Programs: DL FO (I miss PM!), UA GM, SPG GM, Hil SM, Avis First, DL SunTrust WC
Posts: 2,781
The Definitive "How To Search for Low Tier Business Awards"
I posted this quick guide to Business Award searches in another thread, but after a number of folks mentioned how great it worked for them, I decided to create a separate thread. Also, if anyone else has tips which may be beneficial, please post them as well.
I will be the first to say DL's award engine is horrendous at best, however there are ways around it.
Now for the guide (please note, although this guide was created to assist with travel from the US past AMS/CDG, it is also beneficial for all award bookings):
For awards beyond AMS / CDG in Business, the best way to search is the following:
Search for USA - AMS / CDG ONE WAY in Coach by Mileage.
In the flights displayed, look for those priced at 100,000, with seating in First / Business.
If you cannot find any 100,000 mile flights with First / Business seating, do another search but search for Business this time.
Do this over and over until you find a 100,000 mile one way routing. Generally, it will be Business / First seats within your coach search. I think the problem most have is we tend to search for Business seats by selecting the business drop down. This is a big no no. Always select a coach search first, and seek business within, its often cheaper.
Next, perform another one way search in Businesss for the AMS/CDG - EU. I generally find plenty of EU Business inventory available.
Then, perform the same in reverse for your travel back to the US.
Once you find one way itineraries at the low mileage level, you perform a multi-segment award search. Be sure to select the flights you found earlier in the process at the low tiers.
Sometimes you may have to break down the segments even further such as TPA-ATL, ATL-CDG, CDG-OTP, in order to find the lowest available tiers.
One thing I have noticed is that so long as the DL Award Calendar shows Business available at the low tier, it is, only you have to search to find it.
This is how I book my award travel in Business to OTP. Takes a bit of work, but it can be done.
I am in the middle of packing for my trip tomorrow and will add more details later. Good luck.
Brad...
Last edited by Denolloyd; Jan 5, 11 at 8:02 pm..
Reason: Changed Y / J to Coach / Business
Location: LAX/BOS/HKG/AMS/SFO...hmm, I need a life.
Programs: United Premier 1K, DL Diamond, Hilton Diamond, Hertz Pres O
Posts: 12,807
Quote:
Originally Posted by Denolloyd
I posted this quick guide to Business Award searches in another thread, but after a number of folks mentioned how great it worked for them, I decided to create a desperate thread. Also, if anyone else has tips which may be beneficial, please post them as well.
I will be the first to say DL's award engine is horrendous at best, however there are ways around it.
Now for the guide (please note, although this guide was created to assist with travel from the US past AMS/CDG, it is also beneficial for all award bookings):
For awards beyond AMS / CDG in J, the best way to search is the following:
Search for USA - AMS / CDG ONE WAY in Y by Mileage.
In the flights displayed, look for those priced at 100,000, with seating in First / Business.
If you cannot find any 100,000 mile flights with First / Business seating, do another search but search for J this time.
Do this over and over until you find a 100,000 mile one way routing. Generally, it will be Business / First seats within your coach search. I think the problem most have is we tend to search for Business seats by selecting the business drop down. This is a big no no. Always select a coach search first, and seek business within, its often cheaper.
Next, perform another one way search in J for the AMS/CDG - EU. I generally find plenty of EU J inventory available.
Then, perform the same in reverse for your travel back to the US.
Once you find one way itineraries at the low mileage level, you perform a multi-segment award search. Be sure to select the flights you found earlier in the process at the low tiers.
Sometimes you may have to break down the segments even further such as TPA-ATL, ATL-CDG, CDG-OTP, in order to find the lowest available tiers.
One thing I have noticed is that so long as the DL Award Calendar shows J available at the low tier, it is, only you have to search to find it.
This is how I book my award travel in J to OTP. Takes a bit of work, but it can be done.
I am in the middle of packing for my trip tomorrow and will add more details later. Good luck.
Brad...
Great post!
__________________
"Whenever competition is feasible it is, for all its imperfections, superior to regulation"
One option that I ended up using for domestic flights combining DL/NW and partners is similar. I call DL to find out which partner flights have award availability (AS within Alaska for example). Then I go online and book using multi city and booking one segment at a time. No "mileage" level is given at the time of booking but it did price out at 25K miles including the free stop in Anchorage.
Programs: AA PLATINUM, UA PREMIER GOLD, CELEBRITY CRUISES ELITE, ROYAL CARIBBEAN INT'L DIAMOND
Posts: 5,154
The problem is that connecting in CDG can be chaotic. Also, intra-Europe Business Class on Air France-KLM is a joke.
For those flyers wishing to use Skymiles to Europe, I would actually recommend that they call Delta. In my experience, award-winning Jet Airways (which flies from NY to Brussels daily) has had decent availability at the low award level.
Travel agents used to pocket $500-600 for booking business class USA-Europe tickets. I'm confident Denolloyd could offer it for $400.
That was in the days when airlines paid commissions to most travel agencies (about 10 years ago) on paid tickets. Airlines still pay travel agent commissions for many international flights/airlines/routes and the good travel agents won't even charge you a service fee for those. But having the airline pay the travel agent and having the passenger pay the travel agent are two different things
Thank you very much for posting this incredible finding!
I am not interested in Europe at this time but checked a few award redemption possibilities between South America and the USA. This is what I found at www.delta.dum:
LIM-ORD OW: search in Y 90k for a BE flight, search in F 180k for exactly the same seat/class
LAX-LIM OW: search in Y 90k for a BE flight, search in F 120k for exactly the same seat/class
