Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

Help me understand this. I was pricing tickets from IND to AMS for March 10th - 17th 2006. I can get a business class ticket roundtrip for $2300 est or I can use the Worldperks FF upgrade and spend $2900 + 30,000 for basically the same ticket. That goes in the WTF bank.

Site Admin

Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

I'd call it a case of a good opportunity.

There have been tons of biz class sales US-Europe for about a year now. It has to do with the airlines' "sudden" realizations that their most profitable customers are those who fly paid biz across the pond, and that's also the market segment with basically zero competition from the low cost carriers. Problem is, they're all just going to f-up the market as they add premium seats, discount them to fill the planes, and thus train the flying public to expect biz seats in the $2000-$2500 range.

So take the opportunity while you have it, and enjoy.

BTW - I find CO's BusinessFirst to be superior to NW's WBC. If you want to use Worldperks miles (or DL Skymiles, for that matter), cash them in for a ride on a CO widebody. Don't bother with a route served by a 757. And if you're paying for biz class, you should really look at Virgin for the trans-Atlantic portion. Get a cheap ticket to Chicago or New York, then fly Virgin Upper Class to Heathrow and on to wherever from there. And finally, if you don't ever fly to Asia, but you've heard about Singapore Airlines' legendary service, you can fly JFK to Frankfurt on Singapore. They fly an around the world route SIN-JFK-FRA-SIN (I think FRA-SIN makes a stop in Delhi, not sure). But you can sometimes find reasonable Raffles class fares on SN JFK-FRA - you will NOT be disappointed in that experience.

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

I heard with Virgin first class if you fly from New York or Chicago they will pick you up from your hotel or wherever in a limo.

Site Admin

Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

You heard correctly. I believe the service exists in London and Miami as well.