We are often told that Delta Air Lines is the most premium airline in the world, but $440,000 for an upgrade to business class, even on a longhaul flight, strikes me as a bit too much.
Delta Agent Says Upgrade To Business Class Costs $440,000!
A traveler was flying from Sydney (SYD) to Los Angeles (LAX) on Delta and wanted to upgrade to Delta One business class. He messaged Delta, hoping to use one of his Global Upgrade Certificates (GUCs) and the conversation took an unexpected turn:
Delta: I see. But as I checked here, there is an applied RUC to your LAX to JFK trip In Delta Premium Select. As I have checked here, the cost to upgrade your SY[D] to LAX flight cost in Delta One is $440,000 for your ticket, Spencer.
Passenger: Is that American Dollars?
I burst out laughing at the USD question…even if it was Australia Dollars, that would still be the most expensive commercial airline upgrade I’ve ever seen.
This does not appear to be a manipulated image, as you might except. Instead, the explanation is a bit more innocent.
Spencer clarified that the agent meant SkyMiles, not USD. It was a typo. So the cost to upgrade was 440,000 SkyMiles…still a horrible deal, but more in line with what you’d expect when dealing with Delta SkyMiles, which is simply not a competitive program for U.S. flyers compared to the competition (though United Airlines is fast catching up with devaluations to its MileagePlus program).
The only thing missing was $500,000 crossed out to remind Spencer what a great discount he was receiving because of his Delta co-branded American Express credit card.
In all seriousness, there are still hidden deals in the SkyMiles program, especially for travel that does not touch the USA, but even 440K miles strikes me as an absurd upgrade cost, even on a 14-hour flight. Caveat emptor.
image: Delta Air Lines
LOL. Buyer beware, indeed! Also, maybe res ipsa loquitur (if you think $440,000 is a real price…) And, if you did rely on this… how ’bout some promissory estoppel, Matt? (Probably not, no reasonable person would rely on this.)
Speaking of promissory estoppel, you are reminding me of one of my favorite contract law cases, Leonard v. Pepsico…I would have ruled for Leonard.
YES!! Pepsi Points! Come-on… give the kid his Harrier…
Nope… ‘puffery’… psh. And, Statue of Frauds… double-‘psh.’ And a ‘Bah!’
I mean, he ultimately did get 7 million Frontier points out of it, so… that’s kind of like a fighter jet, in that it is a jet that people are more likely to fight on?
LOL.
Its not the future but the present time, airlines are clobbering us loyal travelers with obscene pricing ( miles ) I have seen “upgrade” pricing on Alaska exceeding purchase pricing in dollars let alone 225K for one way one person to Europe. I am finding that if I plan long haul international well in advance it’s cheaper to purchase my tickets rather than miles. It’s not going to get any better soon, not with mergers back on the plate.
Skymiles are difficult to use wisely, but there are deals to be had, particularly in the back of the bus. I recently redeemed 23K Skymiles for a flight FLL to ANC – which was about half of the mileage requirement of AA. I have no status on DL, so its a standard legroom seat but I think that was a pretty good redemption – particularly for DL.
Just curious, what was the revenue price of the ticket?
I’ve seen what I thought were good SkyMiles deals only to find that the revenue price was also so cheap it still made no sense to use miles.
Totally. Just means that the revenue price divided by ~.01 turns out to be an ok deal relative to other pricing. As an Amex cardholder you add another 15% in value, and it’s also not an exact calculation, so sometimes you can hit the 1.3 cents per dollar range. That’s not bad for Delta, but hardly a major deal.
In truth, I didn’t look at the revenue price. I was trying to keep travel out of pocket costs low – so miles was a way of saving money (I know, miles are a form of money). That said, I would not have cashed in anything over 40K miles, as that was what AA was asking and AA is always my first choice. I would have just flown on American.
I haven’t seen a good deal on an international J since I got a tremendous bargain on an AA trip to Australia (Dec. 2020 to March 2021), and we know how that worked. I’ve pretty much given up given devaluation and my desire to lock in dates fairly early. So, I’ll probably continue this mode for a while: get the best cash deal I can on international J and use the FF miles for domestic F trips.
I know you really dislike me, but we actually purchase and travel very similarly. I am looking forward to what has become my own annual visit Down Under, too. And, yes, had pay for it; earning a bunch of points at least.
+ 1, exactly what we have resorted to doing for few years.
It does not pay to be loyal to Delta. Why people still do it is beyond me!
My best ever Delta FF redemption was sometime between 1997 and early 2000 for a round-trip on the Air France Concorde (JFK-CDG-JFK) for 200,000 miles plus maybe $55.00 in taxes, etc. That was before dynamic pricing (in dollars and/or mileage) when most all Delta FF SkyMiles redemption “costs” were consistent and listed on a published mileage redemption chart except around peak holidays). Those were the good ‘ole days. Even now, if/when I redeem, it’s always for a domestic-48 USA or ticket to Montreal in between mid-January and mid-March while Delta is also offering lower-than-usual mileage redemption specials (promotions). Still though, even using mileage does not assure a GREAT deal as with low mileage redemption rates as there’s often a low-fare ticket being available at the same time.
Well you’ve made me super envious!
Here’s my favorite recent chat agent convo with Delta. I transferred miles from Amex to Delta to book partner flights, and the transaction continually errored out at the end, appearing to be phantom inventory. I chatted up an agent to see if there was any way they could get the itinerary to book OR get the miles back to Amex. While I know the answer to reversing transfers, the previous agent said he would see if an exception could be made, and the chat timed out before he returned, so I was stuck explaining all of this to a new chat agent. Here was his response:
“What you can do instead:
Even though you can’t convert SkyMiles back into American Express points, you still have a few strategic options depending on your goal.
If you want more flexible points
Amex Membership Rewards points are far more flexible than SkyMiles because they transfer to many airlines and hotels. To build up Amex points, you can:
Earn through Amex cards
Use Amex Offers
Refer friends
Use Amex’s airline/hotel transfer bonuses when available”
I love that Delta’s agents are telling their customers that they should earn Amex Membership Rewards points over Delta points! It’s solid advice that the agent probably obtained through AI.
Before I thoroughly trash their agents I should say that in the end he was eventually able to make the partner booking go through. So they’re not completely useless.
Delta will still lie about your carry-on bag.
They are the worst