Should I credit DL flights to Korean Air or Virgin Atlantic?
Dec 26, 2013, 6:01 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 1,913
Should I credit DL flights to Korean Air or Virgin Atlantic?
Which is a better program for redeeming flights in the USA and that generally has good availability. The reason I ask is I have a bunch of Delta flights coming and I have the Chase program where I can transfer to Virgin Atlantic or Korean so I am trying to figure out which program I should credit my DL flights to for a future redemption. Im thinking Virgin because they have better partners including Delta and Virgin America. Any other thoughts?
Dec 26, 2013, 7:38 pm
#2
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: PBI / JFK, ISP, LGA
Programs: AA, AS, AV, B6, DL, F9, WN
Posts: 866
Which is a better program for redeeming flights in the USA and that generally has good availability. The reason I ask is I have a bunch of Delta flights coming and I have the Chase program where I can transfer to Virgin Atlantic or Korean so I am trying to figure out which program I should credit my DL flights to for a future redemption. Im thinking Virgin because they have better partners including Delta and Virgin America. Any other thoughts?
How about Alaska Airlines (AS)? They are partners with many SkyTeam members including DL and KE. I have heard many DL flyers are looking at AS due to poor redemption at DL.
Dec 27, 2013, 7:55 am
#3
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Join Date: May 2006
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Dec 27, 2013, 11:59 am
#4
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 3,642
So you want to accrue points in another frequent flyer program when flying your upcoming DL flights. You want to do this with an airline that allows you move CSP points into the account. However, your goal is ".. redeeming flights in the USA and that generally has good availability".
KE only has Hawaiian and Alaska air as non-DL partners, and VA only has Virgin America and Hawaiian. In either case, I can't imagine availability of US domestic segments on KE or VS be more available than DL would be. I don't have experiences trying to redeem VS or KE domestically here, but it's at least not intuitive. Not sure if award rates could be lower for the same flights when booked as a VS or KE frequent flyer. Bottom line is that if the goal is really domestic US awards, you might want to reconsider and just stick with DL.
KE only has Hawaiian and Alaska air as non-DL partners, and VA only has Virgin America and Hawaiian. In either case, I can't imagine availability of US domestic segments on KE or VS be more available than DL would be. I don't have experiences trying to redeem VS or KE domestically here, but it's at least not intuitive. Not sure if award rates could be lower for the same flights when booked as a VS or KE frequent flyer. Bottom line is that if the goal is really domestic US awards, you might want to reconsider and just stick with DL.
Dec 30, 2013, 1:48 pm
#5
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Within SkyTeam, awards on DL are available for partner miles only if DL has basic low availability, which is relatively rare. DL elites and even DL AmEx credit card holders get various levels of enhanced availability for low domestic coach award space.
The advantage of crediting on AS is that you can credit and redeem many different carriers through them, including AA. It's a nice niche program that's very useful for people. IMO this overrides your desire to transfer your credit card points into a FF program. I would think you want a second USA FF program, ideally UA, that will accept your credit card points. That will give you a lot more flexibility for redemptions IMO than attempting to use either KE for DL flights or VA for Virgin America flights (which is a very restricted route network).
Note that I don't know what the arrangements are for VA miles to be used for redemptions on DL flights, but I assume that regular low availability would also be required.
The advantage of crediting on AS is that you can credit and redeem many different carriers through them, including AA. It's a nice niche program that's very useful for people. IMO this overrides your desire to transfer your credit card points into a FF program. I would think you want a second USA FF program, ideally UA, that will accept your credit card points. That will give you a lot more flexibility for redemptions IMO than attempting to use either KE for DL flights or VA for Virgin America flights (which is a very restricted route network).
Note that I don't know what the arrangements are for VA miles to be used for redemptions on DL flights, but I assume that regular low availability would also be required.