SAnger3494

I have ticket priced a round trip PBI-MXP in Biz with a pric of $1888. Does this make sense. I have award travel on this dates should buys these tickets?

RobertS975

I fares are discounted Biz Elite fares that are actually reasonable as opposed to the standard BE fares. For a few hundred more than an M or B fare, you are guaranteed BE with extra elite miles as well. Some fares like this are nonrefundable, however. But if your dates and plans are firm, go for it!

chuck1

Also got $1913 from Houston to Milan round-trip. Does anyone have a comprehensive list or website reference where this sale is detailed or at least gives the city pairs offered?

SAnger3494

So there is not a 50% bonus. The ATL-MXP is priced $6000 insane??? or what? I do not trave much overseas and not aware of differences. Thanks for your help.

chuck1

Or does anyone know of other carriers matching?

TMOTEE

Tried a few fares from JFK. No I fares offered. I wonder if this is a glitch in the system. Only getting the I fares from PBI or HOU as others have found. If anyone knows that this is indeed a BE sale pls post.

heckler

I've often wondered about cheap Biz-E fares.. I always see posts on here that people found $2000 or so business class tickets to europe or whatever.. whenever I do a search I always get those ridiculous $9,000 fares.. full first or full Biz-E..

Is there a magic formula to hunt down dicounted Biz-E fares or "I" fares? Are "I" fares only available on part of DL's worldwide system, but not all airports? What gives?

Steve G

TMOTEE

Usually dl has 2-3 sales a year on BE fares. Usually in late May and last year there were also 2 sales at Thanksgiving & Christmas. Snagged $1200 round trip tkts to CDG. It is a great deal and the I class ticket earns double MQM and 50% class of service mileage bonus. I am waiting for the May sale now. I had hoped they started early but doesn't look like it.

Points Scrounger

I've never flown on an I ticket myself. However, it is my understanding that for class-of-service and MQM purposes, it is considered as full-fare Y not business class.

KLC

Not sure about the Class of Service Bonus, but the Delta website does show that all of the following fare classes earn 2x MQMs - P, F, A, C, D, J, I

TMOTEE

Not true. Definitely double MQM's & 50% bonus. See links below for MQM info & class of service bonus.

http://www.delta.com/skymiles/skymileschanges/qualification_changes/calculation/index .jsp

http://www.delta.com/skymiles/skymil...onal/index.jsp

[This message has been edited by TMOTEE (edited 02-27-2003).]

Points Scrounger

I stand corrected.

I seem to recall that previously I-class was excluded from Biz bonuses. With the new revenue push emphasis on punishing LU'sers, I guess Delta is being more generous on the upper end.

Thx for the info!

sr_tipitinas

I got a $3K Biz Elite fare to Europe through a travel agent. Through Delta is was $6k but the agent got it for half. I staye din Europe for 13 days which is why she said it was available. But I got the 50% bonus miles.

NYBanker

I flew I class CDG-JFK (9/10/01) and got the then-25% bonus. You now get 50% miles bonus and you earn 200% MQMs.

I class is basically a promotional BE fare. It is generally non-refundable (with a key exception noted below) and changable for a $150 fee so long as I is available on the flight you want to change to.

From time to time, DL will offer big promotions on their website for I fares even out of JFK/ATL/CVG. It's usually between $1,500 and $2,000 R/T to most destinations in Europe. DL SMS told me they only offer these fares on DL metal. They seem to offer these promotions for just a few days, and usually for periods where there's not a lot of business travel (between Christmas and New Years, last two weeks in August, things like that).

(BA usually offers excellent deals on Concorde during the Christmas-New Years week, too.)

If you can get these deals, have reasonably firm travel dates, it's definitely the way to go. I've found they're relatively easy to change - you do have to pay the fee - b/c so few people are ticketed in this class. If you look on Galileo, you'll usually see "I7" as availability.

The exception I noted about above relates to refundability. If you get a doctor's note (exactly what it needs to say is subject to intepretation by the DL agent who deals with it) that says you couldn't fly, DL will refund your purchase price with no fees. This applies to any non-ref Int'l ticket (BE or Coach). I did this once (for a legit reason).

rfletche

I flew to CDG 11/26/01 on an I fare and received both the 25% bonus, plus the 10,000 Mile Fall Promo Bonus. According to the rules of the promo, I didn't think I class qualified for the 10,000 Pts, but they're not going to get a complaint out of me.