vette67

I'm about to hit Diamond next week, have almost 350,000 miles in my award account and thinking about actually using some of those miles for once.

I went to Delta.com to search for award travel and was quoted 295,000 miles for a round trip, business class trip ATL-BKK for 'normal tier' in late December/early January.

I've been browsing the threads here and am starting to wonder why I even bother to accumulate miles on Delta, since it seems to be an i-n-s-a-n-e process to redeem them. But then I remember that I live in ATL... so I'm pretty much forced to fly Delta whenever I travel.

So, to all of you who are intimately familiar with award travel on Delta, a couple of questions:

1- 295,000 is way too much, right?
2- Do I need to pay for a third-party tool to do this search?
3- As a Diamond medallion, would I be better off calling Delta and letting them figure it out... I mean, as a Diamond am I more likely to be connected to an agent who actually knows what they are doing?
4- My company uses a (small) travel agency to book our flights. Should I call them and let them figure it out?
5- I still have a couple of 'gifts' coming from Delta from when I hit Platinum and when I will hit Diamond next week. I can choose some extra miles, some System Wide Upgrade certificates, etc. Are those SWU's valuable when trying to book flight to Asia? Or are they pretty much only useful for domestic travel.

Thanks!

currentjer

295K is way too much. No, you should be able do it yourself - it can be quite therapeutic. Also, think about where you might want to do a stopover.

And travel agencies don't really know how to book awards in low. Wrong dog, for the wrong tree.

SWUs? Well, I have always just taken the extra money and miles. Never know when they might come in handy.

MSPeconomist

A lot depends on your travel patterns. DL gift cards and SWUs expire, miles currently do not. If you would otherwise use miles to upgrade, SWUs are the superior choice, not only because they're good for upgrades at the gate, but also because you get 4 versus 20,000 miles at PM level or 6 versus 25,000 miles as DM.

rylan

Yes they are trying to hose you on the miles. 295k is absurd.

Word of caution with SWUs... for international upgrades, they require you to book expensive Y/B/M fares. For Asia, those tickets can frequently be 4-5k and there are also widely reported issues with limited availability of advance upgrade space, meaning you'd pay a lot of money and get put on a waitlist and run the risk of them selling out the J cabin and you being stuck in the back with a very expensive ticket.

benzemalyonnais

Some simple reading and learning will have this routing easily price at the low level.

1. Search segment-by-segment, starting with the TPAC segment. If you want Delta, just plug in flights like DTW-PEK for example until you find a low-level award.
2. Each segment must price at 'low' ---> all partners price at the low level
3. Don't just use Delta ----> Korean Air, China Southern, China Eastern all have comparable products on the majority of their routes. Delta also only has one option into BKK, when there are flights on CI, CZ, MU, KE, MH, MF, and VN to consider once you're on the continent.
4. 3rd Party tools can make this easier, but a lot of the partners can be searched on delta.com (KE -- by schedule, kind of glitchy sometimes) or airfrance.us (CZ/MU/MF/VN/CI). I like the KVS tool for these searches since they have good access to the Delta search, as well as the AF search.
5. Learn which planes have the best seats (if this matters to you).
6. Put all the low flights together, and you will have a low priced award. If one segment in the whole trip is pricing at high, you will have a high priced award.

Good luck and welcome to FT

HongKonger

TPAC advance SWU UG inventory has dropped to nearly zero. It does tend to open up closer in (within a few days), but assuming OP like most people wants to purchase his ticket and plan out his itinerary in advance, be advised applying those SWUs ahead of time is going to be tough. This year was the first year I was unable to use all my SWUs. Inventory has been severely restricted.

dd1612

OP: You are not alone.
Delta is quoting me 255k skymiles to 360k skymiles for RT MSP-AMS-BOM-AMS-BOM for travel anytime between Nov 28, 2013 and Feb 1, 2014.

Have tried all the methods I know and that have been posted here.

The availability at low award level is just not there!

k2

I'm seeing the same thing for DTW-BKK pretty much throughout the holidays.

The only reliable way to redeem Delta miles at cheaper rates is to fly their partners. Korean Air would normally be the way to go, but there's a blackout over the holidays. You could try China Southern, their awards are abundant and 120k for business class - but you'd have to get yourself to LAX on a separate ticket.

Best to call the Diamond line and tell them what you want. You need to find an agent that's willing to put some effort into it which is rare, most require a lot of prodding and pleading to go look for partner options.

Dieuwer

You seriously expect to find a low-level business award to BKK during the Holidays two months out??
Anyway...how about February? There is availability in biz ATL-MSP-NRT-BKK-ICN-ATL 2/11-2/21 for 120,000 miles.

howtofreetravel

What's your point? I got a ticket rdu-dtw-icn-can-hkt-icn-lax-dtw-rdu for 120k in business. I actually did some work at getting this ticket.

BOSavi8tr

That is awesome! How far in advance did you have to book and did you get all segments in Biz?

orca15

Wow. Just wow.

I got PHF-ATL-CDG-FCO-ATL-PHF for 150 and thought I was happy, but you, sir, have made me sad.

howtofreetravel

True that i did this 3 months ago however , I used partners first for the long haul except dtw-icn (which was easy to find on delta metal at the time) , I then used award nexus to look daily for the missing segments(free change platinum). Important to mention that the last 2 segments are in coach , I got them because of the improved platinum availability. If you are a DM Or Platinum it is really easy to piece an award ticket if you focus on partners. All segments are in business/first except the last two which i assume i will get upgraded(mid week).

mnredfox

OP, don't feel so lucky. I've seen posts of RT J to Asia over 500K one time. The most generous DL ever got with me was around 380K.

Hertz4me

surprised more people don't jump ship to UA or AA, I don't fly paid revenue on DL for that reason your loyalty means nothing to DL