Getting There: Delta it is

After speaking with Scott and conferring with Susan, I decided I would fly out on Thursday the 31^st and back on Saturday the 2^nd. That would make it a quick fun trip. I have been a Delta Elite (currently Platinum) for years and I’m always in need of MQMs in order to maintain my Medallion status. I had approximately 3 weeks until my needed travel dates and after I looked at fares I became a bit concerned. They were high, very high. I’m based out of Sacramento California and my outline route was SMF-XXX-NYC-XXX-SMF. Fares were running from $700 – $900 in coach on delta. Some of the flight segments had only middle seats left. First was $1,500+. Well I guess I could fly another carrier for this trip. When I investigated the other airline’s flights I couldn’t find anything that much better. Holiday travel was going to be expensive.

New York for New Year’s – An unexpected invitation
Getting There: Delta it is
Review: Delta Regional First Class – Sacramento to Los Angeles
Review: Delta Transcontinental Business Class – Los Angeles to New York
Review: Park Hyatt New York, New Year’s Eve
Interlude: New York
Review: LGA Centurion Lounge
Review: Delta Domestic First Class – New York to Minneapolis
Review: Delta Domestic First Class – Minneapolis to Sacramento

For those of you who would suggest I use some points instead, I generally don’t use points for domestics if I can avoid it. I like to save them for the international itineraries as they are more valuable redemptions. So I started playing around with the dates to see if I could find a better deal. I finally decided on SMF-MSP-LGA-MSP-SMF. Out on the morning of the 31^st and return on the morning of Sunday the 3^rd (the 3rd brought down the fares considerably). Coach was $943, first was $1,229. For the marginal expense of $286 I was going to fly first. Now, some of you might cry that fare is terrible and why would you pay it. I would normally agree, but this opportunity doesn’t come along every day and I was going. Also, I had 1) the extra MQMs of a Delta P fare and 2) I was guaranteed F on a holiday excursion.

Originally issued ticket SMF-LGA-SMF

The rest of December passed by with the usual holiday events. Finally, on December 30^th I went online and checked in for my flight, and Delta asked if I wanted to bid for voluntary compensation for an over booked flight. Hmmm. I looked to other flights offered on the 31^st and noticed a Delta One flight connecting through LAX with a number of open seats. This Delta one flight was on a Boeing 767 and included Delta’s business class lie flat seats. One of the rules of travel is “it never hurts to ask”. So I called Delta and asked. The conversation went something like this.

“Hello, this is Jimmy and I was offered the chance to potentially bid for an overbooked flight situation. I’m not relay interested in any compensation, but I would much prefer to be on the LAX flight. Would this help Delta at all?” The agent replied; “Let’s see if we can do that for both of us!”

The agent put me on hold for quite some time and then came back and confirmed the flight change with me. I was happy with the LAX Delta One flight. I then went to check in for the newly confirmed flight and could not – something was improperly configured on this new itinerary. I called the Platinum line and the service rep told me because of my change I could not check in until I was at the airport. It was an early flight and the last thing I wanted to do was waste on hour of everyone’s time trying to reconfigure my new flight in the system at check in.

Reissued Ticket with Delta One Flight

And so another rule of travel is HUCA. Hang up and call again. I thanked the agent for his time and called another Delta CS rep. This time the new phone agent completely agreed with me that it would be best to resolve this issue now, and not at the airport. She indicated that since my destination airport had changed (to JFK from LGA) the previous agent had bent a routing rule and a manager would need to be involved. She put me on hold in order to call a manager and fix the system issue. It took about 30 minutes and every so often she would click in to make sure I was ok, which I appreciated. I replied that I was thankful for the effort she was going through to take care of me.

After 30 minutes or so the ticket was fixed and I was able to check in. The new routing was SMF-LAX-JFK on the outbound leg and I was going to be able to enjoy a 767 Delta One seat on the way out. Some of you may comment that I should have gone for the compensation and the better flight; but in reality I would rather have confirmed the new outbound flight than try for both.

Susan asked me if my New York ticket was expensive? “Not really everything considered” I lied. Knowing better, she looked at me and said “I’m sure.”