cabin (which is getting very rare to Europe). KLM flights can still be upgraded from coach to business directly. There are seasonal Premium Select roundtrip fares between SJU and AMS for around $1000 roundtrip for outbound flights through March 31st and another seasonal Premium Select fare for around $1260 roundtrip for outbound through May 5th (with returns by May 23rd). Unfortunately, it doesn't look like you can Premium Select for much below $2000 roundtrip for summer with current fare filings. Z fares for Delta One on SJU-AMS are available from around $4K round-trip (if you can find flights with Z bucket open out of SJU, which currently looks problematic as I'm only seeing flights with I bucket open right now for flights after early May). I class fares are going for around $5K roundtrip. Pricing out of US48 gateways (like MIA, JFK, and BOS) have similar $4K roundtrip D1 fares. There are D1 fares on BOS-LHR available from about $2.2K roundtrip (these require mid-week travel and 7-day minimum stays). Not sure if that's really worth it for 6 hour flights where you will need to do repositioning flights on both ends.

ijgordon

For July 2023 travel I wouldn’t even consider booking now. Prob best to wait until Feb/Mar when there will probably be business class fare sales for summer travel to Europe. Pricing will probably depend on what the economy is like, including fuel prices. Pre-COVID you could usually get J for $2-2.5k.

But at least set alerts using Google Flights to track prices because good deals can come up at any time.

xliioper

Those D1 fares in the $2 - $2.5K range were seasonal fares with seasonality windows around holidays and late summer (basically, periods when business travel demand drops off significantly). They pulled those discounted seasonal D1 fares around May of 2021 and they have yet to make a return. It's possible the seasonal D1 fares could return at some point, but I wouldn't pin my hopes on it.

VFR

Delta does file cheaper fares through certain websites as (1) part of Amex IAP if you have a platinum card or (2) as part of package deals where you book a flight and hotel/car reservation together. The package deals will often earn as exception fares too.

xliioper

It's also possible that the cruise company offers bulk/consolidator fares to go with cruise trip that are cheaper than published fares.

hotturnip

I have several times gotten great Biz fares by booking Expedia packages. Some people in the past have used the packages to get the airfare, booked only one night of hotel, and then just no-showed.

Adam1222

Sorry I was imprecise, when I referred to "sites", as the OP did, I was referring to publicly available sites to purchase flights from, not membership programs or packages, particularly since the OP already has purchased a cruise. Some people think the same flight will be cheaper on booking.com versus expedia etc. That is not generally the case. I was not speaking about access to special rates not available to the public. Some rates are cheaper if you book for US federal government travel, etc.

jetsfan92588

I do think the Amex one is fair to mention. The percentage of people in this forum that have a plat card is high enough that it's basically available to the general public.

drminn

They still appear to have them in the reverse direction, I can still find D1 fares ex Europe in the $1800 to $2500 range from a number of European cities (BCN, MPL, MRS, CDG, ...)

Lrtalk

Thanks everyone. When I said forego RUC's, I meant as Choice Benefits since you give up a number of them by choosing the GUC's. I hate the idea of doing that just to get a Premium Select seat, but that may be our best option. I hear the seats are basically the typical US first class seat, which is certainly better than a coach seat for a six hour flight I guess. I can't imagine that a window upgrade to D1 would happen in July to Europe.

xliioper

Yes, ex-EU fare filings are distinct from ex-US fare filings and there are some pretty stunning deals there. BCN-JFK is as low as roughly $1600 USD roundtrip all-in if you can meet the lengthy 180-day advance purchase (and day-of-week/min stay) requirements and find flights with Z bucket open for ZS11TBJB fares (finding dates with Z availability on non-stop looks to be challenging during higher demand times -- but partner connecting options may have some open ).