…. and they should add to the above: “be aware of travel hackers reading the rules and then taking advantage of them”. For me, that is what we do. We don’t hack. We read and understand that we can do things in a way that it maybe was never intended to be used.
OK Rene what are you talking about now. What crazy plan do you have in mind? Believe it or not some readers can without too much trouble take advantage of this play. First off, if you are like me and simply a leisure traveler this is not for you and you should look at yesterday’s post and get a few AMEX Reserve cards to get status. But, if you are a business flyer who spends as little as $17,000 $34,000 a year on tickets you can have INSTANT Diamond status and gift GOLD to a friend and get 25,000 RDM’s as well as SKYCLUB membership.
Here is how this works. First prepay $50,000 $100,000 & get the “Delta Private Jets Card”. Then, you officially have 2 years to spend the money on flights, and per the terms, you can spend your money on all Delta flights, not just private jets. Plus, you even get a 20% discount travel (the 20% discount is only off first and business class fares)! And here is the hack part. If you buy a fully refundable flight or flights before the 2nd year is up, and then cancel the Jets Card there is no way for Delta to credit funds back to that card. Now when you pay for fully refundable tickets with a credit card, and no longer have that card, you can either have Delta or issue an e-credit attached to your skymiles number or have them send you a check. With the “Delta Private Jets Card” the rules should be the same but I can not say for sure!
So you can see the math and logic here. You are in effect getting 3 years to spend your prepaid $50,000 $100,000 or $33,334 per year. If your business spends that much on you, why not start the year instantly with Diamond Status rather than waiting to earn it.
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Very creative thinking.
We need a guinea pig who is willing to try the refund / cancel scheme. Any takers?
Does DM “evaporate” when you cancel this card?
I love it. If it was $10K, I’d sign up immediately….sigh…
Yes I have Card
You are my hero Robert! Nice.
It seems from reading through that the buy/cancel would not work. It is deposit which it purchases out of and if the money is not used within the 2 year span of time, you lose the deposit. Also, where do you see that you can use it on regular Delta flights? Everything I see is that it is only for the Private fleet.
Hi Carl. Step 1 buy and fly for 2 years. Step 2, before end of year buy refundable ticket flying in YEAR 3. Yes you can use for DL flights as you see in link:
http://www.deltaprivatejets.com/jetcard/CardFaq.aspx
“Who do I call to arrange commercial flights? arrow
To make a reservation for a scheduled flight on Delta Air Lines® you can call your concierge at 1-877-323-5381.”
I would do it but I’m required to use the company’s travel agency 🙂
Can you use these funds to book DL flights anyone? If so you might find a way to sell the $50K of DL credit at D% discount and sell the gold for $G. Cost for diamond would be $50K x D% – $G.
Hi HikerT – Yes. You must call but you can spend the funds any way you want buying tickets for anyone you want ( but it is your card so you must do it). Yes, your idea has been banging around my head. There are drawbacks but it could work in principle! – Rene
I had this exact same idea and found this site looking to see if anyone else thought of it. I spend about $30k and was looking to overcome the same issue. But first, the real question is whether it’s worth it independently? And, really it’s not a crazy hack, as it’s similar to the passplus (united) and airpass (american) programs that accomplish the same prepaid concept. So I had planned to just call them and tell them my plan outright and see if there were any issues. My plan at the end of 2 years was to purchase refundable tickets 12 months out with remaining funds…or just add more to the card. Then just reschedule the tickets as needed. And I’m sure in 2 years I could probably justify one private trip with a group. Maybe. But, if you find the best fares for that airline anyway, and then still get a 20% discount, and earn miles and have instant status…it might make sense.