fly747first

As we all know, DL has eliminated low-level BusinessElite inventory to most destinations. Well, I was planning a trip to EZE and DL wanted 350K for BusinessElite on an archaic 767-300. Knowing my airline route networks, I phoned the Gold Medallion desk. Though it took 8 calls to finally get an agent who could check for award availability on Avianca, I'm happy to report that I secured a MIA-BOG-EZE-BOG-MIA itinerary for only 100K (all legs confirmed in A--AV's award business class code). Thus, my advice to fellow flyers is the following: Whenever Delta (the not so premier airline) tries to screw you over, always remember that there are Skyteam and other DL airline partners that can deliver a better experience for 1/3 the amount of miles.

gleff

Congratulations on getting a premium class ticket in exchange for your Skypesos! ^^^

SEAUAKID

I applaud your success! You give the rest of us hope!

fly747first

Don't lose hope. There are quite a few frequent flyers who can easily outsmart Delta. Then again, I personally think that it will be easier to teach a monkey how to solve a quadratic equation than to teach Delta's management some common sense. LOL

Winkdaddy

I hope there are very few people redeeming BE tickets at over the lowest published price of 100k-120k. Every time somone spends 200k, 280k, or God forbid, over 300k for BE tickets it only encourages Delta to keep ther system in place. I fear however there are a decent amount of people redeeming at those levels because they just think that is the only price there is because Delta.com said so and they book it. They dont know about FT, or any tricks and tips on how to find the lowest levels

MikeMpls

8 calls just to find a rep willing to check availability on Avianca? That's a complete disgrace.

Why anyone continues to put up with this is way beyond me.

fly747first

True, but in my experience, that's quite average when trying to redeem an award with US airlines. I put up with it because I simply have no choice... After all, it's not as if Emirates or Singapore Airlines have the right to fly within the States.

MikeMpls

That wasn't our experience with NW, and that's not our current experience with CO. The last time I encountered this on DL/NW, I searched on CO, finding what we were looking for (plus lots of *A partner options) on the first try, booked it, end of story.

There is no justification for DL's continued abuse of its customers in this area, especially if it takes eight attempts to get a live customer service rep to do the job properly.

rankourabu

Yes, we can outsmart Delta. Thousands of people (not FT nerds like us) would have had to pony up 350k Zimmiles. That is exactly why the calendar will never get fixed.

dabears

Great job fly747first,
Making 8 calls is a small price to pay for 100K business seats IMHO.
Don't let the usual critics bring you down.

Crazy4Birds

+1. Good job!

fti

Exactly. Most people have no clue that if they hang up and call back, they will get a different answer. Or that Delta has many partners whose availability does not show up online.

Delta has trained the unsuspecting traveler to use their website for almost everything. First place people turn to is delta.com. Heck, even many seasoned travelers on FT are averse to picking up the phone and calling for various issues (read some prior threads).

delta.com will never get fixed, as you said, because Delta knows it can screw many travelers out of many miles.... unless someone wins a lawsuit against them for deceptive practices but that would be very hard to prove.

3Cforme

If the OP wants MIA-EZE, can he cite his reasons for playing SkyMiles rather than AA Aadavantage, when AA has two daily 777s on the route non-stop?

fly747first

I do not have sufficient AAdavantage miles after redeeming two first class tickets on Cathay Pacific and Qantas last year. I suppose I could have tried to find someone willing to trade AA miles for DL miles on Coupon Connection but I didn't bother since I believe no one in the right mind would want such trade now that the only DL partner that allows international F awards is SQ and soon the partnership will be over. I'm perfectly happy flying Avianca's Clase Ejecutiva with the BOG-EZE-BOG legs being operated by A330 aircraft.

fly747first

Thanks!