DL Award tickets are expensive !
Aug 24, 2014, 9:10 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: CA
Programs: Flying Blue, Skymiles, JetPrivilege, BA Executive Club
Posts: 43
DL Award tickets are expensive !
Tried booking a flight (economy) from AMS to BOM somewhere around December this year, and the award tickets are all 120,000 miles + $23.46....
I thought it would have been much cheaper, since it is the economy class
I thought it would have been much cheaper, since it is the economy class
Aug 24, 2014, 9:14 pm
#2
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: DTW
Programs: DL FO, Hilton Gold, SPG Gold, AMEX Platinum, AMEX DL Platinum, Nexus, TSA PreCheck
Posts: 46
Most of December is showing award availability at the Peak level, i.e. "No Blackout Dates" but you definitely pay for that "convenience".
Flying on dates that show in the awards calendar as green would be at the Low level, which should be 60k RT. But, it looks like BOM-AMS return flights will almost certainly be at the Peak level for quite a while, if not just about always.
Flying on dates that show in the awards calendar as green would be at the Low level, which should be 60k RT. But, it looks like BOM-AMS return flights will almost certainly be at the Peak level for quite a while, if not just about always.
Aug 24, 2014, 9:21 pm
#3
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Portland, OR
Programs: DL MM Plat, PC&HH Gold
Posts: 2,602
Winter months in india, particularly dec/jan are always crammed full with expatriates headed home to see family. So yeah, not surprising at all that you cannot find a low priced FF ticket.
Aug 25, 2014, 1:10 am
#6
Join Date: Sep 2005
Programs: Northwest, United
Posts: 3,256
Its not just Delta. All the airlines are like that now.
Not surprising, when you have a thousand bloggers telling the rubes to just sign up for a dozen credit cards and you'll soon be off to Bora Bora in first class, washing down your caviar with Krug.
The days of easy award travel are over. Way too many people with inflated points balances chasing way too few seats at hyper-inflated award redemption rates. Thank the circles 'n arrows crowd for that. The airlines just did what any business would do. Their FF programs were not intended for the unwashed riffraff, and their actual paying customers don't appreciate the freeloaders stinking up the forward cabins. So the airlines fixed that.
This is how it is now. Get used to it.
Not surprising, when you have a thousand bloggers telling the rubes to just sign up for a dozen credit cards and you'll soon be off to Bora Bora in first class, washing down your caviar with Krug.
The days of easy award travel are over. Way too many people with inflated points balances chasing way too few seats at hyper-inflated award redemption rates. Thank the circles 'n arrows crowd for that. The airlines just did what any business would do. Their FF programs were not intended for the unwashed riffraff, and their actual paying customers don't appreciate the freeloaders stinking up the forward cabins. So the airlines fixed that.
This is how it is now. Get used to it.
Aug 25, 2014, 5:57 am
#7
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: YYG
Programs: airlines and hotels and rental cars - oh my!
Posts: 2,993
The alternative is pay for it in cash. AC offers comparatively cheap rewards in terms of miles, but you get surcharged up the wazoo.
I live in YYZ and used to fly on AC exclusively. YYZ-western Europe on a reward ticket is cheap at 60,000 miles in Y. But then you get hit with $700 - $800 in surcharges and fees ... pretty bad for seats you can often find on sale for $1,000 or less.
I'd rather cough up more miles, since they're always worth less than the cash equivalent.
I live in YYZ and used to fly on AC exclusively. YYZ-western Europe on a reward ticket is cheap at 60,000 miles in Y. But then you get hit with $700 - $800 in surcharges and fees ... pretty bad for seats you can often find on sale for $1,000 or less.
I'd rather cough up more miles, since they're always worth less than the cash equivalent.
Aug 25, 2014, 6:57 am
#8
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 36
See ton of availability at the medium level for 120K + €300 in Biz. And they do fly their flat beds now to India so it's something worth considering.
Alternatively you can check for availability via CDG on AF and LHR on VS.
Aug 27, 2014, 6:44 am
#10
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: CA
Programs: Flying Blue, Skymiles, JetPrivilege, BA Executive Club
Posts: 43
Just realised that Etihad has some great redemptions - biz class about 60000 Etihad guest miles, on the mentioned route.
It seems that the Gulf carriers have better availability (and much better service) on Europe-South Asia routes. Too bad I just have skymiles
It seems that the Gulf carriers have better availability (and much better service) on Europe-South Asia routes. Too bad I just have skymiles
Aug 28, 2014, 8:32 am
#11
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: DCA
Posts: 3,395
The key is to look for Air France/KLM/Virgin Atlantic gateway cities and try to get a partner award. I found the partner availability to be not nearly as bad as Delta's, and I recently booked two J tickets on AF and VS to India from IAD. The key with using Delta miles and getting the low price is to understand you will probably be paying out of pocket to get to whatever your final destination is from ORD/IAD/JFK/SFO etc. because getting the onward award on Delta at the low price is nearly impossible.
