Originally Posted by
kay_jay
On KLM site, I see plenty of availability for nonstop flight from SFO to AMS on KLM site for award travel on 4/15 and return on 4/27 for 25000 miles each way.
When I tried to see the availability on delta.com, I don't see any availability for low award category and that too KLM is not mentioned anywhere.
I also called Delta Skymiles representative and told her I see nonstop service are available for award travel, I was told that KLM will not release everything to Delta, so no non-stop flights available to book on Delta using skymiles.
Is there any way to work around this?
In a word, no. Delta's agent is telling the truth here. Flying Blue availability differs in two respects: KL has "flex" awards, which are not bookable with Delta Skymiles; and secondly KL has started to withhold some "low" award inventory from its Skyteam partners.
Using your dates and KVS, this is easy to see:
On 4/15 for SFO-AMS; availability is CA9 and YM9 (The "A" is flex, and neither biz cabin "C" nor coach cabin "Y" is available for a Skymiles booking.)
On 4/27 for AMS-SFO; availability is CS9 and YS9 for Flying Blue.
But availability is only CS2 and YS9 for Delta Skymiles, which reflects KL holding back at least 7 biz-class awards for its members only.
The good news is that there *is* award availability for 2 in biz-class and 9 or more in coach using Delta Skymiles for the return for the date you want.