chalf

Does anyone know what Delta's policy is on international upgrades for Medallion members?

I just received my Silver Medallion pack for 1999, and the only mention was the 'systemwide upgrade' certificates--but for international travel these require that fares be purchased in Y class economy, or else business or first. Since I usually travel (even for business) in K-class or some other discounted fare classification, is there any way I can have some hope of upgrading to the heights of Business-class? I recognize that Delta does not permit upgrades on L-class tickets, but does anyone know the policy on other international tickets?

Thanks.

Cameron

dansil

The information I received with my Platinum package states that B and M fares also qualify with the systemwide upgrades.

Beckles

I talked to Special Member Services just last week about this exact topic, and according to them Systemwide upgrades are valid on Y, B and M fares for international travel.

You can of course also upgrade with miles, and my guess would be that the same fare codes are upgradeable with miles on international flights, with B and M upgrades costing twice as many miles.

Aubie

I know from experience that system-wide upgrades cannot be used on "K" class fares for transatlantic flights...it says so on the upgrade certificate; also, if you do purchase a fare that can be upgraded, you should upgrade at the time of ticketing. The one bright spot of "K" class fares is that if you have a domestic segment, you can use your 800-mile segment upgrades for that part of the flight.

JayJ

Hi Chalf

Hopefully the information I post here will help you out and others with the use of One-Way One-Class Systemwide Upgrades.

The Systemwide Upgrades are valid for travel in North America on any fare except L class.
The Systemwide Upgrades are valid for transoceanic travel and for travel within or between Europe and India on any published fare booked in C,D,Y,B or M class.

Since Delta is discontinuing their First Class service you will no longer be able to upgrade from C, or D fares to First on a Delta Airplane. This leads to another question which I will get to later.

Now when traveling internationally, the only fares in the future that you can use this for on a Delta Airplane is in Y, B, and M class. Now depending on where you are traveling too and when, it does not cost very much more to purchase the higher fare, so you can attempt to use the upgrade.

I have found that when I travel to Korea, the lowest available fare is usually a B class fare. When traveling to London, the M class fare is $100 to $200 more than a K class ticket. Some times, however, the different can be $500 or more during the winter or to some cities like Zurich.

Also the upgrade is governed by the rules of the fare. Therefore if you purchase a ticket from a origin to a destination with 5 stopovers enroute, theoretically you only need to use one One-Way Systemwide Upgrade. Don't let a Delta Agent tell you different without producing the rule in writing that does not allow this. Its no where to be found on the Upgrade Certificate or in Delta's SkyMiles program rules.

When you book your ticket, the reservation agent can tell you if upgrades using Systemwide upgrades are available and can tell you the difference between the lowest available fare and the lowest available upgrade fare.

Also these Systemwide Upgrades seem to be given out every 20000 miles that you fly as an elite although there is nothing in the Membership Guide that says this.

I hope this helps.

Now to my question. If I purchase a Delta Business Class ticket on a DL/KE co-share flight and Delta is selling First Class tickets on the DL/KE flight, can I use my Systemwide Upgrade? Will the Systemwide Upgrades still be valid for fares purchased in C or D class in 1999?

Beckles

JayJ ~ The rules for receiving systemwide upgrades should be somewhere in your Medallion benefits materials (not the regular SkyMiles stuff).

You receive two systemwide upgrades for every 20,000 base miles flown, in addition to the normal segment upgrades for every 10,000 miles flown.

philforest

Jay] sounds like a Delta spokesman, and there's no real detail in his profile. Who are you, Jay]?

baobab

A Virgin employee...?

JayJ

A little update on this topic.

Over the last month I have been traveling on Delta quite a bit. While redeming some One-Way Systemwide Upgrades I had a great conversation with a Delta Ticketing Agent which I will pass on to this thread.

While the Systemwide Upgrade can be used both domestically and international, it doesn't work very well domestically. As the DL agent point out to me, domestic fares are constructed differently than international fares.

Say you wished to travel domestically from JFK to ORD to LAX. If you stayed more than 4 hours in ORD, your ticket would actually be constructed of 2 one-way tickets. A JFK/ORD portion and a ORD/LAX portion. If your tried to use your One-Way Systemwide Upgrade, you would be asked to choose which portion to use it on or have to use 2 Systemwide Upgrades.
So a complicated itinerary domestically is best upgraded by 800 mile upgrades.

