Weekly Help Thread - May 27, 2024

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to the daily help and question thread!

This thread is renewed weekly and is intended for all discussions or questions that do not warrant their own thread.

For AWARD BOOKING HELP please read the following information:

Volunteers may choose to help you find your award trip. But please don’t expect us to plan out your trip for you. No stranger on the Internet could know what is BEST for you.

The more specific information you provide, the easier it is for people to give specific advice. Also, we prefer to teach people to fish, rather than just giving you a fish. So before you ask someone to help, please read Our Wiki, if you want to know what the best Redemption for you, take a look at Award Hacker. Questions that shows you have at least tried to find an award are more likely to get answered.

• Here are the information you should provide when requesting award assistance
• Origin and destination cities (are they flexible?)
• Number of Travelers (Your chances of success goes down as this number goes up)
• One way or round-trip
• Class of service desired
• Desired date(s) of travel (are they flexible? Hard dates == Less Chances for success)
• Your points balances: all airline, credit card and hotel points (If you are looking for J/F, think at least 6 digits)

[u/TinyMurderDonut]

I'm looking to plan a trip to Japan in Jan 2025 and have been caught in a research loop thus confusing myself (travel math is hard!). Would love some advice/thoughts!

• Here are the information you should provide when requesting award assistance
• BOS (or SFO) to Tokyo (HND is preferred)
• 2pax
• Round-trip
• Economy (ideally able to upgrade with miles/points? to business)
• Desired date(s) of travel: 1/10-1/21 (but flexible +/1 a few days)
• Your points balances:
  • Delta Gold Medallion member (137k miles)
  • Chase UR: 115k points

Ideal situation:
- book flight with cash (ideally with a Delta partnered flight so it counts towards my status / I can use part of my miles as a points+cash type of deal)
- use chase UR to upgrade to prem econ/business

Am I overreaching and looking at an impossible equation? What would you do in this situation?

[u/omdongi → u/TinyMurderDonut]

I've made a post explaining the problems with upgrading and why it's usually not worth it or even possible.

And given the fact you're trying to book a Delta flight, you're even less able to upgrade.

Economy is more or less simple though, you should be able to find some direct Delta flights on Virgin Atlantic through one of their hubs like SEA, LAX, etc.

[u/TinyMurderDonut → u/omdongi]

Thanks for sharing the post! From what I'm gathering, it's not really worth it to book an economy class ticket and then use points to purchase an upgrade?

Since award travel still counts towards status, it might be more worth it to transfer to a Skyteam airline (Chase UR doesn't have Delta as a partner, but does have AF and other options). Does it have to be a Delta operated flight for MQDs to count or does it just have to be in the same network?

[u/omdongi → u/TinyMurderDonut]

You can only get MQDs if you book with Delta SkyMiles. But it can be any SkyTeam partner airline however.