Originally Posted by
dburns
Interestingly I am in the same boat - I have upcoming work travel to APAC via DL to ICN and KE onwards to my final destination that my company only permits PS. I have GUCs available, so need to force the KE segments in economy into Y/B/M so I can apply the GUC (I have confirmed that for now at least there is KE availability for the GUC in the appropriate fare classes). I basically need DL to re-fare and re-ticket just the KE operated segments to Y/B/M (which I would pay for out of my own pocket). If OP or anyone has been able to successfully do this, would love to hear that data point. To be clear, I can get an entire ticket issued Y/B/M, but the intent is to keep the P/A/G PS class to ICN, and then Y/B/M on KE to/from ICN.The later scenario would allow direct and confirmed upgrade to J using GUC as long as space was available.Thanks.
You can't actually "break" fare because you can't book ICN-Asia on a standalone DL fare as DL has no fare filings between ICN and Asia destinations. It only has O&D fare filings that cover entire route from US to Asia. Also, as noted upthread, the KE inventory requirements for DL Y/B booking classes (Z, KE Prestige revenue class) are different from M booking class (O, KE Prestige award class which is likely to be more hit and miss as far as inventory availability). Contrary to some assertions here, It's not clear at all that adding a stopover in ICN is going to change anything with the ICN-Asia segment. You are still booked on a single DL fare component in each one-way direction when booking an itin with a stopover (and, as noted, you likely can't apply single GUC with stopover and connection over 24 hours).
After a bit more investigation, I realized that TPAC PS fares are dual inventory fares (as are domestic and South America PS fares) and the Economy segment on KE just books in the underlying coach fare basis class of the PS fare. So you could potentially upfare to an M basis PS fare in order to get the KE segment into a DL M booking class and this is likely the only way it can be accomplished. But again, a M class seat requires KE O inventory, not just Z, to apply GUC.
I checked PS fares on the SLC-HKT route on EF and the cheapest one-way M basis PS fare is a MLE00NQ0 fare (PS segment books into G) goes for $1131 more than the cheapest one-way PS fare on route (a V basis VLE00NQW fare that likewise books into G in PS cabin). The cheapest B basis PS fare on route is a BLE00NQ0 fare which goes for nearly $2000 more than a VLE00NQW fare. A VLE00NQW fare on this route goes for $1246.40 with taxes/fees. So a MLE00NQ0 fare would be $2377.40 based on fare filings on EF.