For international fares, they can be constructed with or without stopovers. According to the DL agent that I talked to, One-Way Systemwide Upgrades allow one stopover per Upgrade coupon. So say you were traveling PBI/ATL/MEM/CVG/LGW with a stopover in MEM. You could upgrade this whole portion with one Systemwide Upgrade. Also remember that a stopover is a transfer that takes 24 hours or longer. So if you stayed in ATL and CVG for 23 hours a piece this would be considered transfers.

Recently, I purchased a ticket MCO/ATL/SLC/SFO/SEL/HNL/OGG/LAX/PDX/SEA with stopovers in SLC and OGG. I used 2 Systemwide Upgrades to upgrade the whole trip. This trip will earn me almost enough miles to receive another 2 upgrade certificates. I know of no other frequent flyer program that gives you the ability to earn international upgrades every trip that you fly.

Now according to the agent, you are allowed only one stopover per One-Way Systemwide Upgrade. But again, I can find nothing that states this in writing. I have asked the DL agents where I can find this rule in writing but they cannot tell me. It is not listed in the rules on the back of the certificate, in the SkyMiles program rules, or in the Medallion rules. Can anybody point me to the written rule that only one stopover is allowed per Systemwide upgrade?

Good Luck on using your One-Way Systemwide Upgrades.

JayJ

P.S. I don't work for an airline but have worked with quite a few. My knowledge is founded in trying to get the best travel experience for the least amount of money.

Catman

I know with United and American they only allow one stopover because I have received free tickets on both and was told by reservations ONLY ONE STOP OVER ALLOWED.

SO It may be a standard rule, but feel free to clarify guys. CATMAN

jamiel

a little piece of information can help in the quest for the maximal upgrade with the minimal use of certificates---in Expedia (at least) there is a "Fare Rules" section that (at least for the cheapest 20 or so fares in a market) lets you see the exact rules as far as routing, stopovers etc are concerned. In Delta's case, for instance on a TPA/Europe itinerary, on Swissair or Sabena you might be limited to connecting through ATL or JFK, where if you ticket on DL you could connect also through CVG, or both (TPA/CVG/ATL/Europe). Same way TPA/Germany--LH requires you on cheap fares to go through IAD, UA allows you to go through ORD (and, if you want to, through IAD also)

BlondeBomber

you can see all the rules for all Fares at Travelocity but you have to enter a date whereas Expedia gives you the first set of low fares for all dates. I have complained to Expedia about the problems in getting all the fares and also seeing all the flights when booking by "schedule" as opposed to by fare. It can be quite maddening when you get all the 6 AM to 1 PM flights when you entered a desired leave time of 11PM!

Beckles

On Friday I flew MSY-ATL-CHS in the morning then CHS-ATL-SLC-SAN that evening (6 hours in CHS, and I don't even think it was technically a stopover because of the directions of travel), and I had upgraded both with systemwide upgrades a month or so ago. Note that those are definitely two one-way flights, or so I thought (MSY to CHS is east, and CHS to SAN west), but when I got to the airport the agent called someone and asked them if she only needed to collect one systemwide upgrade, and apparently that was the case, a very pleasant surprise!

onlyforleisure

I know must of you read the thread and are saying the answer is no, but correct if I am wrong. If a flight is oversold in Coach and people are upgraded to accomdate those standy by passengers then medallions have first priority. Well I just get back from europe and did the JFK-LGW flight on a thursday night 7:45 I show up and see the standby list is over 20 people no seats remaning in coach and over 10 seats avaliable in BE. I go over to the gate agent who was defintly unexperinced besides the fact cocky and a jerk and i asked if there was an upgrade list he nastily said we will take care of it, I said back and started to watch 10 minutes before boarding I asked again and he said I told you we will take care of it just sit down and we will find you, you knew wasnt going to happen. during this time I also saw an airline who was trying to get the flight ask about an upgrade who was told dont worry we will take care of you. Well bottom line I boarded the plane in coach the employee as well as about 10 other non medallions were all bumped up. I also was curious if they were medallions so I searched out a few at baggage claim and they told me no were just non SM members who were on standby. Besides all this be very careful with the PREMIUM seats because besides being reserved for medallions I found this is also the section the stick the babies especially those flying without a ticket on the lap of a parent. The stuck a non engligh speaking women with a three year old between my sister and I causing us to have to switch seats so she can have an aisle so only one have of us would have a babys head or feet in our lap for seven hours. and to finish thanks to the incompetent gate agent not knowing how to take care of overbookings he delayed the flight about an hour which caused us to lose our spot in line which caused another delay of over an hour more. Has anyone had similiar issues?

tkey75

Wow.