michaelr

I stopped collecting Skymiles about 3-4 years ago. Pricing and availability was just out of whack for my use case. My family flies back and forth a lot between OMA - HAJ.

However, this year I noticed plenty of availability booking 330 days in advance. I have a total of five people to fly back and forth next summer and so far I was able to get *exactly* what I needed at the 'saver' award level.

United and AA is comparatively tight-fisted and I did not book one segment on either carrier. This really surprised me and I thought it is worth mentioning. I have two more one-way tix to book in a couple of weeks and I doubt it will be an issue.

avidflyer

Wow! Nice score! How many miles per ticket? I assume KLM from HAJ to AMS and then DL from AMS to DTW?

rylan

I'm curious as to how much per ticket also... no idea what a 'safer' award level means.

javabytes

Since KLM is so tightfisted with awards, I'm going to guess AF via CDG. I'm going to guess AF over the water as well.

jrl767

equivalent to "saver" perhaps?

rylan

Oh duh... stupid me, yeah saver makes sense. I think its time to go home. lol

vbjd1111

I figure it's only for middle seats -- that way you have cushioning on either side in case of a hard landing.

paul21

Congrats. I was able to use SM a few months back to book LAX-LHR-DEL on VS in J. It was a very nice experience on the A340 and 787, with amazing lounges. I've not flown D1, but I can't see how it would be any better than VS. That routing is always full J at $7350, not bad for 70k pesos @ 10CPM redemption. Having said that, there were no DL options to DEL, and getting on the DL flight LAX-LHR, or getting to AMS/CDG to fly AF/KL into DEL was impossible as well.

michaelr

Indeed, so far 8/10 over the ocean segments are either KLM ATL-AMS or AF CDG-MSP. I still need to book 2 more.

The required mileage was 30k for each leg in econ and 62.5k for one in business. Taxes & fuel surcharges from Europe to NA were ~$300. I will likely spent around 332.5k in miles and ~$1.5 in fees once it is all said and done. Not terrible at all for 9 legs in econ and one in business considering I am getting the exact dates needed and having flights to boot with durations of 15h or less. UA and AA not showing much at all.

JPG3392

Congratulations on getting your award flights using DL miles, especially for 5 people during the high summer season. I am looking to book award travel WAS-MUC for next summer, and am finding saver awards available on AF and (to a lesser extent) KLM. I did not find such award space available when checking similar routes the past 3-4 years, and Delta's new policy on one-way award tickets is also welcome and very helpful.

But there is still one drawback to booking one-way DL award tickets originating in Europe: the surcharge. For the route that I am checking, RT IAD-MUC costs 60k miles + $121.20. OW IAD-MUC costs 30k miles + $20.70/$22.70, but OW MUC-IAD costs 30k miles + $242.72/$247.33. (In both cases, travel via CDG is slightly more expensive than travel via AMS.) I can't book RT yet, since it's too far in advance to book the return flight, but I am seriously considering using DL miles to fly to Europe and AA miles to return.

pbarnette

In each of the last 2 years I have taken saver J awards for 2 of us to Asia. I have also booked, but not used 2 x 2 awards to Europe. And just last week, I looked at, but did not book several saver options to the ME in J for next March. We also have saver J awards (x 2) booked for next March to SIN and I looked at but did not book 2x saver awards to PVG.

Using DL awards is not terribly easy, but it isn't as hard as some claim. I've actually had a harder time finding useful awards using BA miles, though we did just redeem for MLE-DOH-BOS in J on QR.

psa727

I know it is getting close to an off peak time, but I was able to snag a roundtrip first class flight from MCI to ONT at the start of September for only 50,000 miles, which is a shock for first class from DL. Have not seen an award like that in a long time. SNA and LAX are all listed requiring more miles.

However, part of my trip is on AS. MCI to ONT with a stop in SLC on DL on the way out. Then, AS from ONT to SLC via SEA, connecting to DL from SLC to MCI. Only one of the flights is on a Skywest regional jet from SLC to ONT on the connecting flight on the way out. The rest of the flights are on mainline jets.

KDCAflyer

Booked three one-way tickets DCA-DTW-LHR in business for next June (coming back on BA). All three are saver level (62.5K each), on Delta metal.

I was happy to burn the last of my SkyMiles before the final destruction of the program next summer. I take great pleasure in grabbing three seats for "free" that Delta could have otherwise sold. I don't redeem miles for anything less than 3-4 CPM. Ever.

pbarnette

Glad you feel like you pulled one over on them. I doubt you actually did, but if it makes you feel better...

If DL thought that they had a high probability of otherwise selling the seats, I guarantee they wouldn't have been giving them away for "free".

I've said for years that a rational airline will provide awards where the income from the awards (e.g. the value of miles + any cash component) approaches the expected value of selling the seat for cash. Remember that the nominal price is not the same as the value. To that end, I don't think you actually received 3-4 CPM in real value for Delta and I also doubt you received 3-4 CPM in real value to you.

KDCAflyer

I'm sure that Delta doesn't want to offer any high-revenue seats for mileage awards (or upgrades, for that matter), but they have to if they want to remain somewhat competitive with other airlines. They absolutely want SkyMiles to be solely used for cheap Y redemptions, hence the recent aggressive effort to sell the 5K-7.5K Y award tickets (tickets that often cost less than $100). Anyone who redeems for these sorts of awards is getting very little value from their miles (assuming that there are better options available).

My argument is that Delta could have likely sold each one of those seats for ~$2.5K. They are very good at selling out planes, and I almost guarantee that they'd rather sell their highest revenue seats than give them away in the form of mileage awards. SkyMiles do represent a large liability on their books, hence their desire to move towards a fixed value program. When that liability is finally removed, Delta wants it to cost them as little as possible.

I'm not pulling anything over on them. I am simply trying to maximize my benefit from a program that Delta offers. They certainly deserve to have one pulled over on them, however, since they are perfectly willing to do the same to loyal flyers.