Is it really that bad?

Old Jun 23, 2017, 8:59 am
  #16  
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Originally Posted by ATLawyer
Two years in a row I've been able to find RT low availability to EU leaving right after xmas and returning Jan 1-3. We purchased in October and November for December/January travel. Key is being flexible on dates. We had to get creative with the return last year, but found LHR-PHL available and added a $100 PHL-ATL on the back side.

We've also had no problems finding cheap flights during flash sales. Went to Italy for 105k last summer, direct from ATL, leaving Thursday returning Saturday.

Europe isn't bad if you are flexible.
Was actually just looking for those exact dates (well, sort of - 12/26ish to 1/12ish). Deciding between Europe or Asia. 2 seats in J.

Can get to ZRH or GVA for 140k each.
Can get to NRT and try the A350 suites for 265k each.

The extra 250k RDM is nothing to sneeze at, but we have the RDM sitting around and it's a shiny new product so...seriously considering New Years in Japan...
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Old Jun 23, 2017, 10:57 am
  #17  
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Originally Posted by gooselee
Was actually just looking for those exact dates (well, sort of - 12/26ish to 1/12ish). Deciding between Europe or Asia. 2 seats in J.

Can get to ZRH or GVA for 140k each.
Can get to NRT and try the A350 suites for 265k each.

The extra 250k RDM is nothing to sneeze at, but we have the RDM sitting around and it's a shiny new product so...seriously considering New Years in Japan...
You might want to check hotel prices before deciding. Tokyo can be expensive around NYE weekend, with Christmas less so. However, some hotels don't really start taking reservations until three or four months in advance of arrival, so it can be a bit hard to interpret the availability you might find now.

If you've never been in Asia around this time of year, it can be a bit strange. At least in big cities, you'll find extensive beautiful decorations that can disappear promptly by dawn on the 26th. Christmas Day might not be a national holiday, for instance in Japan IIRC. If you're accustomed to colder climates, Christmas and New Year's in the tropics can seem weird.
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Old Jun 23, 2017, 11:02 am
  #18  
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Love these descriptive and concise thread titles!
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Old Jun 23, 2017, 11:19 am
  #19  
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
You might want to check hotel prices before deciding. Tokyo can be expensive around NYE weekend, with Christmas less so. However, some hotels don't really start taking reservations until three or four months in advance of arrival, so it can be a bit hard to interpret the availability you might find now.

If you've never been in Asia around this time of year, it can be a bit strange. At least in big cities, you'll find extensive beautiful decorations that can disappear promptly by dawn on the 26th. Christmas Day might not be a national holiday, for instance in Japan IIRC. If you're accustomed to colder climates, Christmas and New Year's in the tropics can seem weird.
Good call. Might be better suited for the Destinations boards, but for a 2 week trip, could we potentially do a few days in Tokyo and then spend more time elsewhere in Japan? Would prefer that over Europe simply because we've been to Europe a ton lately (yes, yes...first world problems and all). Extended family is from SE Asia, so December in the tropics isn't news. But...is Japan really even the "tropics"? I'm used to Singapore/Malaysia...an 8 hour flight south of there.

The dates are firm. We will staying home with family for Christmas as we're gaining a new nephew right around Thanksgiving, but we've been itching for a vacation for a while so trying to get out right after the holidays. I would be worried if someone told me many things will be closed during the Christmas/New Year's week. We're not going especially for the holiday, so if it's just business as usual, that's actually a plus for us.

As Mrs. Lee is telling me to go ahead and book this, it looks like I will be headed to DL.com shortly. Can always redeposit if we figure out the trip won't be what we want it to be (favorite part of being a PM for me).

Last edited by gooselee; Jun 23, 2017 at 11:25 am
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Old Jun 23, 2017, 11:35 am
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Originally Posted by gooselee
Good call. Might be better suited for the Destinations boards, but for a 2 week trip, could we potentially do a few days in Tokyo and then spend more time elsewhere in Japan? Would prefer that over Europe simply because we've been to Europe a ton lately (yes, yes...first world problems and all). Extended family is from SE Asia, so December in the tropics isn't news. But...is Japan really even the "tropics"? I'm used to Singapore/Malaysia...an 8 hour flight south of there.

The dates are firm. We will staying home with family for Christmas as we're gaining a new nephew right around Thanksgiving, but we've been itching for a vacation for a while so trying to get out right after the holidays. I would be worried if someone told me many things will be closed during the Christmas/New Year's week. We're not going especially for the holiday, so if it's just business as usual, that's actually a plus for us.

As Mrs. Lee is telling me to go ahead and book this, it looks like I will be headed to DL.com shortly. Can always redeposit if we figure out the trip won't be what we want it to be (favorite part of being a PM for me).

