Tips & Tricks for a DTW DL captive
 

Hi all!

Does anyone have any tips and/or tricks for planning a mileage run on DL out of DTW? I still consider myself a hub city captive even though DL/NW are now one entity. I've read through all the posts for the tools to use but from what I've read, I still can't come up with a MR that people would consider a good (<.03/ppm) run out of DTW on DL. I did come up with one that works out to around .05/ppm for around 11,000 miles but according to people on the MR discussion this is not a great $$.

It seems like since the DL/NW merger prices out of DTW have shot up quite a bit which makes it a little difficult to find a good MR deal (at least I haven't found a lot out there). If someone could offer some pointers on how to find good MR deals out of hub cities I'd appreciate it. Note: I did notice that there was a thread for DTW captives but it hasn't been active recently. I'm fortunate in that my job allows me to work from anywhere so I have some flexibility in travel. The problem I'm having is finding a good MR on DL out of DTW that would make it worth my time and $$$.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions (other than the ones found in the posts for MR tools)!

If you've found anything on this - please do share!

Maybe there should be a thread for DL hub MRs....:rolleyes:

Feel your pain!!
 

Im in MEM, and same here. A flight from BWI to AMS via DTW is 500 a.i. (going west to go east)

A direct MEM to AMS is 935 a.i.

I am willing to route myself any which way it takes for that 500 fare. Go east, west, north or south.

FNT has generally been a cheaper alternative to DTW and if you live north, it might even be closer. Since many of the connections are thru DTW, you get cheaper fares plus an extra 500 EQMs. Not that it was MR pricing, but I used FNT a few months ago when DL wanted $600+ for their DTW-SFO nonstop. Got the same DTW-SFO flight (and my UG ;)) for under $300. Go figure.

The standards for 'good MRs' are significantly higher for people on the east and west coast as compared to the hub captives in flyover country.

Last year, I could go to farecompare and see 4 cpm flights for DFW most of the time. Now the lowest fares out of DFW are 6 cpm. NYC and LAX still have plenty of 4 cpm fares. <shrug>

So if I find a 5 cpm deal out of DFW that is convenient for me, I'm not going to reject it solely based on the judgement of people in very different circumstances. You should look at your goals for mile running, (status? cheap international travel in first class?) your available budget, and your time flexibility and decide what is your personal threshold.

And you can always take a stab at the tricks thread... :D

Look for deals out of PIT and STL... With the double MQM promo (see the thread in the Delta forum) and a 5 hour drive (on both sides) to PIT or a cheap positioning flight to STL on WN or DL, you might be able to get some good deals that way. I'm planning a trip to Europe in November and finding PIT-TXL, DUS-PIT for $743, or 3.7cpmqm.

+1. As an ATL captive, I normally have to get to some other starting point like FLL or TPA to get the good MR deals; and then add on the cheapest flight to that starting point. Best I get after adding on the flight from ATL is right at 5cpmqm, but it works for me. The STL/BNA/PIT/RDU double mqm deal has got me a very good 2.8cpmqm trip with a drive to BNA, but that is the exception for me.

Just moved my next TPAC flight up to Nashville for this reason.

For about 3 hours in the car each way (I am north of Atl) I will get an extra
30k MQMs .

I suspect the general answer is to get out of the hub.

Being in a hub is great for most travel though.