Originally Posted by
flyerCO
When you mix and match carriers DL+another DL penalizes you most times and awards become additive instead of just pricing at whatever the highest priced award is. I normally just book awards from East/West Coast cities or hubs now and pay for a cheap positioning flight. This allows me to book wholly other carrier bookings at lower award levels. For example JFK-JNB (via LHR on VS) is normally available at 80k for J, but anywhere else it goes up because of the DL segment.
It also allows you to get some MQMs on a trip versus getting nothing when the entire itinerary is an award. I'll be flying LAX-BNE on VA in February and will need an SEA-LAX positioning flight. At least I'll get 950 MQMs for that one - that's the silver lining to me in not being able to get the full itinerary at the lowest level award rate.