Originally Posted by
jakemalloy
A search for a business class seat on the delta website shows 220,000 miles per person. I can get that same seat on China Southern for 60,000 Skymiles per person.
Is that more clear?
That's common with all of the big 3 US carriers. It's called Saver Awards vs Standard Awards. Partners airlines are usually only available at the Saver level (basically a seat is available on miles or it's not). Standard Awards have different inventory, sometimes up to last seat availability, but at a greatly increased mileage cost. Delta is very stingy with Saver award inventory, so that's why you're seeing 220k for their flight vs 60k on partners. CZ (China Southern) has always had good availability in Business Class for awards, and that was true back when their only US flight was a 772 to LAX.
In any case you haven't discovered any secrets or tricks.
Tools you're looking for to search award inventory are Expertflyer and KVS, both are paid services.