syrwhizzy

For those of you who have been following me on the Delta forum, I've been trying to get
two tickets from SYR-SYD since July, but Delta has been playing games with the Z availability -- yanking most Z buckets in late July.

I wanted to buy 1 ticket with an M fare + 50K Mile upgrade, and one completely in miles, to get in Businiess.

I finally broke down and got an ExpertFlyer account, and got an email alert they made some Z availability the other day. Now that there were Z buckets, I called NWA Silver Elite line to book. I tried several NW agents and they said there was Z0 on 9/16 and Z6 on the return 10/4. I told them I was in a travel agent system and see Z9, on 9/16. They both told me they were looking at both a DL system and a NW system and saw Z0. I ended up having to book the M fare + 50K Mile upgrade via Delta. When I called Delta, they had Z9 Z6 just as ExpertFlyer said. When I was done, Z7 Z4.

Has anyone run into this? If Northwest tells you there's no upgrade availability, check with Delta, because there seems to be a bug in the system. Not sure if it effects just LAX-SYD, or if this is true with other routes.

The part that sucks is, of course, I had to pay the $75 administrative fee on the ticket I bought completely in miles because I'm booking inside 21 days. That sucks. They collect yet another fee because they held off all Z availability for M fare upgrade. Delta still doesn't rub me the right way.

FYI... If you're looking for LAX-SYD soon and you can make a decision quickly, there appears to be some Z availability on the LAX-SYD route this month and returning next month.

Before my booking 9/16 was Z9 and 10/4 was Z6. Now they're Z7 Z4. I see some availability before 9/16, and there was some past 10/5.

So, if you don't mind the high M fare, you might want to take a look at it. On 9/16, the outbound still had 27 seats available in Business, so I think they're opening these Z fares in a last ditch effort to get revenue passengers to book the flights.

Departure is in 9 days, I better get packing.