Originally Posted by
DeltaFan4Now
I'm fascinated by this statement. Given the talents around here, how much more availability are you able to conjure up than the FT cognoscenti? I'm not questioning your abilities or your right to make a business out of it - I'm just genuinely curious about the incremental additional flights that are "hidden" to most of us.
My statement was just that delta.com doesn't correctly show most Skyteam inventory. Even the partners that are bookable, like Air France, often show phantom inventory and "sell out" right as you are about to book them.
I don't use any secret or magical tools- when I perform professional searches I leverage a combination of Delta.com, Expertflyer, KVS, Airfrance.us, Velocity (V Australia), and Delta phone agents. The sad thing is that most Delta phone agents are not properly trained on booking partner awards.
No site is 100% perfect- in fact Expertflyer.com (which I love and is 99% correct) recently had the wrong fare class down for Air Europa business class, which was causing false results. I emailed them and they've since fixed it, but it just goes to show there isn't one foolproof way to check award space (plus EF doesn't have Delta award- only upgrades)
Whenever I book China Southern awards I generally have to call at least 3 times before getting an agent who actually knows how to check their availability. I imagine most people would give up, but persistence is the key to extracting the absolute most value out of Skymiles.