So I've read a bunch of the 69+ pages of the "How to book low tier BE Award tickets" thread and frankly the only useful tip I gleaned was to price the trip in two parts, outbound and return and then combine the lowest cost dates for the lowest RT fare.
I tried using Expert Flyer and frankly I'm very disappointed in it. Besides not seeing Delta awards, it only sees SOME KE awards and apparently none from the US to Korea. What's the point if it can't see awards from the US to ICN ? I ask for ATL-ICN requesting direct or non-stop only and it routes me through CDG (and doesn't show any award availability on the AF portion to Paris anyway).
So has anyone got any tips for a BE award trip outbound in January, return in February? Two Tkts FLL- MNL. Best I am finding is 220K on DL.
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In addition to searching each direction separately, first find the overwater TPAC segments, then try to add connecting flights within the USA, and within Asia if needed.
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What's the catch? Plenty of availability on CZ! LAX-MNL
Answering my own question ... according the Delta there's no availability on the CAN-MNL leg either outbound or return despite EF showing between 2 and 4 seats available for award travel on almost every day.
Answering my own question ... according the Delta there's no availability on the CAN-MNL leg either outbound or return despite EF showing between 2 and 4 seats available for award travel on almost every day.
How many agents told you this? If your answer is 2 or fewer then you need to keep trying.
How many agents told you this? If your answer is 2 or fewer then you need to keep trying.
The agent I spoke to seemed knowledgeable ... apparently KE & CZ show inventory directly to the agents now (so no "long-sell" necessary) - she could see the LAX-CAN leg availability and found one coach seat CAN-MNL, but no business CAN-MNL despite what EF says. She tried for a week either side of my requested date.
Is this a "time" thing; sometimes the seats show, sometimes they don't or is it the agent just doesn't know what they are doing?
The agent I spoke to seemed knowledgeable ... apparently KE & CZ show inventory directly to the agents now (so no "long-sell" necessary) - she could see the LAX-CAN leg availability and found one coach seat CAN-MNL, but no business CAN-MNL despite what EF says. She tried for a week either side of my requested date.
Is this a "time" thing; sometimes the seats show, sometimes they don't or is it the agent just doesn't know what they are doing?
I was aware that KE was now direct, but I didn't think the same was true for CZ...I'll try calling for a CZ itinerary I'm looking at and see what the deal is.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mikepa
The agent I spoke to seemed knowledgeable ... apparently KE & CZ show inventory directly to the agents now (so no "long-sell" necessary) - she could see the LAX-CAN leg availability and found one coach seat CAN-MNL, but no business CAN-MNL despite what EF says. She tried for a week either side of my requested date.
Is this a "time" thing; sometimes the seats show, sometimes they don't or is it the agent just doesn't know what they are doing?
Have you checked the FlyingBlue engine on airfrance.us for the CAN-MNL? If it shows there, then DL should be able to book it. I don't think we've encountered competent agents who see different CZ inventory from EF before. In the past, I've had an agent find KE space ICN-AKL and then fail to find LAX-ICN. Ten minutes later a different agent found space on both sectors and gave it to me, so it seems like sometimes agents aren't as good as they might seem at first glance.
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For Jan/Feb you are pretty late to the party. That is Chinese New Year/Spring Festival. Flights through China are bound to be heavily booked and the DL USA-NRT segments will be heavily booked by people with onward itineraries to Asian destinations. This will require a lot of searching, calling, etc. Good luck.
Damn, this is getting frustrating. Flying blue also shows availability, but according to the Delta Rep "All partners have their own inventory bucket and Delta's is empty!"
They show availability into CAN (9), but zero out of CAN to MNL. So it's not like they can't see anything at all.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mikepa
Damn, this is getting frustrating. Flying blue also shows availability, but according to the Delta Rep "All partners have their own inventory bucket and Delta's is empty!"
Update: Well after calling five times I got the LAX-MNL portion booked for 140,000K each.
But the domestic portion (from FLL) added 65K to bring the total to 205,000. I'm now going to search for a LOW domestic award (which might be tricky from FLL).
