Affable1

Hi Everyone,
Realizing that it is pretty last minute, does anyone know of any deals to fly to Asia, particularly S.E. Asia, over the December holidays, using standard amounts of mileage? I have found some deals using double or triple the amounts, but prefer not to do that. (Or does anyone know of any super and economic last minute fares to those places/know of any deeply discounted last minute travel sites?
Thanks!

Moderator2

Welcome to Flyertalk. In order to assist, readers would need more information, specifically what mileage currency you are planning to use, and what itinerary is being considered.

As to discounted fares, Flyertalk is really not a clearing house for that. You might check out the budget travel forum, but people here tend to be more oriented toward collecting miles.

Short hair Francis

At this late in the game for trans-pac, unless you can snap some last minute J/F rewards, forget it. There are loads of students that travel between asia and north america this time of the year and they would've snap up any low Y fares back in Sep.

But moderator2 is right, FT is more for collecting miles and earning status and how to use them most efficiently and welcome!

Affable1

Thank you, Moderator2and Short Hair Francis!
To be more specific, as Moderator2 mentioned, am looking at using standard rate (i.e. not high season/holiday mileage redemption rates) Delta FF miles for holiday travel between any California airport (though preferably the Los Angeles area) and any Southeast Asian city, like Bangkok, Singapore, Jakarta, Manila, Viet Nam, etc.
Short Hair Francis, what are J/F awards?

kkjay77

J refers to Business Class (also called C depending on airline alliance. OneWorld crowd call it J and StarAlliance crowd call it C).
F is obviously First Class.

Now, using your DL miles, it would be pretty much impossible to score Y (economy/coach) award for "Low" redemption rate.
You might have better luck scoring business class award.

BTW, welcome to FlyerTalk.

Affable1

Hi,
Thank you kkjay77! I guess I had been hoping I could fly with one of Delta's alllied airlines, to obtain a regular economy ticket, but I think you are right, it will be hard right now at this holiday time. Do you or anyone know if Delta automatically took over Northwest's alllied airlines as partners too?

deltame

Isn't that information easily available on Delta's website? E.g., go to the website under Skymiles -> Use miles -> Award Travel -> Award & Mileage Upgrade Charts, you'll see a list of redemption on partner airlines.

Welcome to FT and please do some of the leg work when you can.

Short hair Francis

With DL miles, you can try looking at China Southern (visa may be needed) and Korean Airlines too. But as I said, this late in the game, all you can hope for is that airlines may have undersold business class and may be willing to take regular mileage for them other than to op-up someone else from coach. I doubt you can get regular coach award now. Also remember, DL miles are like 1920's German marks, not the easiest to get use.

gleff

Since you're trying to use Delta Skymiles, I'll move this thread to the Delta forum.

Regards,
Gary
aka gleff
MilesBuzz moderator

Mabuk dan gila

China Southern is probably your only hope though your chances are still slim. I scored CGK-LAX last year on CZ during the holidays. Beware the 15 hour TPAC in Y on CZ is a nightmarish hell due to 10 across seating on a 777 with 31 inch seat pitch and seats in front of you that recline as if there was a 50 inch seat pitch plus they crank up the cabin heat to uncomfortable levels.

stephem

In years past, you would have had no problem at all doing this in business class, probably not much chance in the back cabin though. Once the early to mid-December rush of expat families returning home from Asia to the US, the front cabin loads really drop and there are generally some empty seats 2 or more days out. In the past, NW would frequently open up "low" level awards for these flights. But as I have reported several times, DL revenue management has completely changed that process. Now they will let the SE Asia planes go out with empty seats (or fill them with nonrevs) rather than open up low level business class awards.

KE is blacked out during these dates, so that wont work. I think your best bet is indeed China Southern via CAN. And you don't need a visa to do that, as PVG, CAN and PEK all give varying transit rights for passengers who are connecting onwards.

Kaeokai

I am presently looking for a "low" C/J seat using my Skymiles, anytime February through April, with zero success. Nothing. (I was looking to go on DL/NW metal...I have yet to look into KE options over the phone.)

This is my first time trying to use the DL miles since coming over from NW, and needless to say, I am disappointed. You would think over a 3 month period, and as a plat, there would be at least a couple of options.

I won't spend 370,000 miles for a seat. Period.

D@mn you, you dirty airline!


-k

stephem

Welcome to DL. I posted details of my last decade with NW and how things abruptly changed on Oct 1 here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...-dl-metal.html

DL SM is complete crap in terms of premium cabin awards at the low level. The Europe awards are roughly the same, nowhere near the availability that I've come to expect. Sure if I post the dates and cities someone will find a routing with 4 stopovers or on DL's circa 1999 BE seat. But I'm talking about being able to get a low level award seat on the plane that I buy a ticket on, and until now that wasn't too much to ask.

No use crying over spilt milk though, there is a bright side to this. I status matched to LH, found well timed flight on LX for $1000 less than what DL wanted, including the new LX fully flat business class seat. I used some *A miles to get my wife a seat (a mere 80k miles I might add, which is 1/3 of what DL wanted for a seat on one of its outdated 767s) on the same plane.

*A and OW are getting the lion's share of my business until this changes...