It is difficult to get a Start in LAX or SFO that goes thru ATL JFK DTW at a reasonable price from cpm perspective and that is the reason for starting at IAH or ORD. You can always try FLL MIA MCO or other airports if they are more convenient but try to keep an eye on your overall cost. It has been a long time since I have been able to do a multicity with DL.com and get any reasonable prices from LAX or SFO.
Blessings & Happy Travels!

IAH SIN still best fare but not as good as a few weeks ago. Mult dates but usually best M - W and about 4 cpm with 21,668-21,734 MQM. Best price is $858.51 for Apr 16-18, Sep 3-5, 10-12, 17-19, 24-26, Oct 15-17, 22-24, Nov 5-7, Dec 3-5. Tried JFK ORD FLL SFO LAX and all of these were higher and other dates higher as well. Just have to keep checking and watching.

Get your Flu shots. Bad Flu season, Don't get sick! Happy Travels. Please post lower fares if you find them and all questions and comments welcomed. Happy Travels and Blessings to all. Keep reading and posting. Next trip is Mar SMF LAX AMS DEL ATQ and Mar 21-30 - work - mission trip - ophthalmology - corneal surgery and transplants and health education - Lifestyle Management and Reversal of Diabetes. Have a great week and stay well!

Haven’t forgotten all the readers but when checking fares the best have only been in the $900 range and those aren’t till Sept with a few closer to $790 but that is in Basic economy and there is no chance for UG and you can’t pick your seat not a way to do that long flight. If any of you see any decent prices please post. Please get your flu shot if you haven’t. Too many unnecessary deaths and I don’t want it to be any of our readers. Have a great weekend and keep your comments and questions coming! 🙂🙂🙂 Blessings to all!

Having done several of these over last few years. Glad to see this discussion still going on, even after the archiving of the other long running thread.

My apologies for delay in posting updates but have been 4+ busy.
There are multiple dates from Sep thru early Dec starting Sep 2-5. 3 day turn around with one night in SIN if you do it is 2 days price goes up and you can pick Sun-Tue, Mon-Wed, Tue-Fri for most weeks and get the same price of $884.31. If you do it in 2 days the price goes up and over the weekend the price goes up. The routing is usually IAH ATL NRT SIN NRT ATL IAH which gives a few more MQM than coming back thru DTW. If you go thru DTW and fly 350 you will net get C+ as they only have PS unless you want to use GUC which I would not use on PS. There are even some dates during the week of Thanksgiving Nov 20-23 which is Tue-Fri. Dec 3-6 is a few $ more at $990.79. Prices will usually come down in Jul or Aug for these dates. Have to be patient and keep checking.
If you have and question, comments or lower fares, please post. Have a great week. Flu epidemic finally seems to be slowing down. Have been able to avoid it this year and did get my shot. Had some friends who didn't and one of them almost died. Please get your flu shots each year.
Blessings to all and have a great week!

This is a bit off topic, but for next year (2019) I've booked partner tickets to SIN to help get status. Why partner? Well, with AF in Z, $3400 gets me 8,400 MQD and almost 59,000 RDM. (Which is in addition to the 31,500 MQM.) Routing is IAD-CDG-SIN-CDG-IAD. 1/1/19 departure with a 1/5/19 return.

I am usually departing from the West Coast (never as a MR), but have been considering this routing as well since I noticed the fares to get to SIN aren't too bad.

Both of you have made valid observations. To make DM for 2019 it will be easier to spend some extra $ on partner airlines to get your MQD up to $15,000 than trying to charge $250,000 I’m AMX. If you only want PM than MR can still be helpful if you don’t fly enough to get 75,000 MQM. If you start in SFO or LAX and go thru ATL NRT DIN or DTW NRT SIN you can get 24,000+ MQM very fast. Thanks for your comments.
Blessings! 🙂 🙂

This makes perfect sense to me. Besides a trip booked in Premium Select on the A350 during a sale, I haven't booked another SIN run. I'm hoping a GUC clears as I'd like to try the new suites. Anyway, I'll have a lot of miles, but would be more concerned about hitting the minimum spend. I'm looking at an itinerary on China Eastern in 'I'. MQM's are 150% and will net almost $8K in MQD's.

I haven't been able to match the 59,000 RDM's but maybe I'm calculating it wrong? From the charts on delta.com for Air France I thought for Z that the RDM's are 200%? Either way, I'm planning to go this route. I just want to make sure I'm calculating it correctly. Thanks!

@Csfing1 .... I follow your posts diligently, and noticed your above mentioned remark from 3/6/18 about upgrades on the A350 - DTW-NRT - if I understand it correctly.
While I was trying to keep up with Delta's "enhancements", I came across this remark from SkyMilesTeam.
It clearly states that upgrades with GUCs are possible from Main Cabin to D1 Suites.
Could you please clarify your remark, if I have misinterpreted it as such - and that the SkyMilesTeam notice is correct ?

Yes they can be used for suites, you are correct. If you get UG please give us a report. Would not use for PS and they don’t have C+ sobuless you get UG to suites would go for bulkhead or exit row. Thanks for your comment and question. Keep questions and comments coming. Will probably do some MR in fall as well as some J on China Eastern to get up the MQD. Safe travels our next trip is to DEL and ATQ vis AMS on KLM for some work in in a few weeks. Have a great week to all readers and safe travels!

RDM's also get a bump from status. From Delta.com:

I'm expecting to be PM, so I was calculating RDMs at 280%, which I hope is correct.

Right. I have absolutely no shot at the AMEX $250,000 waiver. It never crossed my mind to even try for that

The cost is ~$2800 but it's in business class (JFK - PVG - SIN) .I've never flown MU (China Eastern) so this will be a first. From the reviews I've read, they offer a pretty good hard product in business. I'll make up the rest of the MQD's via my regular travel so I'm planning to do 1 trip. I don't mind paying $2,800 for an itinerary that will result in almost $8K in MQD's, +30K in MQM's and a lot of RDM's. I like the benefit of adding a bunch to my account. I have some family travel coming up this year and it will be nice to cash in some miles for those trips.

Gotcha! Thank you! I missed that when I initially looked up the RDM rate. I went back and looked at the rate I'd get with a China Eastern itinerary and per Delta, Diamond adds 120%. And according to 'wheretocredit.com' the earning rate is 320% of miles flown so that matches. So, I guess that really will translate my actual miles flown of 19,474 into 62.3K RDM's. That's not too bad at all.