Delta -- I know this is early to plan but
 

for our 50-60 birthdays (husband turns 50 18 days before I turn 60) we would like to go to Australia or Australia and New Zealand. Unfortunately the ff miles needed to ensure that is 740,000 and there is no way I will get that. I may be able to do one but that would mean purchasing an upgradable fare for the second. I cannot figure out what the upgradable fares are and wanted to know if there was any way to figure out if this is doable. Telling me I need a Y or B or M fare -- which is what I think they are -- does me no good if I cannot find out how much a Y or B or M fare costs to purchase.

I tried calling Delta and the person kept me on the phone over a half hour without getting me the information. She finally said that if I wasn't going to book immediately she could not help me and hung up. I would have just picked some dates to get the information but she did not let me get that far.

So does anyone know how to get to that information?

Thanks much!

I'm sorry you've had a hard time from Delta. See if this helps:

Search for fares by using the "Book a Flight" option under the drop-down menu beneath the Planning and Reservations button.

Under "Preferences", choose the "fare class" section and then see what fares come up under Y, B, or M classes.

Good luck with your plans; I hope this helps.

Sorry: meant to say that all the above is on the delta.com site, of course.

As mentioned you can search by fare class on delta.com. To check for upgrade availability you will need to call or use a subscription service like ExpertFlyer. For straight awards, low tier availability in business is 150k roundtrip per ticket from US to Australia. However low availability is difficult to come by on this route. Good luck!

Also for straight awards, make sure they're searching partner routings on Korean, China Southern, Hawaiian (though the latter is more like domestic first class rather than intl business) and not just Delta if you're open to other carriers/routing. Delta.com doesn't show most of these (and nwa.com is getting less and less reliable and soon to be gone) so you will need to call. These partners will either have low tier or nothing.

Thank you! I see where you do put in the class of service and can get fares. What I would like to know is where they tellyou what classes you can use for the upgrade fares. I thought she told me b m and y but would like to find that in writing. Also I would like to find out if one is more "guaranteed" than the other. She did tell me it was only 25,000 miles to have a guaranteed upgrade but I am not sure if that is one way or each way. I also want to know if there is a time limit -- for example if I book the ticket 60 days out but cannot book the upgrade until 90days out or something like that. Is there a limit on the number of upgrades available? So if you can help me with that, it would be appreciated!

Go to https://www.delta.com/skymiles/use_m...ards/index.jsp

You'll see it spelled out here that:

"•Eligible fares include Y,B,M,H,Q, and V for all domestic travel and Y, B, M fares for all international travel."

Good luck with your plans!

It's 25k each way. Yes, upgrades are limited. There must be Z class available which you can't check on delta.com. Have to call or as mentioned earlier use EF. I wouldn't buy a M fare without being able to confirm the upgrade. You could end up with a very expensive coach ticket.

Here's what I do when I do the Y,B, M uprade fares... When I am ready to book I pick up the phone and call.

And I tell the agent NOT to book unless they can confirm the upgrade. Yes, they charge you $25 or so, but.. it's worth it IMHO.

You can confirm at booking no time limits. SO don't pay the big bucks unless you get the upgrade!

Thanks much! I will do the phone call when we are ready. It really is a shame they are charging so much to get there in miles. We have been to Africa as recently as last year in business for 120,000 each round trip. With their changes it is much more difficult to get there for miles.