Gold status for 2 months, must take BusinessElite to keep longer & get points...

Sgnyc

Level 2 Member
I received an offer from Delta which gave me until Oct 15 to activate a complimentary Gold Status for 2 months. If I take one BusinessElite® flight before that time (i.e. Dec 15) I get to keep the Gold Status until Jan 2016 and get 50,000 points. From what I've been able to find out, BusinessElite® flights are approximately $2,000... Soooo, the question is - are there any hacks to taking a BusinessElite® flight for low cost? Pls let me know if questions, and thanks in advance for any guidance -
 

thepaul500

Level 2 Member
What are the exact terms? There are some cheaper Biz Elite flights down to the Caribbean if those count towards that.

Or, you can dump some of those TATL ones....
 

Sgnyc

Level 2 Member
Hi @thepaul500 -

Thx vm for your reply-

Pls advise where I might find some of the less expensive Carribean business elite flights you mentioned, and a sense of how much they cost. Also would appreciate explanation of TATL acronym..

Again, thx for your information -
 

andysiz

Level 2 Member
@Sgnyc I'd be careful -- I believe they had similar promos earlier this year and I recall reading some people not getting credit for shorter biz flights (like LGA-ATL). What are the exact terms and conditions of your offer? It's possible you have to take a true transcon (JFK-LAX/SFO/SEA) business elite or transpac/transatl business elite flight.

Also, does it have to be roundtrip or one-way? If one-way is enough, I see a lot of $704.10 I-fares (assuming I-fares qualify under the T&C's) for JFK-SEA or SEA-JFK, on T/W/TH/Sat flights. If you don't mind mileage running, personally I'd say it's very well worth it.

~2400 flight miles. +2400 miles (Gold elite 100% bonus) +1200 miles (50% class bonus) + 50,000 miles on your offer = 56,000 Delta miles (plus whatever credit card you put it on -- double or triple points/miles?). At minimum those Delta miles are 1 cent per point since you can cash them in at that value with Delta (just need a Delta credit card) -- that almost pays for the ticket itself. Obviously, they can be leveraged for much better value with award flights. And Gold is valuable with Delta (so long as you let go of the complimentary upgrades dream -- not as bad since you get free economy comfort upgrades domestically).
 

andysiz

Level 2 Member
Sorry if this is too late (site went down just before I clicked to post the below):

Just Google'd it up for you and found that in this year's earlier promo, Delta changed the promo terms and conditions because initially they didn't exclude short-haul business elite flights. They quickly changed the terms (note, the language I'm quoting is for the analogous offer they had for Platinum status + 100k miles) to this language (bolding is mine):

If you meet the criteria to participate, you will receive Platinum Medallion status and Delta Sky Club® access for 60 days. The 60-day period will start upon enrollment in the promotion. In order to extend your Medallion status and Delta Sky Club membership after the 60 days, you’ll need to purchase and fly one qualifying BusinessElite® fare (fare classes J/C/D/I/Z) on a flight offering BusinessElite service within 60 days after enrolling. BusinessElite service is limited to the following long-haul international and transcontinental flights: (a) transatlantic, (b) transpacific, (c) transcontinental flights between John F. Kennedy/JFK and Los Angeles/LAX, San Francisco/SFO, and Seattle/SEA, and (d) between the U.S. and Brasilia/BSB, Buenos Aires/EZE, Lima/LIM, Rio de Janeiro/GIG, Santiago, Chile/SCL and Sao Paulo/GRU. Flights offering BusinessElite service may be modified by Delta at any time and without prior notice. Qualifying flight must be marketed and operated by Delta. Codeshare flights operated by carriers other than Delta are excluded from this offer. Only tickets purchased with a published fare that earns full mileage accrual will qualify. Upon taking a qualifying flight, your Medallion status will automatically be extended through February 2015, your Delta Sky Club membership will be extended an additional ten (10) months and you will earn 100,000 bonus miles. Bonus miles earned with this promotion do not count toward Medallion or Million Miler™ status.
 

thepaul500

Level 2 Member
looks like the cheap biz elite flights to Aruba, Nassau, etc are excluded then.

I see as cheap as $1247 on the SEA-JFK RT in biz elite
 

Sgnyc

Level 2 Member
Thank you all for your input, genuinely appreciate it. May I ask where/how you filter to identify Biz Elite flights, especially with the fantastic fares you're finding?? Are you using matrix.ita? Specific codes? For reference, I've enclosed the relevant conditions below... Again, thanks for your help...

