seydou

Thanks. Never knew about the award chart! Looks like one-way low from NA to Africa is 40,000 for economy and 60,000 for business. That definitely isn't showing anywhere I search.

I hear you about breaking up the legs, but then each time I add a segment, aren't I tacking on another chunk of miles from the chart?

seydou

My apologies for hijacking the thread, but it's the first time I've tried to do this, and Delta is just simply not making sense. I've now tried to simplify into a series of one-ways, and even starting with SFO-ATL, the rate chart here says it should be 12,500 for a low-cost. I picked a low-cost according to the calendar and it's 25,000.

Similarly, ATL-JNB one-way low cost should be 50,000. Then when searching, it's 100,000.

It's literally double -- and yes, I am searching for one-ways. Just don't understand. My head hurts.

Jaimito Cartero

DL does not offer one way travel for half the cost of round trip. You can buy a own way, but you'll pay the same mileage as a round trip.

Try to book a RT, and see if it prices out right.

mtkeller

Note that South Africa (the country) is more miles, if that's where you're aiming to get.

The mileage is not additive. If you have a valid routing from region A to region B and stay within the segment limits (four each direction), it will price using the region A to region B pricing. Find the segments and then use multicity and it should price properly. DL.dumb is not good at finding perfectly legitimate routings, so you have to lead it there. Jaimito Cartero has already explained the pricing matters.

It's worth pointing out that you can have a stopover and an open jaw, and this is where seeing the one-way pricing is helpful. Say you wanted to fly to JNB and then make your own way to NBO and fly back from there. You'd pay 130K in J for this, since it'd be 70K for the outbound and 60K for the return. You could take a stopover in Europe on your way to/from Africa as well.

mnredfox

I wouldn't accept anything less than low anytime, ever.

mtkeller

Nor would I, but I get that some people really want a non-stop on a particular route and are willing to pay a premium for it. In the case of ATL-JNB, I'm laying out the situation.

seydou

This sentence is quite helpful: "If you have a valid routing from region A to region B and stay within the segment limits (four each direction), it will price using the region A to region B pricing." Thanks.

I am not putting a premium on the direct routing, but I also am struggling to find low pricing. Unfortunately this time a stopover / open jaw isn't an option.

At least I know my ceiling is 150k / 250k. Shoot, that would just empty my account.

Happy

What you need to do is to search segment by segment on the city pair and look for the low level flights. WRITE DOWN those information meticulously because you will need that to piece the whole itinerary together later when you use multi-city function you then know WHICH flight to pick - they should be the flights earlier show you the low level is available when you do the city pair segment search.
You do know DL does not offer one-way award, therefore the low level you see would be the r/t pricing instead of a 1/2 of r/t.

seydou

Thanks Happy. I think by now I've tried too many permutations and just doesn't look like I can get it with my dates. Just time to suck it up and cash out the 150k for economy. If I try anything cute with flying to SA from Europe, I get killed with several hundred dollars worth of taxes/ fees. At least it's only one stopover from SFO which isn't so bad.

mtkeller

When are you seeing the taxes/fees? If it's when searching for something like CDG-JNB, those fees will evaporate when you put in the TATL sectors. DL charges fuel surcharges on award tickets originating in Europe.

Happy

If you originate from US, going to JNB via Europe does NOT trigger the fuel surcharges. Only when you originate from Europe then DL would slap you with the fuel surcharge.

Therefore the high $$$ showing up during your segment search such as CDG-JNB, does not matter as it would go away if your final itinerary originates from US and you just transit thru Europe.

Edit: I see mtkeller already pointed this out to you.

150K in Coach for such a long flight is pretty steep price tag to pay. I would try a more systematic search based on your new understanding, may be start all over with a new approach instead of a haphazard one, may unearth something that is better than the 150K you concede to settle with.

seydou

Thanks again Happy. Maybe I'll give it another go.

Just want to say a big shout out to the FT community here. I know it's not easy to deal with newbies like me sometimes, and people here are so helpful.

Mega Boris

Whats the new class to search for Business Awards if using Expert Flyer? I'm not trying to search for upgrades, I am trying to search for a pure award.

Reason being, if I see that its at zero at the moment I want to set an alert should something open up.

Ditto with KLM/AF

mtkeller

You can't use EF to search for DL award space, and KVS doesn't have alerts. Thus, you have to just search for yourself regularly. AF/KL use O for business award space. AZ uses Z. Those can all be set on EF.

KVS

Please see http://Help.KVSTool.com/#DL for a list of DL Award Booking Classes (all of which are supported in the KVS Tool).