Round Trip to Istanbul

I have over 80,000 sky miles with Delta.

My husband and I will be flying from LAX to Istanbul, Turkey. We wanted to fly business class for the 20-hour trip. Delta informs us we barely have enough miles for one ticket. Friends tell me to use the miles to upgrade purchased tickets.

I am new at this and what if I can't upgrade, because I have enough sky miles for two round-trip coach tickets.

Any suggestions?

Thanks, Linda

Dear Linda,

I can understand your desire for business class has I have made this exact trip a few times on Delta. On one occasion, I returned the next day—business class certainly did help.

Your friends are correct about purchasing a coach ticket and using miles to upgrade. It will require 25,000 sky miles for each segment (LAX to IST). Since you have 80,000 miles I recommended upgrading the return portion after you arrive in Istanbul. This will give you an additional 10,000 miles.

Tell the agent that you will use miles for the upgrade and than tell them to only deduct miles for the “outbound” portion of the flight. Inform the agent that you will have the return flight upgraded at the airport in Istanbul.

You will still be about 10,000 miles shy which you can earn from another flight, on your credit card or purchase from Delta. You can also transfer miles between two Delta accounts. Check with Delta at 1-800-325-1551 for details.

Enjoy the trip.

Joel