Originally Posted by MilesToGoBeforeISleep
Not to rain on the parade, but this is not a very complicated booking and could have been done by an avid flyer in about 10+ mins. Again, my experience with awardplanner has been less than inspiring. In every case with them, they've come back with no options, in every case I was able to find not only options, but my preferred options and a couple of others (this after I paid the $99 1 year membership). In my membership year I've tried to sued them 4 times with 4 failures. I've been able to get all the 4 tickets myself on my preferred dates and even in 2 cases on my preferred flights. The simply just did not spend enough time on the phone with the FF program desks. YMMV
Actually I did try to book this trip myself - kept getting nothing but "Sky Choice" on routings involving change of planes in CVG and ATL.
That's when I decided to give awardplanner a try.
When Delta announced it had obtained approval for the JFK-GTW non-stops I began trying again but they kept showing no inventory available on the returns (GTW-JFK).
On top of everything else I had zero flexibility inasmuch as the only way I could claim an award was via the old schedule - didn't have enough miles even for a standard skymiles award under the current one, so I had a limited amount of time to get anything. (From an inventory view Delta considers the old FFP schedule to be for ordinary inventory, hence it is not only viable afterl 12/31 and it's also greatly limited in terms of seats available.)
What it came down to was a calculated risk with $100. and in this case it was worth it (being able to fly non-stop; not getting involved with stopovers, hoping to make connections - if we're late taking off, so what - not the case if I had had to connect.
BTW, another complication is dealing with Delta personnel when it comes to trying to get them to book an award under the old schedule - the ignorance about the myriad of terms, conditions and regulations is incredible.
That was confirmed when I went to pick up the tickets (which you have to do with an FFP award). It took two people at the counter consulting with a person in Atlanta to generate the itinerary (with the indication of seat assignment) representing the electronic ticket.
So, yeah - the itinerary iwa not complicated.
What was was locating and obtaining it as well as actually claiming it.
Frankly I'm much more comfortable with AA's Aadvantrage program - they maintain two sets of miles pertaining to two schedules and I've never had a problem booking an award with them without help using either old or new miles.
In this case I'm glad I had the help considering complexities above and beyond what was my first choice of flights - an admittedly simple itinerary which was very complex with regards to securing it.
Finally, this was my experience - I'm not excluding that others could experience a different one.