Gilt Deal: Up to 57% off first class tickets on Delta Air Lines

Today at 7 AM (PT)/10 AM (ET) Gilt is offering discounts of up to 57% on First Class tickets on Delta Air Lines. The discounted tickets are available for the following routes:

• One-Way First Class
  • LA (LAX) to Austin (AUS) or Austin (AUS) to LA (LAX): $200 on Gilt City
  • NYC (JFK) to Austin (AUS) or Austin (AUS) to NYC (JFK): $300 on Gilt City
• Round-Trip First Class
  • LA (LAX) to Austin (AUS) or Austin (AUS) to LA (LAX) roundtrip: $400
  • NYC (JFK) to Austin (AUS) or Austin (AUS) to NYC (JFK) round trip: $600

These discounted fares are inclusive of taxes and fees and members earn an additional 500 Skymiles for their purchases. Up to 8 one-way/4 round-trip tickets can be purchased per customer. The following blackout dates apply: August 28 – September 2, 2014, November 20–30, 2014, December 18, 2014 – January 4, 2015.

If you’ve got “mileage run” on the brain, you should know these discounted Delta fares do not earn Medallion Qualification Miles (MQMs). Or Medallion Qualification Dollars (MQD’s), for that matter. Considering economy fares between these city pairs often run around $300 round-trip, you are essentially paying $100-$300 round-trip for an upgrade to first class. Is it worth it? I would absolutely pay $50 each way to upgrade from economy to first class, not just for the comfortable travel experience but for the savings on baggage fees as well.

I don’t know if Gilt gets coded as a travel merchant, but if it does and you book one of these flights on your Arrival Plus card, the $400 ticket would require 36,000 miles (after the 10% travel redemption discount) while the $600 ticket would require 54,000 miles. That’s pretty reasonable for a round-trip first class flight, considering the 3-tier award chart and the difficulty of booking saver space with Skymiles. Again, I don’t know if Gilt gets coded as a travel merchant, so the above estimates may be irrelevant.

If you don’t have a Gilt account, you can earn 1,000 Skymiles after registering through Delta and making your first purchase of $50 or more. Skymiles members also get the following benefits with Gilt:

• Access to Gilt.com for free on any Gogo Inflight Internet-equipped Delta flight.
• 1 mile per $1 spent on Gilt or Gilt City, while Medallion members earn 2 miles per $1 spent.
• Exclusive members-only access to Gilt City’s local deals at your city’s best restaurants, spas, concerts and more.

So if you are planning a trip to any of the routes that are eligible for this promotion, it might be worthwhile to book this deal instead of a regular old economy seat. You’ll travel more comfortably, have a smoother airport experience, and you may save on baggage fees.

What do you think of Gilt’s Delta promotion?

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