In order to extend your Gold Medallion status after the two months, you'll need to purchase and fly one qualifying, paid BusinessElite® fare (fare classes J/C/D/I/Z) on a flight offering BusinessElite service within two months after enrolling. BusinessElite service is limited to the following long-haul international and transcontinental flights: (a) transatlantic, (b) transpacific, (c) transcontinental flights between John F. Kennedy/JFK and Los Angeles/LAX and San Francisco/SFO, and (d) between the U.S. and Brasilia/BSB, Buenos Aires/EZE, Lima/LIM, Rio de Janeiro/GIG, Santiago, Chile/SCL and Sao Paulo/GRU. Flights offering BusinessElite service may be modified by Delta at any time and without prior notice. Qualifying flight must be marketed and operated by Delta. Codeshare flights operated by carriers other than Delta are excluded from this offer. Only tickets purchased with a published fare that earns full mileage accrual will qualify. Upon taking a qualifying flight, your Medallion status will automatically be extended through January 2016 and you will earn 50,000 bonus miles. Bonus miles earned with this promotion do not count toward Medallion or Million Miler™ status.
 

andysiz

Level 2 Member
ITA should be best, but I was just looking at Delta's (new?) calendar. If you set it nonstop, 5-week flexible searches, you get a rolling calendar on which you can move month-to-month and see the cheapest daily rates.
upload_2014-10-16_7-47-11.png
 

Sgnyc

Level 2 Member
This is very helpful - any idea how I determine which are the biz elite flights? It looks like if I want to stay domestic (which is my general inclination, perhaps incorrectly I'm assuming less expensive and/or time-consuming/stressful) I'm looking @ JFK <-> LAX or SFO.

Again, thx to all -
 

andysiz

Level 2 Member
This is very helpful - any idea how I determine which are the biz elite flights? It looks like if I want to stay domestic (which is my general inclination, perhaps incorrectly I'm assuming less expensive and/or time-consuming/stressful) I'm looking @ JFK <-> LAX or SFO.

Again, thx to all -
Based on the T&C's you've posted, I believe any non-stop Delta flight from JFK to SFO/LAX/SEA (or vice versa) should qualify. As you're booking, be sure to verify that the fare class (it will be displayed) matches one of the qualifying fares: J, C, D, I, or Z. When you're on Delta's booking engine, you'll see the fare class in parenthesis next to Business:

upload_2014-10-16_13-8-44.png

(The above is a partial list from searching for JFK-SFO non-stop on 11/20/14.)
 

Sgnyc

Level 2 Member
By jove, I think i'm getting it! If I use the Delta search engine, I can find a one way flight in the appropriate fare class to an appropriate destination and qualify for the benefits described in the offer i.e. the medallion status, the miles, etc. So, the business elite flight would be about $800 and I found some inexpensive flights coming back on United for about $200 which reduces the question then to: would the medallion status and miles be worth about $1000? Thank you very much for decoding and simplifying this offer for me - I really really appreciate it
 

andysiz

Level 2 Member
By jove, I think i'm getting it! If I use the Delta search engine, I can find a one way flight in the appropriate fare class to an appropriate destination and qualify for the benefits described in the offer i.e. the medallion status, the miles, etc. So, the business elite flight would be about $800 and I found some inexpensive flights coming back on United for about $200 which reduces the question then to: would the medallion status and miles be worth about $1000? Thank you very much for decoding and simplifying this offer for me - I really really appreciate it
(Aside: I'd make sure one-way fares count for this promo. The T&Cs don't seem to exclude one-ways so you should be OK. But maybe ask @DeltaAssist on Twitter (for fastest response).)

You should carefully consider the costs and benefits.

Gain: ~56,000 Delta redeemable miles (worth, at worst, $560) + Delta Gold status + ~2400 (or more depending on your status) United redeemable miles and the relevant EQM (Assuming you do pay for this flight with cash and not points) + possible short mini-vacation on the West Coast?

Loss: ~$1,000 out of pocket + time.

Obviously, you need to gauge how much Delta Gold status is worth to you. How often do you fly Delta such that you could take advantage of its benefits? Double redeemable miles, Sky Priority security line, Sky Priority boarding, free domestic economy comfort upgrades, and sporadic complimentary upgrades would be the biggest bennies to me, and quite valuable because I fly Delta a decent amount domestically.
 
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