Greetings,

You are all a plethora of information and I am hoping to gain some insight into Delta and upgrades from Economy tickets to business on international flights.

I have had great success upgrading on AA with miles from economy tickets. Unfortunately Amex does not transfer to AA but they do to Delta.

I am looking to go to Europe in the spring of 09. The dates are very flexible as is the arrival and departure city. I need to be in Italy for 3 weeks and will spend another 3 weeks traveling with my then 12 year old daughter.

I would LOVE to be able to buy two economy tickets and upgrade with miles. I do not see having 180,000 miles by the time I need to in order to get two business class tickets. I have looked at Delta's website but am confused. On American it is 25,000 a leg to upgrade. So 50,000 total r/t.

Any input/suggestions on how to do this? What about Airfrance or a code share partner?

Currently upgrades on are Delta metal, no Air France operated flights.

It's 25,000 miles one way from B or M fares or 15,000 miles one way from full Y fares.

You can search by fare class on delta.com to see what the M fare is. It's quite a bit more than the lowest non-upgradeable fares.

You can call Delta to check upgrade availability or use a subscription service like Expert Flyer and look for the availability of Z.

You can also waitlist if there's no Z but there's no guarantee it'll clear and you could end up sitting in coach on a very expensive ticket.

Good luck!

Thanks Patty - I am not sure what we will end up doing..most likely riding in the back with the cattle ;-)

dawn - on AA, it is 25k miles one-way PLUS $300 co-pay for a trans-atlantic upgrade. So, for r/t, it'll be 50k miles + $600 per person.

AA is less restrictive in terms on what fare class you have to buy in order to be upgradable.

Here's the link to AA.com on upgrades:
http://tinyurl.com/52z96o

I understand you are asking about Delta, but I just want to be sure the next person who read this post didn't think "Wow! That's a great deal on AA" without realizing there's a co-pay involved.

YK - interesting. Dh and I did upgrade on the way home from Rome last July - I do not recall paying anything... did they recently change it?
We upgraded at the airport. I cannot imagine we would have paid 600.00. But perhaps we did?... I will ask dh. Maybe we just got lucky by doing at the airport that day instead of over the phone.

I looked at the link - sure enough it is there in black and white. I guess we just got lucky - or I am forgetting - but dh is a little tight with the cash...doubting he would have sprung for the 600.00 on the heels of dropping too much money in Europe.

It was free in the past, but that was at least a few years ago! Even last year I think the co-pay was $250, and then it was increased to $300. Perhaps you paid it but we'll just pretend that you didn't!

yk - we must have paid it - it was just last summer - that is good to know... thanks for clarifying that.

Continental also does the mileage + co-pay option, and they partner with AMEX. Co-pays are as much as $450 each way, and decrease as you go up in fare class.

Regardless of which method an airline uses, I find that the cash outlay is pretty similar across most of the airlines to upgrade - usually in the $1500 to $2000 range for a trip to Europe.

The big advantage to the co-pay option is that you only have to spend the money when you get the upgrade. With the minimum fare class option, you either have to pay up front and hope an upgrade becomes available, but you could very well spend an extra $1000 and be in the back.

The big advantage to the higher fare classes, would be that they may be more flexible tickets and may earn better mileage. On Delta, for instance, all of the upgradeable fare classes earn 150% mileage.

Hello,

kybourbon recommended that I look to this forum to learn about upgrading on Delta using ff miles.

Like dawnnoelm (thank you, dawn), I need to educate myself. I have been so naive, addicted to the Europe forum, but a complete idiot when it comes to purchasing air tickets wisely.

So just recently, I learned that only certain class coach fares have the possibility of upgrade. duh.
I'll be reading this forum religiously from now on (I didn't even know there was one), but for the time being, let me see if I've got one bit of info clear: In order to have a chance at an upgrade to Business, you must purchase a ticket that is more expensive than the lowest price. So, what one must do is gamble on the possibility? There is every chance that you might end up in coach with one of the more expensive seats? Feel free to ignore my piggy-backing if this is all too banal. J.

< So, what one must do is gamble on the possibility?>

I haven't gotten an upgrade for a while, but this is my experience:

You call the Delta and ask if an upgrade is available. If it is, <i>then, at that time, on the phone,</i> you buy the required ticket and book the upgrade. If it is not available, you can do whatever you want later.

You should know that with Delta, as with other airlines, there are 2 classes of upgrade rewards.

<i>So, what one must do is gamble on the possibility?</i>

I would never gamble and only buy a higher fare class if I know that the upgrade is available at the time of booking.

I appreciate this basic tutorial very much, folks. I hope you'll pardon my inquiries from time to time. J.

You might just get business class tickets with your miles. Delta just flew me to Europe on business class on Air France for 70k miles. It did not make sense to me, I thought i would be 100k miles, but I did not to ask questions on this either. Anyway, you might want to check.

jmw44 - Here is a thread on fare codes/upgrades.
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35075979

Merci beaucoup, kyb.
J.