Points Value USA Internal Flights

We are looking to book first class Delta domestic from Houston to MCO via Atlanta. The cost is $6 per person and either 62K miles per person first class or $6 per person and 18K miles per person economy, I assume we will have to pay baggage fees for the economy ticket which is $40 per bag

We have quite a few miles in the bank and I'm considering first class, is this good value ? I know we wont get any lounge access but food drinks and a bit more comfort for the journey

The cost of a cash first class is currently around £280 pp or £160pp Economy without bags

Any advice would be appreciated,

Steve

IMO best to buy cash first class flights through Delta.
I always travel first class on domestic flights with Delta and never had issues. Great service, good food and plenty of drinks.
60,000 points pp is way too much. To buy these it would cost at least £500+ per person. Where you’d be able to earn more points with cash booking too.

[mitchja]

I agree, don't waste points on reward First Class DL flights - they are very poor value since DL switched to dynamic pricing.

£280 seems reasonable enough so I’d opt for that over points. Although in this scenario, I’d actually just book a direct Southwest flight.

Thanks everyone, I'll pay cash for the flights and keep the points for another time.
Mike3rd - Have you flown with Southwest? are they reliable?

Thanks again,

Steve

Heh, never a fan of answering that question. Like any airline, when things go tits up, they go tits up, but on the whole they are perfectly fine. It’s no frills but your first 2 bags fly free. Easy boarding process… in fact, the whole operation is efficient. Plus if you want to cancel, you can get your fare refunded as a future credit. All things considered, they put our loco’s (& BA ET) to shame.

If it was a DL direct flight in F, then I wouldn’t even had mentioned them, but in this scenario, I’d take the 2 hour direct flight with Southwest rather than an initial 2 hour flight with Delta to Atlanta.

Thanks Mike, I'll give them a go
I won't blame you if it goes tits up lol!!

Thanks again,
Steve

Mike3rd - Have you flown with Southwest? are they reliable?

Heh, never a fan of answering that question. Like any airline, when things go tits up, they go tits up, but on the whole they are perfectly fine. It’s no frills but your first 2 bags fly free. Easy boarding process… in fact, the whole operation is efficient. Plus if you want to cancel, you can get your fare refunded as a future credit. All things considered, they put our loco’s (& BA ET) to shame.

Hi Steve

We've flown South West a few times including one flight in May just gone and have two flights booked with them in September.

Firstly, we have found their customer service to be excellent. We had to cancel a flight booked for May 2020 which was a non-refundable fare, one Skype call and full cash refund for both the fare and Early Bird Check In (which is non-refundable at all times) was made whilst we were on the phone, unlike United where we had a refundable ticket ended up being escalated to USA DoT to get refunded. In flight you get a free soft drink and pretzels, with alcohol being chargeable if the flight time is long enough. We've always found the flight attendants to be really friendly and cheerful as well - their social media streams frequently feature dressing up brides-to-be, looking after children on first flights etc etc.

The major risk - which fortunately we've not encountered yet (fingers crossed) - is that if they have an IRROPS situation they have no inter-line arrangement so if you have to be somewhere on a specific date & time then you're on your own.

They have an interesting boarding/seat selection policy compared to other carriers - there is no pre-assigned seating and you choose your own seat on boarding ("Open Seating"). Boarding is determined by (a) fare class and (b) check in time. We therefore always pay the extra for "Early Bird Check In" which automatically checks us in at T-36 hours rather than when on-line check in opens at T-24 hours. There are rumours that this may change.

Mike mentioned fares refunded as flight credit if your flight is cancelled. If you book into the top two (of four) fare classes the refund can be made back to your original payment method. If you take flight credits these do not expire any more.

And - this is an interesting one - if the flight price drops after purchase you can get a refund of the difference, again in flight credits for all bookings or back to the original payment method if you booked in the top two fare classes. You have to ring for this refund, it's not done automatically, but two weeks ago I got a refund of $ 118

They only operate a one class plane and it's entirely Boeing 737's if that's a consideration.

Finally, they operate a point to point flight plan, for example, Seattle - Las Vegas - Oakland - Las Vegas - Sacramento - Long Beach - Phoenix - Houston all in one day! For this reason we always try to book the flights in the morning/lunchtime to try and minimise rolling delays.

I hope this helps!

This is great and much more in depth! One minor correction but they don’t operate only Max aircraft. 737-700’s, 737-800’s & MAX 8’s.

Thanks Mike - corrected!

Thanks Guys, really helpful as always. Just another question if you book economy classic on a delta domestic reward flight through the VS website do you get 23kg hold luggage included the same as you would with Virgin ?