Originally Posted by redtop43

I have never flown overseas, so please give me some leeway if there are things I could/should have looked for before posting this question.

I am currently traveling on August 22 on an award ticket RDU-CVG-IAD-CDG in coach, the final leg on AF 39 (where I have paid $70 for a "seat plus" - the AF equivalent of "Economy Comfort" - extra legroom). I paid 30K miles for this leg of the trip. (I paid 80K total, as I am returning in J.) AF39 arrives CDG at 6AM.

When I checked my itinerary today it said "There has been a flight change" and showed my flight arriving at IAD at 3:23PM and leaving at 4:40 and it said "You may miss your flight."

My guess is that I could still make it in 1:17. However, I would like if possible to upgrade to J without a change fee and 20K additional miles.

So question 1: Is 1:17 actually under the technical minimum connection time, and if so, does this mean DL should let me change without a change fee.

Question 2: If I change my flight and no longer need the Seat Plus on AF, will I get my $70 back?

I looked on DL.dumb, looking for one-way trips RDU-CDG in J for 100K miles, since this should be the low miles. The only routings I found were RDU-JFK-LHR with a 4-hour connection in JFK and 3 hours in LHR. I'd prefer something quicker and to get to CDG earlier. (I would fly RDU-JFK at 12:40PM, then JFK-LHR at 7:05PM, then there are several AF flights on the last leg LHR-CDG.)

Question 3: Is there a better place to look for availability that DL.dumb? Is it possible there are other flights available that don't show up on the DL website? I tried awardtravelr.com and it actually showed nothing whatsoever on Skyteam for that day. I did check on other flights RDU-JFK. I wouldn't care about flying Y on that leg, but there were no low-mileage Y awards on later flights.

Question 4: Given that I'm not all that unhappy with my current itinerary, is there a point in waiting to see if something else will open up?

Question 5: I don't care all that much about lounge access, but I have passes on USAir and United that I got for getting their credit cards. Are there lounges I would be able to use while traveling, given that I am traveling on DL?

Thanks in advance for all help.