gooselee

I believe that if you have a stopover, the rules for each individual leg would apply (or at least, it seems like it would be a hassle/confusing to get the J allowance on the Y flight).

TBH, I don't have direct experience. When flying mixed J/Y on the same itinerary, it's been on SkyTeam awards where STE+ status provides baggage allowance no matter what. When flying on separate itineraries, it's clear that the Y allowance applies to the separate Y itin.

ENFO

Thanks. Yes I agree on the separate itineraries too... No status so I have to pay attention to the way my flights are put together...

mnscout

Looking for success or failure stories about J redemptions on VA? I hear reports that Delta errors out consistently after entering the CC info, despite amazing Saver availability, and agents are unable to rectify.

3Cforme

There have been some successes in 2015. Advanced search ifor'VA' restricted to the last three months will find some relevant entries.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...post-here.html

That's not to say there isn't a new anomaly of the day you have discovered.

wco81

Searching for business class awards to NZ for next January/February.

It seems there are now a bunch of CZ awards which route through CAN? Don't know the quality of the product but it results in trips lasting over 30 hours on the outbound.

There are VA awards but the SYD-AKL segment appears to be only in coach?

mnscout

Thanks. Yes, there are a few success stories.

wco81

Anyone else hear about VA flights not showing up in award search?

Supposedly when they added Aeroflot, they lost VA? Not necessarily because of adding the new airlines but happened around the same time?

In one-way calendar view, you see some with low fees but when you click the date, you don't even see the low award -- 80k. The dates with the actual 80k flights are going through China to reach Oz or NZ and have over $300 in fees.

wco81

I can find the following for next January and February for 160k:

SJC-WLG and AKL-SJC.

Is it possible to add an intra-NZ flight for the same award price, such as ZQN-AKL?

Or is that a stopover that they've killed?

PV_Premier

Booked SMF-LAX-SYD, one way, for December 2015 no problems. Used my dad's DM account and did it fully on .dumb for 80K pp/2 pax in J.

ENFO

This is something I discovered in my search. In my current situation I learned to compare the options of "Delta Only" vs "Delta and partners"

My example is Aug 10 HKG-JFK in J. Using the "Delta and partners" option returns one 90000 mile award (which happens to be an all Delta flight HKG-SEA-SLC-JFK). No other awards at this level even you list all the flights. But if you go in and select "Delta Only" it returns five 90000 mile options with different connecting times in SEA and SLC.

Obviously wouldn't work if you are looking to fly on partners but might be useful if you are sensitive to connecting times...In my case having the whole day in SEA works out better than in SLC.

I do apologize if this is something so basic, but for me it really made the multi legs more bearable.

anc-ord772

Hi folks,

I am redeeming DL SM for the first time, and I just want to make sure I'm oriented correctly.

I would like to redeem 125k miles for two one way business awards NA->AMS. One of us is flying ex LAX, the other, ROC.

Based on my research, with recent SM changes it is no longer realistic to expect to be able to add a domestic segment the previous day and select an international flight late afternoon or evening the next day.

Since I would prefer to arrive the evening before, and we both fly out of the same gateway, I expect to redeem the awards for NA Gateway -> AMS and purchase separate tickets to arrive the day before.

My desired date is April 2, 2016 which should open up for booking on Friday. I've been tracking awards and there seems to be at least two seats at the 62,500 level from either JFK, DTW, or MSP. I am metal neutral (slight nod to KL), and would expect the KL 777's to have flat bed seats by our departure date.

I plan to book on Friday. If I need to push the departure day back by a day or so (April 3 or 4) in the future, would I be able to given I booked exactly a year out? I ask because I think tickets are only valid for one year from purchase and that would be one year plus one or two days. I don't want the availability to disappear, but it would be inconvenient if I have to scuttle the award and start over instead of doing a simple date change.

Anyway, I think for the most part I have it straight, any thoughts appreciated.

gooselee

1. So long as you aren't on the ground for more than 24 hours and low availability is available on both flights AND as a married segment, you should technically be able to book the tickets as a single award for 62.5k. You may need to call multiple times in order to find an agent who will assemble this for you, as DL.com most certainly will not offer it up automatically. Buying the positioning ticket separately will likely save you a bit of headache though, which may be worth it if it's a cheap domestic ticket.

2. Why the preference for KL? If they're still flying, you could theoretically take a DL 744 from DTW or ATL to AMS (though those awards are harder to find a low level). Also, monitor this thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/klm-f...new-wbc-2.html) for the KL 772s. They are not on track to be complete by their originally estimated date, and the 747 refurbs at KL fell well behind schedule due to a supplier issue. Next April should be reasonably safe, but there is a always a risk until all birds are actually complete.

3. Not sure what you mean by "pushing departure back a day or so"? To do that, you'd need to find availability on the new flights and DL would exchange the tickets - it occurs as essentially a cancellation and then a new booking. I'm not sure if the 1 year rule applies to award tickets, but even if it does, you don't have to deal with it because all of April 2016 is less than a year from right now (May 2015). What you may have to deal with is the change/cancellation/redeposit fee if you are not PM or DM.

anc-ord772

Thanks. This seemed very much a challenge based on what has been articulated in the DL forum. How would I know if it works as a married segment if DL.com prices it out incorrectly? I do understand how to confirm the individual segments, and it is likely there will be low available if low on 2 cabin F is 25k.

It is only a slight preference toward KL. Mostly because I rarely fly KL, so its nice to try something different. My #1 priority is securing a nonstop, so DL/KL, doesn't matter.

You are right! Even though I am booking on the first date of the window, I am still less than a year out. Didn't think that one through. It does sting that date changes are $150, so I will try to avoid that.

gooselee

Sadly, the only way is to call and hope you get a diligent and patient agent to help you out.

anc-ord772

Has anyone had (better) luck when calling an overseas res?