Earning Tier Points on Delta Domestic flights.

Hi,

Before I go ahead and make this booking I thought it wise to check on here to make sure I haven’t got this wrong.

At the end of the year I will be in SFO for a whole day before travelling on to HNL (arrive on a Saturday afternoon before leaving for HNL on Monday morning). I read on here previously that flying Delta domestic First Class was a good way of earning tier points relatively cheaply. Previous posting I think mentioned going to LAS and back, however, I have just come up with the following:

SFO – LAX – SFO in First Class; the flight shows on Delta Airlines website as being operated by -

“Compass Airline-DL Connection-DL Shuttle”

According to the Virgin website –

“Flying Club members can earn on all Delta operated services including the flights operated by Delta regional services; Delta, Delta Shuttle, Delta Connection.”

So am I correct in thinking that the flights above that are operated by “Compass Airline-DL Connection-DL Shuttle” qualify?

These flights should according to the Virgin website earn me 3 tier points per sector as the flights are less than 3,000 miles and will be flown in First Class.

If I have all this correct the return trip would earn me 6 tier points for the sum of £222. Much less than trying to earn the same on Little Red and with the benefit of doing it all in just two flights with only a few hours at LAX to kill.

If I’ve got this wrong please let me know.

Many thanks.

Yes you will earn 3 TPs per leg in First Class.

Many short haul DL domestic flights are operated by other airlines but are still branded DL in exactly the same way Little Red is operated by Aer Lingus but is still branded VS.

It's a great way to earn TPs for relatively little cost. The only disadvantage is they won't count towards Lifetime Gold, if that's your ultimate aim.

Just keep an eye on your Flying Club account as DL flights don't always seem to credit automatically. Mine in March needed a missing miles claim and a good month before they appeared. Make sure you keep your DL boarding passes just in case you need to claim.

Yes, absolutely. Each First Class
sector on a DL ticket earns 3 tier points. I've purposely booked through ATL when I go down to Florida from the east coast and get 12 points R/T for around $500. Can't beat that.

Hi AlphaEcho,

Yes, you have that right. You should earn three tier points per leg.

I took a DL flight in May operated by Endeavor Air in First Class (G).

Here's the DL booking:

DL.png (4.98 KiB) Viewed 1018 times

...and here's how that flight posted to my account:

miles.png (4.81 KiB) Viewed 1018 times

The only thing to note is that these DL-earned tier points post as non-VS tier points (whereas tier points earned on DL Business Elite on the VS codeshares out of LHR T3 do, in fact, post as VS tier points).

I hope that puts your mind at rest!

Best,

NYLON

Can't get the formatting to work in my previous post!

Hi,

Thank you to everyone who responded to my original question - I will be booking the flights later on today.

Once again, many thanks.