bluedevils

what is the significance of booking 331 days out? Is that a min, max, stars aligned in the Northern sky situation, or what?

Gandhi90s

That's when flights are first available for booking.

asianmanma

Hi,
Can anybody tell me:
- Can I transfer 30k between two accounts back and forth for many time on October to receive bonus miles for many times?
- If they happendly credit 100% bonus miles on account before 10/31, can I even transfer that bonus miles to receive more bonus miles?
I emailed Delta, no answer yet.

whynotgo

Asiamanma, welcome to Flyertalk. I few items to help you along the path of free and discounted travel.

1. Profile - Please complete your profile including frequent flyer programs and your location (airport/city). This allows of FT'ers to help you better.

2. Emailing Delta - Generally, never contact the provider regarding an actual or perceived loophole. They will read your email and fix the loophole--no more loophole.

3. Your question - Yes, you can do so as many times as you wish. Why would DL allow this? Because this is among the most expensive ways to get FF miles available. No FT'er will accept this "offer" unless there are very unusual circumstances. To transfer 30,000 miles, you pay $300 plus $30 fee = $330 for 30,000 miles.

4. Cheap miles - Read the Budget Delta "8,000 mile" bonus thead and use that method. Rent 4 SUV's at a cost of $35 each x 4 = 140 for 30,000 miles. Good not great deal, much better than $330.

5. Research - Try to research your question before asking a question. If one member has particular insight, you may want to send a PM (Private Message) to the member.

Finally, keep reading FT and tell us about your experiences and the deals you find.

Footnote: I am send you a PM with a question/thought.

asianmanma

Hi "whynotfly",
Thank you very much for message! Your points are well-taken! I do have more questions regarding to your message:
1. Sure.
2. I wasn't 100% sure whether it was a "loophole", or there was somthing hidden in the offer. It says "gifted miles" can't be transferred to receive bonus. I just want to make sure that I won't spend a huge amount of money but eventually didn't receive those bonus miles, you know, they are posting the bonus miles after 4-6 weeks, which is after 10/31.
3. Sorry I am new, so I thought this might be good offer especially to get huge amount of miles. For example, I need 5 tickets to Asian, which is 300k miles, but the ticket will cost ~$1500 each.....I don't know where I can get such a huge amount of miles (300K) in cheaper way? ....again, I am new.
4. The Budget Delta offer is not good for everybody, such as people far from airport, or SUV rental rate rate is too high (close to $.01/mile). Plus, getting a lots of miles from it need you run to airport for many times' rental, right? :-)
5. Well taken.

sdflyer04

I have miles in 6 family accounts: 81K, 40K, 28K, 23.9K, 18K, and 9.75K. My plan is to transfer all miles into the 81K account. This makes all miles much more useable and I should end up with 319K in one account. This is based on the assumption that I can move the 40K in two transactions (resulting in two $30 payments, but no orphan miles). Is this a correct assumption?

Total cost would be: $1,370. I'm choking on the the cost a bit. But, I'm not currently earning many skymiles and 3 of the accounts don't have enough for any ticket so they are truly orphan.

My highest and best use is probably flights to Maui over thanksgiving for college age children. I've never been able to use the miles at 35K. With the new rates, I now see that I could probably use the miles at less than 80K per ticket. If I divide my cost by 4 tickets, it is less then $350 per ticket. But, I currently have enough for 1 ticket without moving any miles, so if I divide the cost by 3 I still have a cost of $460 or so per ticket. I can't purchase tickets for anywhere near that cost.

Would you do it?

Would you top off the two accounts that need a few miles to hit an even thousand using the skymiles shopping?

