Author Topic: To Detroit for Pesach  (Read 1975 times)

Offline smyid

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To Detroit for Pesach
« on: February 09, 2015, 12:13:53 AM »
I have 54,000 delta skymiles and so does my wife, but that only seems to get us each one round trip and we need 2 more for our kids (the youngest is turning 2 while we are there so maybe only need one way for her). Is there a smarter way to use our miles? Maybe transfer to different airline? Or maybe just sell them and buy cheap tickets?

Any suggestions appreciated

Offline YOSEF

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Re: To Detroit for Pesach
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2015, 12:43:52 AM »
Depends on dates.

But I will say, that's an expensive roundtrip if you use 54K Delta miles.

Offline coralsnake

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Re: To Detroit for Pesach
« Reply #2 on: February 09, 2015, 12:44:14 AM »
I have 54,000 delta skymiles and so does my wife, but that only seems to get us each one round trip and we need 2 more for our kids (the youngest is turning 2 while we are there so maybe only need one way for her). Is there a smarter way to use our miles? Maybe transfer to different airline? Or maybe just sell them and buy cheap tickets?

Any suggestions appreciated
Delta awards suck and you cant transfer from Delta to a different airline.

http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/61118

Your best bet AFAIK is 3-6 weeks before departure to find lowest level award availability.

"Here at DansDeals we don’t do buses." -Dan

Offline Freddie

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Re: To Detroit for Pesach
« Reply #3 on: February 09, 2015, 02:37:22 AM »
Delta is rough and DTW is a Delta hub.

One method may be Alaskan miles which can be used to book flights on Delta metal. The BofA Alaskan card is incredibly churnable. Anybody else think that may be an approach?

You can also transfer SPG into Delta, but that is painful to do considering the potential value of other transfer partners.

Offline sky121

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Re: To Detroit for Pesach
« Reply #4 on: February 09, 2015, 04:05:29 AM »
Sell/trade for British Airways
"Not all who wander are lost"

Offline high end hobo

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Re: To Detroit for Pesach
« Reply #5 on: February 09, 2015, 04:13:42 AM »
no need for a new thread.
where are you flying from?

Offline Emkay

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Re: To Detroit for Pesach
« Reply #6 on: February 09, 2015, 05:18:47 AM »
I have 54,000 delta skymiles and so does my wife, but that only seems to get us each one round trip and we need 2 more for our kids (the youngest is turning 2 while we are there so maybe only need one way for her). Is there a smarter way to use our miles? Maybe transfer to different airline? Or maybe just sell them and buy cheap tickets?

Any suggestions appreciated
It depends what continent your coming from

Offline lubaby

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Re: To Detroit for Pesach
« Reply #7 on: February 09, 2015, 12:52:48 PM »
Sell/trade for British Airways
+1

9,000 Avios for a RT flight (assuming you're coming from NYC area).

Offline ilherman

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Re: To Detroit for Pesach
« Reply #8 on: February 10, 2015, 09:42:29 AM »
Delta is rough and DTW is a Delta hub.

One method may be Alaskan miles which can be used to book flights on Delta metal. The BofA Alaskan card is incredibly churnable. Anybody else think that may be an approach?

You can also transfer SPG into Delta, but that is painful to do considering the potential value of other transfer partners.
AS miles can only be used when DL saver award is available. When saver award is available why should he use valuable AS miles when he has DL miles?
You can say what you think when you think what you say.

Offline knowitall

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Re: To Detroit for Pesach
« Reply #9 on: February 10, 2015, 02:13:35 PM »
Sell/trade for British Airways
+100
I've flown 30 4.5k BA awards in the last year and a half from lga/phl to Detroit.
By far your best bet in terms I price and availability.
You say you live in NJ, if that means Lakewood then PHL is much closer and less traffic prone than LGA.
There are never saver awards out of EWR.

Offline Freddie

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Re: To Detroit for Pesach
« Reply #10 on: February 10, 2015, 02:55:13 PM »
+100
I've flown 30 4.5k BA awards in the last year and a half from lga/phl to Detroit.
By far your best bet in terms I price and availability.
You say you live in NJ, if that means Lakewood then PHL is much closer and less traffic prone than LGA.
There are never saver awards out of EWR.

OP, this sounds like the best advice on this thread. My advice was limited by my personal experience which is that I cannot fly direct from PIT to DTW except on Delta. But if you can fly US Airways out of PHL or American Airlines out of JFK, then that is obviously the best option and BA Avios are GREAT for that. I am also surprised (in a good way) that NYC-DTW still falls in the 4.5k avios band.

Offline knowitall

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Re: To Detroit for Pesach
« Reply #11 on: February 10, 2015, 05:03:56 PM »
OP, this sounds like the best advice on this thread. My advice was limited by my personal experience which is that I cannot fly direct from PIT to DTW except on Delta. But if you can fly US Airways out of PHL or American Airlines out of JFK, then that is obviously the best option and BA Avios are GREAT for that. I am also surprised (in a good way) that NYC-DTW still falls in the 4.5k avios band.
AA doesn't fly from JFK-DTW so it's either LGA or PHL.
If you live in Lkwd you should also check frontier from Trenton.
It's the closest airport to Lkwd and I've nabbed flights for $19, 29$ and $39!
Delta hidden city from philly can often be found for as low as $94.