ND76

I've been lucky enough to live near IAD; where I have been able to snag J class seats to western Europe on AF or KLM on very short notice. I can't plan very far ahead for a vacation as I am self-employed and may get a new gig on the spur of the moment. Being generally always able to book a quick long weekend trip in a premium class at the lowest mileage redemption rate the day before departure has been great for me; for the past several years, this is how I have spent my miles.

There was some kind of a falling out between Delta and AF/KLM (they are controlled by the same parent corporation) around March of this year, and AF/KLM has basically withdrawn most if not all of their free ticket inventory from use by DL frequent flyers. Between IAD and CDG, they offer at least 98 J seats per day (almost 130 when they fly the A380), and between IAD and AMS they offer 30 J seats per day. Many days, the J cabin is around 50% full. I noticed that this week appears to be a busy week for TATL travel involving IAD, as many of the flights have just a handful of seats left.

You could get a coach ticket between IAD and LHR, flying through DTW, for 60k SMs + about $200 taxes and fees. For that, I might as well pay the $846 for a round trip ticket and pick-up around 17,000 SMs and over 8,500 MQMs.

I think I can still use my miles on Aeroflot and Korean Air, although I have never tried. Aeroflot serves DEL via SVO (I want to visit the Taj Mahal, and one can take the train to Agra from Delhi); and Korean Air serves pretty much all of east Asia as well as Australia and New Zealand. Both airlines serve IAD.

There is nothing available out of IAD to western Europe (and back) for 100,000 SMs this weekend. The thought of spending 350k SMs for one J ticket is not appealing to me. I'd rather hold onto them and wait for a better day.