Skymiles Delta Air

When you book based on a flight from Scott's for example, you should book through the airline website, directly with the airline, and use your points. Scotts is just an algorithm that tells you when deals pop up. It is not a 3rd party ticket dealer. You wouldn't buy tickets "through Scotts"

It is important, for any airline, to read the fare conditions associated with the fare you purchase. Some can be upgraded with points/miles and some can't. I don't know if you can get a general answer that will always be correct.

There are LOTS of restrictions on using miles to "upgrade" a paid ticket -- IME it's rarely possible. You need to check to see if the specific ticket you are buying is up-gradable before you buy it (most tickets are not upgrade-able; tickets that are priced well are rarely, if ever, up-gradable).

Delta's frequent flyer program is notorious for being among the most stingy, customer-hostile in the world. There's a reason Delta's "SkyMiles" points are derisively referred to as "SkyPesos."

I have used Delta miles to get good tickets to Europe in business class a few times (and those were great flights), but it is not easy (and has become much, much, much more difficult -- and expensive! -- in recent years after multiple, deep de-valuations of their program).

I suspect that your plan to buy a cheap ticket, throw some SkyMiles at it, and end up sitting up front will not work out. There's nothing wrong with investigating that strategy, but don't buy until you know for sure, and prepare to be disappointed.

Not to be pedantic, but Delta does not have a "Business Class". On most transatlantic flights, they have Delta One, Premium Select, Comfort Plus, Main Cabin, and Basic Economy. Premium Select is new, and probably what most would think of as what was "Business Class".

If you see a deal on a website, I agree with others, go directly to Delta. If the Website is the only one offering the deal, and selling you the ticket, in my mind it is "Buyer Beware", it is probably a Basic Economy with no upgrade options, or the cost in miles to upgrade would be prohibitive.

For example, I have a Main Cabin ticket to Madrid in September, for the ATL-MAD segment on the way over, the upgrade cost to Delta One is about 130,000 miles...per passenger, so 260,000 miles for us two. That same miles would buy us 4 round trips to Europe by shopping carefully (plus the full fare we already paid, I guess would make 6 round trips).

Premium select may be a good option for an upgrade using points. However when looking at the description I would not consider it up to international business class standards. At about 38 inch seat pitch and a seat that only reclines it seems to be premium economy. For a business class seat I would want full lie flat and aisle access from any seat.

Delta One was going for 420,000 miles when I looked in December for next month. The value was 1-cent per mile. Air France biz was 125,000–so that’s where we transferred the miles. Most of our Delta flights are on AF anyway.

The following trip is Virgin Atlantic biz at about 125,000 booked as a Delta tix, while Delta flights are still four times more miles.

You need to ask a Delta agent. I tried using miles in the past to upgrade and was told no, money only.

Shortly before the pandemic began, Delta launched an initiative to get customers to burn more SkyMiles by allowing them to use them for things like upgrades. I know it got rolled out to domestic flights... not sure if it ever got rolled out to international flights. I asked the Delta AI assistant. It did not know 🙂. I got an agent right away. Charlene. She never answered the question 🤷‍♂️.

Hey, Charlene came back to talk to me! Here is her answer...

If you already have a reservation and you want to upgrade your ticket
from main cabin to first class or delta one using miles, yes you may
do so as long that your preferred cabin is available on that leg. You
can upgrade using miles for domestic and international flights.

The big question, of course, is can you trust the info provided by an airline customer service rep?

If so, the answer to the OP's question is that her proposition is possible, but she would need a ticket purchased through Delta, I believe. I'm also with those upthread who say that Delta is unlikely to offer you anything with Skymiles that even remotely represents a bargain.

Renee, when you are buying your ticket through the Delta site, it will give you multiple options to buy or use miles to upgrade your ticket - and you can do it by trip or just each leg of the flight.

I just did it a few months ago when booking my ticket to Germany. I purchased my ticket but when I was choosing my seat it gave me the option of upgrading. I wound up spending some miles to go up to the Premium Select seats for the overnight leg.

You can test it out yourself at the Delta site - just go there and punch in your info, and see what it offers. There are all kinds of opportunities to upgrade as you go along - you just have to click the "purchase with miles" button and it will show you the numbers. Just play around with it before you actually buy your ticket. AND even after you buy the ticket, Delta will continue to ask if you want to upgrade with miles or $. Every time I go on the app or online to check something, it asks if I want to upgrade.