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Old Sep 27, 2011, 11:39 am
  #1  
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LAX to England - Delta or US Airways?

I am heading to England, and I currently have the choice of flying between DL or US. I will probably be heading there twice a year in the future.

Currently I have 11k miles with DL, from a previous trip. If I take this trip with them, I will qualify for Medallion Silver status.

I have 7k miles with US, but I can get a flight for $200 less. If I take this trip with them, I will still be thousands away from qualifying for anything.

Any experiences with this dilemma for semi-frequent transatlantic flights? I am torn between the $200, or making my way to qualifying for Delta Medallion and possibly being more comfortable in a future flight.
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Old Sep 27, 2011, 12:00 pm
  #2  
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Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

If you fly LAX-LHR roundtrip twice in one year on US, but credit the miles to Aegean rather than to US, you will have Star Alliance Gold status after your second trip. This will at least get you lounge access (even on your domestic Coach flights on US, UA, or CO). Aegean credits 100% of US flown miles to Aegean's FFP, and 20,000 miles in one year gets you Star Gold. (Not sure if Star Gold gets you any preferred seating on US flights, however.)
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Old Sep 27, 2011, 1:41 pm
  #3  
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i would look at the $200 as the cost of the mileage run for silver....put that into your factoids.... good luck...
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Old Sep 27, 2011, 6:10 pm
  #4  
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You say you have 11K on DL from a previous trip. Was this trip in the current calendar year? Elite status is only earned on current calendar year actual BIS (butt in seat) miles if traveling in economy.
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Old Sep 27, 2011, 7:30 pm
  #5  
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Yes, it'll be the same year. I had 11k from this July. Now that I'm looking at it, I'll only be at 24k after the November flight. I can buy 2k miles for $70, and hit 25k.
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Old Sep 27, 2011, 7:39 pm
  #6  
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Originally Posted by aliceb
Yes, it'll be the same year. I had 11k from this July. Now that I'm looking at it, I'll only be at 24k after the November flight. I can buy 2k miles for $70, and hit 25k.
Are you talking about MQMs earned or Redeemable miles?

You cannot buy MQMs - you can only earn them through flying or select credit card spend thresholds using an American Express.
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Old Sep 27, 2011, 11:15 pm
  #7  
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If it means calendar year as in Jan-Dec rather than 12 months since July ... I guess I'll not bother and just go with the cheapest for now, since it won't make a difference.

I've figured out (I think...) that if I'm doing this trip regularly, it's only a 1 trip difference in hitting a significant threshold for both DL/SkyTeam and US/Star Alliance.
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Old Sep 28, 2011, 7:45 am
  #8  
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Yes, it is based on a calendar year, and you can't buy elite qualifying miles.
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Old Sep 29, 2011, 1:26 pm
  #9  
 
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you should also consider future trips. whilst DL and US might have the best pricing for this trip, that may not be the case in future. you don't say where in the UK/England you're going, but assuming it is London, then US might be the better FFP option as perhaps next time UA/CO or NZ might be more attractively priced for LAX-LHR and those flights would count towards US status.
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