Anyone have any success routing to Australia via Asia? I just tried to get a JFK - TPE - SYD Both segments opened but they couldn't price as 1 award. I have thought I heard others saying that JFK to PVG to SYD was still doable
?
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Old Jun 23, 2017, 11:37 am
  #21  
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Originally Posted by krupdogg
Anyone have any success routing to Australia via Asia? I just tried to get a JFK - TPE - SYD Both segments opened but they couldn't price as 1 award. I have thought I heard others saying that JFK to PVG to SYD was still doable
?
Not in over at least a year.
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Old Jun 23, 2017, 11:38 am
  #22  
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Originally Posted by krupdogg
Anyone have any success routing to Australia via Asia? I just tried to get a JFK - TPE - SYD Both segments opened but they couldn't price as 1 award. I have thought I heard others saying that JFK to PVG to SYD was still doable
?
I successfully did DTW-PVG-AKL/MEL-PVG-DTW last year (the return ended up being SYD-LAX-DTW thanks to a schedule change). However, this was before the switch to make routings via Asia additive. Since then, I haven't found anything via Asia that isn't over 400k RDM.
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Old Jun 23, 2017, 11:38 am
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You need to be aware lots of places shut down (especially restaurants) for the first 4 days of the new year. Also, it can be chilly and windy then. It snowed when I was there the middle of December.

This will give you some idea of what might be closed (scroll down for the chart)
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Old Jun 23, 2017, 12:27 pm
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Originally Posted by flyerCO
Didn't say book, said the award levels can be ascertained in reply to award chart complaint.
That's true if one looks on O&D routes and searches a wide timeframe. Still not easy, and have to check several routes to ensure checking on one that has actual normal availability. But sure, that is somewhat easier than actually booking it.
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Old Jun 23, 2017, 12:57 pm
  #25  
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Originally Posted by BamaGirl
You need to be aware lots of places shut down (especially restaurants) for the first 4 days of the new year. Also, it can be chilly and windy then. It snowed when I was there the middle of December.

This will give you some idea of what might be closed (scroll down for the chart)
Thanks for the link! Actually ended up finding the same one when googling.

Ended up booking the trip just to have it. We'll do some research over the next few weeks and decide whether or not to keep it (plus I'm assuming we'll get a schedule change or five between now and then).

I had a moment on the seat map screen where I was going to search for an A350 Best Seats thread, and then I realized that was probably a pointless exercise right now. :P
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Old Jun 23, 2017, 1:16 pm
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Originally Posted by gooselee
The extra 250k RDM is nothing to sneeze at, but we have the RDM sitting around and it's a shiny new product so...seriously considering New Years in Japan...
I'll be curious to hear reviews on the D1 suites once the A350s are active. My initial impression is that the D1 Suite is nothing impressive - that it's basically the 767 D1 suite with a flimsy "door" on it that DL is branding a suite. The actual seat doesn't even look that great - while the suite has a decent amount of space, the pictures make the seat look small - barely wider than an economy seat. As I said, I'll wait for reviews to come in before really beginning to judge but right now, my impression is that it doesn't appear to be worth paying any kind of premium for.
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Old Jun 23, 2017, 2:51 pm
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
You might want to check hotel prices before deciding. Tokyo can be expensive around NYE weekend, with Christmas less so. .
However, Switzerland is one of the most expensive places in the world, and Zurich one of the most expensive cities IME. I've never been to Japan, however.
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Old Jun 23, 2017, 2:54 pm
  #28  
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Originally Posted by jdrtravel
However, Switzerland is one of the most expensive places in the world, and Zurich one of the most expensive cities IME. I've never been to Japan, however.
I find Switzerland to generally be more expensive than Japan, especially for consumables. I don't have experience around the holidays, however.

And you should go to Japan!!
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Old Jun 23, 2017, 4:02 pm
  #29  
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Originally Posted by jdrtravel
However, Switzerland is one of the most expensive places in the world, and Zurich one of the most expensive cities IME. I've never been to Japan, however.
Originally Posted by C W
I find Switzerland to generally be more expensive than Japan, especially for consumables. I don't have experience around the holidays, however.

And you should go to Japan!!
Switzerland is "cheap" for us as we stay with friends. But while we haven't ever been there in the winter, we have been there several times whereas Mrs. Lee has never been to Asia.

Originally Posted by ATOBTTR
I'll be curious to hear reviews on the D1 suites once the A350s are active. My initial impression is that the D1 Suite is nothing impressive - that it's basically the 767 D1 suite with a flimsy "door" on it that DL is branding a suite. The actual seat doesn't even look that great - while the suite has a decent amount of space, the pictures make the seat look small - barely wider than an economy seat. As I said, I'll wait for reviews to come in before really beginning to judge but right now, my impression is that it doesn't appear to be worth paying any kind of premium for.
Me too. Though even if it ends up not being the greatest, I'll probably still try it out just to have the experience, especially since the NRT-ATL nonstop is the same price currently.

FWIW, I'm one of the few that really doesn't mind the 767 D1 seats. And if you trust DL.com specs, they have the A350 seat listed at 22" wide, vs. 20.5" on the beloved 744, and 21" on the 767/777/330. Bed length appears to be smaller (76"-81" range - I wonder which ones are the short ones), but I'm not that tall so it's not an issue for me.

...

But I really didn't mean to hijack this thread with me booking a trip. So back OT: Yeah! DL redemption rates suck! Rage! :P
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Old Jun 23, 2017, 5:50 pm
  #30  
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Originally Posted by gooselee
I had a moment on the seat map screen where I was going to search for an A350 Best Seats thread, and then I realized that was probably a pointless exercise right now. :P
Someone did start a thread in preparation anyway though:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...ta-s-a350.html

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