Thanks for any thoughts.

whynotgo

1. 81k account - Good for two 35k tix to HI

2. 40k account - Good for one 35k tix to HI

3. 28k account - Rent one SUV from Budget and get 7,550 miles ($35 per rental) = 35k+ Good for one 35k tix to HI

4. 23.9k account - Rent two SUVs from Budget (2 * $35= $70) and get 15,100 miles = 38k+ Good for one 35k tix to HI

5. 18k account - Rent 3 SUVs from Budget (3 * $35= $105) and get 3 *7,550 = 22,650 miles = 40k+ Good for one 35k tix to HI

6. 9.75k account - Rent 4 SUVs from Budget (4 * $35= $140) and get 4 *7,550 = 30,200 miles = 41k+Good for one 35k tix to HI

Results

Accounts 1 through 6 - Spend another $350 and be eligible for 7 - 35k trips, or $50 per trip

In short, your transfer plan is expensive and does not get you very much.

soonerfanatic

Very good analysis and agreement with this strategy ^

Gandhi90s

Taking the time and trouble to make 10 separate rentals from Budget to save $240 (by my calculation) doesn't seem worth the hassle. IMO 1.1 cents is a pretty good deal (but only if you can use the miles to score SQ F awards).

whynotgo

Gandhi

1. You are confused - Re read Sdflyers post, he wants to spend $1,360. My plan spends $350.

2. "Taking the time and trouble to make 10 separate rentals from Budget" Not certain what you consider time and trouble. Assuming you have a Fastbreak account (if not spend 15 minutes and register), each reservation takes 2-3 minuters. Assuming you did not have a Fastbreak and started from scratch, you would spend 45 minutes making reservations. Go to airport, hand 10 reservations to agent tell him you wont take cars of lot, with Fastbreak, you will be there less than 30 minutes. Come back 4 hours later and complete contracts, 20 minutes. Sdflyers plan is more time consuming and will take more days.

Gandhi90s

He's not calculating correctly. All he has to do is to move 9K from the 9.75K, 18K from the 18K, 23K from the 23.9K, and 6K from the 81K, all into the 28K account. With the bonus, the 28K account will now have 140K. Now he can get his 7 35K tickets. Total cost: $736 by my calculation. So it's $286 more (not $240) if done correctly.

However, if you can get a Budget location to rent you multiple cars without driving them off the lot, it's definitely a better deal. Don't forget, though, that if the kids are minors, they will not be able to rent under their own names and FF numbers, so some transfer fees will still apply.

sdflyer04

Thanks for thinking this through. Unfortunately, there are 3 problems with this plan.
1. As I understand the Budget deal, you have to use a corporate owned location. And, I understand that SAN is not corporate owned.
2. 4 of the 6 accounts are under age 25 which means no (or expensive) car rental.
3. I spent several hours a few days ago trying to find ONE single SAN to Maui or even SLC to Maui ticket for 35K looking at 7-8 months of the year. Even on days that both said "low," I NEVER found a single 35K ticket. In fact, the lowest I ever found was 52K. Given that I want to fly around a holiday, the chances of a 35K ticket are close to zero. Therefore, I have to budget higher. I think it is likely that I can find 77.5K tickets reliably. The only way to get more than one 77.5K ticket is to combine my miles.

Does that change your thinking? If so, what would you do? Thanks.

whynotgo

Yes, the information you provided changes your situation significantly.

sdflyer04

Huh? I have Delta miles, not AA miles. I need to travel on Thanksgiving weeks because of school schedules (by the way, this isn't for this year so my hope/expectation is that I can snag tickets at 77.5K or less). So, I'm trying to use my Delta miles to get some of my college age children to Hawaii.

What I'm debating is whether it is worth almost $1400 to move orphan miles in a system that could change in a year+. If I'm looking for tickets costing 80K, all of the miles are orphans to some extent. I still save big off of paying full price and I use miles that would likely not be used. And, the option of combining miles expires on Oct. 31 and may not return.

One last thing, the bottom level for Hawaii is now 40K miles, not 35K.

tormapleaf

Can someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong? I certainly cannot find a SUV for $25 or $35 at Budget in MSY.