vikasr

I want to redeem Flying Blue miles for a domestic economy flight on Delta.

Earlier the FB chart showed a fixed 12500 miles one way but since yesterday FB has removed all charts from their website as they have revamped the program.

Now if I search for the domestic Delta flights, each flight between an origin and destination that is available for redemption is showing different miles requirement ranging from 11000 miles to 44000 miles in economy for one way. I have also checked that these available flights are the ones also available on Virgin Atlantic website and so surely they are the lowest level seats.

Does anybody know whether the above system is the new system or some error on the website? If this is the new system then it means that FB have moved to a revenue based redemption system for DL flights as well, which seems a bit awkward to me.

xliioper

They've apparently added some more granularity to the awards (as DL has done). That does not make it "revenue-based". A $106 DTW-BWI flight is 11,500 FB miles while a $284 DTW-LAX fiight is 14,500 FB miles. Where's the revenue-based formula for that?

vikasr

Yes thats what I see on the FB website. When I said revenue based I actually meant something like that but not directly linked or related to revenue fares, but the mile price seems to be linked to something that we dont know as various levels of FB miles are required for the same origin and destination pair even on the same dates and same cabin and booking class. For example, from SFO to WYS was earlier 12500 miles (before June 1) but now it ranges from 11000 to 44500 miles for economy on the same day irrespective of connections. There are situations where a single connection flight is more expensive in miles than a two connection flight. Also, there are cases where longer flights are cheaper than shorter flights (total duration). Since Delta is a Skyteam partner, I would assume FB only has access to the lowest level award seats as I can also corellate the availability on FB website to availability on Virgin website.

Can anybody comment on the above anomaly? The only explanation I can see is that this is somewhat linked to revenue fares but not completely. It is quite awkward though.

RBirns

You can book a Delta flight with FB miles? Equal value? Right now you can transfer amex points to FB with 25% bonus. So if I want to use, say, 50k miles for a Delta flight, would it be better to transfer 40k to FB, buying 50k FB miles, then use them to book the Delta flight? How does one book the Delta flight with FB miles?

RBirns

FB, as of June 1, switched to dynamic pricing of reward flights, instead of the previous chart. Mile prices are now based on supply and demand. In conjunction, they lowered the minimum starting price on some routes. That's why a flight that was 12k now varies from 11k to 44k.

UpgradeMe

X-posted:
Redeeming FB miles on Delta

xliioper

To use FB miles, you need to go through the Flying Blue website. They do not charge the same amount of miles for the same flights. For example, a LAX-SFO flight goes from as low as 11,500 in FB miles, but can be redeemed for as low as 5000 Skymiles. There will also be numerous cases where the reverse is true and you will be able to find the same flights for fewer FB miles than Skymiles. FB also has some carrier surcharges on domestic DL awards, while Delta only charges the mandatory $5.60 TSA tax.

RBirns

But how do you even find the DL flight on the FB website? When I search, I only get FB airlines. Just like when I do a Delta search paying with miles, I only get DL flights, no partner airlines. Am I doing something wrong?

xliioper

I don't know all the ins and outs of FB. I just used the Airfrance website to search US domestic routes with the Use Your Miles option and found DL domestic flight options listed for FB miles. So perhaps you need to use the Airfrance site. At any rate, they can't be booked on Delta's website and there is no relationship between what a flight will cost in Skymiles vs. FB miles (or if it is even available with FB miles).

RBirns

I am using the air france site. But I'm searching for LHR or CDG to JFK, not domestic.

xliioper

I have no problem finding some DL options. If you are searching in the middle of summer, there will likely be little to no DL options due to peak demand. There is more availability in late summer and fall.

RBirns

I stand corrected. It was my dates that showed no DL options.

RBirns

When booking a DL flight on Air France website, is "Business Class" actually Delta One or Comfort Plus?

Goldorak

Delta One

bostontraveler

Indeed and that is the crux of the matter.

Several things:

1) FYI FB has for the most part, if not exclusively, offered the lowest DL class availability so if that is not available DL will not be available using FB miles.

2) Flyingblue is a mess right now. I have called them a few times in the past two weeks because they never reply to emails and they have clearly said that to me. That has resulted in lots of things- they have temporarily blocked all retro credits, blocked uploads of claims for the shopping portal, made email communication impossible and social media communication unavailable.... etc etc etc... In a nutshell they have decided to hibernate; they are in chaos mode.

3) In the same vein and with respect to redemptions, they still haven't fixed all of their AF/KL issues--- not to speak of those with other airlines. DL should fall under their dynamic pricing 'umbrella' so I wouldn't be surprised at all if some of these routes were not available online for some time as they get their merde together.

Bottom line- don't expect much for a while. Given that France "closes" in 6 weeks I don't expect anything until late September. Just my humble opinion.