bigmillz

Looking at the value of the annual companion ticket, as the rest of the benefits overlap with my Amex Platinum.

In brief, are there any notable "gotchas" for the companion ticket? I know it has to be domestic, and main cabin or higher.

Mostly want to make sure it's not capped at $200 or something that basically renders the card worthless to me

Thank you!

kenncal

Doesn’t appear to be capped. We are using one of ours next month and it’s valued at ~ $700. The Delta app will let you add the certificate and search to see what’s available. Other than what you mentioned about domestic only (bummer) and Main Cabin or higher, I think you have it covered!

LowValueCustomer

There are fare bucket restrictions which often render the cert unusable during certain dates (fares aren't released in the right buckets, or are gone immediately).

paterwdb

Terms are listed here. Be sure you expand the rules for the Reserve companion cert, since they are different.

It's not just main cabin or higher, it is the lower cost fare buckets in each cabin (Main, C+, or F). There aren't value restrictions, but it is not as simple as any seat for sale. Once you activate the cert in your SM profile, you do a fare search and it will pull up what is available for your routing and dates within the correct/available fare classes. They're generally pretty easy to use if you book well in advance.

FYI, you can use the cert for the reserve card for two people even if you are not traveling.

bigmillz

Thanks!

So it sounds like the only major limitation is that it's only certain flights? Do you find it very limiting to specific routes, or more that you just have to try some other dates/times for the same route?

LowValueCustomer

I've had reasonably good luck as long as my dates are flexible. I know some others have complaints about routes that are very difficult/nonexistent for long stretches of time, but I can't speak to that personally.

findark

It is just by fare class, which I would not necessarily describe as "certain flights". It requires L space or lower in Main or C+, and I space or lower in First. This is roughly the lower half of Delta's inventory classes, so it is by no means particularly restrictive. That being said, other FTers have complained a lot about them being "impossible" to use, so it's very YMMV. If you are a high-revenue customer flying on expensive tickets and expect the companion cert to work on that pattern, it won't. In my experience, DL charges a massive inventory premium to connect through its hubs, so you may get better results flying nonstop (this applies equally to the price of a cash ticket).

The only other thing I would note is that the website is very buggy about redemptions in First. The terms are for I or Z class on any First-marketed domestic (CONUS) flight, but the website has trouble honoring this and HUCA can be necessary.

And I didn't see it explicitly mentioned - it has to be a simple round-trip.

I easily get over $1,000 of value from my certs, albeit because DL has significantly hiked domestic premium fares in the last several years.

bigmillz

Thanks - this is a huge help for what to expect. I'll have to try my luck when the certificate comes up (I'm only 6 months into having the card), and see if it's worthwhile.

Centurion

I know someone who could not find any First class availability all 2022 summer long and let it expire. They wanted to use it on a flight that had a delta code regional share feeder from RHI- MSP that had no First class and connect to First classs MSP-PHX

Pianoman109876

Also, it USED to allow Domestic D1. Now, it does NOT when attempting to book online. There are anecdotal cases where folks have reported calling in and requesting Global Ticketing Support and/or Skymiles desk to manually issue, but technically the rules don't allow it (while it DOES allow in the Z or I fare class which is both first class AND D1, the wording on the ticket specifically says first class only)

mspdoc

I learned from an agent within the past couple of weeks that the website and app won’t let you book
a first class companion ticket, even if there is adequate Z or I inventory, if there isn’t also L,U,T,X, and/or V space in available the main cabin. Even she was struggling to book it for me but the ticketing desk was finally able to make it work no problem. Both agents agreed it made no sense but hopefully that explains some of the bugginess and can be fixed at some point.

TommyD2

I've been able to use mine every year. I have had to change my dates by a day or so a couple of times.

I tried some random dates for RHI-(MSP)-PHX and the website didn't show anything - probably because of mixed cabins (RHI-MSP is a regional jet).

But the right buckets are available so 1) likely a website issue and 2) you probably need to call in to ticket it.

findark

The website has been broken in different ways over the last several years.

Most recently it has been perfectly happy to do what you describe (ticket in I even if there is no L space), but it refuses to honor Z as a valid class. It would take several HUCA to win an argument with an agent that their computer was wrong and have the ticket manually issued in Z. I haven't checked in the last 30 days; maybe it changed again. There was definitely a different point where it was as you describe.

I had no issue finding RHI-MSP-PHX when inventory is available (for example, March 8 to March 15).

The website displays the bug I mentioned above (refuses to honor Z as a valid class, and so forces I in both directions).

Also note, as I said before, that DL seems almost comically uninterested in reasonable inventory on connections, so a route like RHI-anywhere is going to be very expensive and therefore difficult to find companion inventory on. Between the fare table and inventory suppression, the cheapest solution on those dates (and likely others) is actually to take a fare break in MSP, but DL will refuse to sell this online (not sure if an agent will either) and the only way to purchase is with separate tickets.

I was able to easily find valid dates, but I did pick Wednesday evenings in March and started with a +/-3 day inventory search. There are many FTers who are not quite so search-savvy and are perhaps just accustomed to paying D rates or higher, and therefore find the certs difficult to use.

Bradhattan

The same is also possible with the DL Plat Amex,

xliioper

Website will definitely fare out FC fares with Reserve certs even if no L/U/T/X/V bucket inventory is open. 'I' fares use Q/K/L fare basis fares and so are potentially bookable with certs as long as both I and Q bucket are open with at least 2 seats with the dual bucket inventory checking on domestic FC fares. This particular I fare has a 14 day AP, but there is also a somewhat higher I fare on route with no AP. Total price below is for coach on outbound and FC on return flight shown below.