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Here at UPGRD.com we get emails from readers and from time to time we publish them (edited by blogger for brevity and privacy). This one is from reader VC:
I am a graduate student who has been doing some frequent budget travel to maintain a long distance relationship and have some future international travel plans for work. I would like to know what airline loyalty advice you can give me?
I’ve got 70k Delta because my home base was/will be Atlanta, about 30k United and a little Southwest and 3k in American Airlines. I had a taste of first class on an international flight and it was great! I want to maximize these travel-for-work perks and get back to first class and I’m not sure which direction to go in.
Thanks VC, but of course the answer is more complex than a simple one airline choice. I asked for a little more info from VC, and got this helpful spreadsheet.
The Good News & the Bad News
Being based in a hub city (ATL) offers you tons of access to direct flights all over the world (five continents from that airport I believe) on Delta, but it will make you what we call “hub captive”. That means that your experience is generally worse on your hometown airline because there are more elites in your city for that airline (Delta in this case) but you continue to use them for ease and convenience.
More elites means that you are lower on the list for upgrades and competing with the highest level of flyers, who are likely to also pay higher prices as businesses tend to buy expensive direct flights over connections for their executives. Delta will not be the cheapest in most cases but again, the most convenient which makes you a reluctant Delta flyer if time and convenience is the most important element of your trips.
However, many airlines want to “steal” customers from Delta and will price flights to and from Atlanta with this mentality. They know that in many cases when you fly their airline instead of Delta you may make a connection, meaning a competing airline is less attractive which they make up for with a lower price. You will also have access to more elite first class upgrades as there will be less elites out of Atlanta on other airlines.
In essence, the good news is that if you choose another airline besides Delta you will get a better deal (most of the time) and more often upgrade to first. The bad news is that in order to achieve those savings and ride in the front of the plane, it will come at the expense of an almost guaranteed connection.
Things to consider
It’s easy to focus on “redeemable miles” or RDMs but what will be important to your upgrade status is your EQMs/PQMs/MQMs or “elite qualifying miles”. These are miles towards status and show your progress towards various tiers. You could have (for example) 90,000 EQMs but only 20,000 in your account because you redeemed some for a trip, the EQMs are relevant for upgrades, the RDMs are what you spend to pay for free travel.
Because Delta and United have moved to revenue based frequent flyer programs, you only earn miles and status based on the cost of your ticket excluding taxes, fees and fuel surcharges. If you pay $400 for a ticket from Atlanta to Seattle your base fare would be closer to $350. On Delta you would earn $350 towards a requirement of $2500 for base level Silver status, and you would earn just 1,750 RDMs to use for free future trips (though it would take you more than 14 trips to get a free domestic round trip).
Assuming you have a direct flight somehow on American (you wouldn’t), you would instead earn 4,360 miles – the actual distance between the two cities. This would put you at a free ticket in just over 5 trips and elite status when you reach 25,000 miles or about the same.
However, when you factor in a likely connection in Dallas you would add about 10% on to the journey and earn 4,778 miles earning more miles and more even faster.
Keep in mind as well that if you decide to take advantage of a great deal to Tokyo for example on American from Atlanta for $700 (hypothetically) you would earn 14,980 miles. But with Delta’s revenue model, you won’t get credit for any of the taxes, fuel surcharges, or “carrier imposed fees” and even if they match the rate of $700 your actual base fare would likely be closer to $100 earning you just 500 miles for the journey. United has an identical (seriously identical as in copy and pasted the exact same requirements and payouts) as Delta and as you would still connect with them, there is a negative correlation associated with giving them your loyalty.
My Recommendation
I am not a fan of what Delta has done to their program and based on what you have told me it is not the best airline for your goals (offsetting future travel costs or getting upgraded to first class). I would recommend either American Airlines or Alaska Airlines as they fly great domestic and international routes, and still earn based on what you fly… at least for the time being.
Thanks for reading VC and if any of you have some questions for the Trip Sherpa send them to kyle@upgrd.com.
-Sherpa
Seems like VC doesn’t travel enough to make loyalty even worth it. If I were him I’d just go for the cheapest option or consider purchasing miles to pay for tickets.
If I were him, I wouldn’t worry so much about getting status. It doesn’t sound like he travels that much anyways. Just focus on the award miles. And if he has to fly Delta, I would agree with crediting all those flights to Alaska Airlines. At most on a cheap economy ticket, he’ll get 50% of actual flight miles by crediting to AS but that sure beats 5 x $ miles he would get by crediting to Delta.
And VC, spend those Delta miles already!!! Nothing good will come from you holding on to those.