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Earlier in the year I received a targeted Delta offer, Fly Business Elite on Select Transpacific Routes and Earn Up to 20,000 Bonus Miles.
Not particularly generous, the offer was to “earn 5,000 bonus miles for each segment flown (up to 20,000 miles) on paid BusinessElite® between New York (JFK) and Tokyo-Narita (NRT) or between Los Angeles (LAX) and Sydney (SYD).”
It so happened that I had two Asia trips during the period and always connect in Tokyo-Narita when possible so thought I had qualified. The promotion closed and I never received the miles, stretching past the 6-8 weeks allotted.
I dug into the previously ignored Terms & Conditions to find:
Validity: This promotion is valid only for tickets purchased through a corporate travel program with Delta Air Lines using one of the following ticket designators: XX92G, XX4G7, XX84N, XX74G, XX54G, XX45G, XXN67, XXN27, XX8G9, XX85N, XX67G, XX54N, XX52G, XXN79, XX42G, XX4N9, XXG23, XX64G, XX7G2, XX83N, XX8N9, CQ143, XXN84, XXB26, XX5G6, XX4L6, CQHAL, CQICJ, CQKHI, CQMRB, CQMHU, CQMH8, XX3J9, CQMC3, CQMH7, CQMUF, CQMBB, CQMZG, XXT39, CQOTS, XX5J6, CQSHA, CQSNC, CQSMT, CQSMC, CQTOK, XX7J6, XX6J9, XX6G2, XX7J9, XX7J4, XX7J8, XX6J6, XX82N, XXG23.
Ticket designator? I had never heard of it. It took some effort to track down my employer’s ticket designator, which like a false hope lottery ticket, was off by one digit. Nothing for me.
So what are these ticket designators? Do corporate travel programs have varied terms that trigger these promotions? I had never received such an offer. Does Delta do this often? I have already lost out on plenty of miles due to fare class, now tickets designators are added to the gotcha list.
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[…] Stefan our own Rapid Travel Chai who is also a Delta Diamond (maybe leaving us for UA but time will tell) does get to fly a bunch on the company dime. But, even so, he warns about issues with Delta promotions. I just HATE Delta targeted promotions. Just about all of them are UBER-targeted, just make me MAD, and even when you sign up you may get a ROCK as Stefan shows! […]
@Jim – inertia, my recent tests with UA have been very disappointing. I do like rollover MQMs and with 286k at the moment I will be set for the next few years and work on Star Alliance in the meantime.
I still don’t understand why you still fly Delta and give them hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue with your paid J fares to Asia.
Thanks for the heads up on this one. Will dig. But ya know, 99.9% of all Delta offers are already so targeted that I expect to get a ROCK when it comes to all promo’s. (and they wounder why we work to game the system to feel appreciated)!