roknroll

Flights on Air France or KLM metal don't necessarily translate. But I think the question is if CZ availability on AF.us will translate to DL availability, which it does. If you get an agent who says it isn't available, when AF.us shows CZ flights available, just call back for a new agent.

mnredfox

Are you using ITA/EF or another tool to get published routings on MH?

mtkeller

I use EF to check routing rules.

mnredfox

Thanks

mojo2121

Hey everyone,

First time poster here. Looking for low award mileage tickets from MSN/ORD/MKE to HNL or ideally KOA. So is the best way to approach this looking at partners websites? Going straight through delta they want 135k miles 0.0. Time is middle of May.

Thanks!

nolimit186

Ha, looks like we're on the same boat. FWIW, I've looked into all the different possibilities and the only way to do it is flying on CZ LAX-CAN-HND in Business but I'm hesistant to do that many stops and backtrack through CAN plus I believe there's a high fuel surcharge. I've given up and looking to maybe upgrading to Economy Comfort on the Economy Award tix on the legs going over the water (if thats even possible).

I haven't tried calling Delta though.

Please let me know if you have any luck.

eternalX

I finally found a SEA-AMS flight in J for 2 in October but struggling to find a return. Checking AMS-SEA, CDG-SEA, CDG-SFO, AMS-YVR but it is tough going. As a Plat, I can just ticket the one-way now until I find the return, right? There aren't any penalties as far as I can tell.

michael_v

I am seeing AMS-BOS-SEA on 10/23 with AMS-BOS in DL J and BOS-SEA in AS Y.

kswiss

best i could do at the low/medium level was 95k in coach, again not bad. but the wife didn't like that we were not sitting together. forget about flying a different airline. so i bought the z fare, we are sitting together on the same flight. i guess it cost me 120000 miles for a buy one/get one fare.

it was tricky purchasing the same flights though. they didn't show up. had to play around with multi city to find it.

btw this was msp to nrt in june.

nolimit186

I'm confused. So you paid out of pocket for a Z-fare and you paid for the other seat using 120k miles? Did you find a good deal on Z?

eternalX

oh yea, i see that. Thanks for sharing. Interesting that there are $330 fees per person on that flight but not on the AMS-SEA flight

michael_v

When searching flights from Europe one-way, ignore the fees, because they will go away once you search the US-Europe round-trip.

powerful pete

Please be gentle, I am trying hard to understand all of this, but must admit that having read quite a bit on FT I am getting more, rather than less confused.

I am traveling to Asia on business, and my company, a non-profit, pays only for low tier economy. I would have no problems topping up to get pay on my own for low tier biz class. The trans Pacifics are painfully long... sleeping and eating a decent meal would be a goodsend.

I am a DL Platinum and easily make platinum each year with BIS economy flying, so if possible I would like to fly on DL or DL partners to gain the maximum miles. I currently have 80K miles available, of which 33,500 of MQM this year to date.

My itinerary (or rather, the bits I am most interested in accessing a biz class seat on are as follows (draft itinerary from our corporate travel agent who is useless on biz fare searching):

Outbound: April 21, 2013

ATL - ICN (KE 36)
ICN - REP (KE 687)

For $1505 in Economy

Open jaw (lots of little puddle jumps in Asia)

Return: May 7, 2013
HKG - NRT (DL 156)
NRT - ATL (DL 296)

For $ 1152 in Economy

Pitiful requests on my part:

1. When I last asked what it would cost me (out of my pocket) to upgrade to business, I got a quote of some $6,000, well beyond my financial capacities.
2. I doubt the travel people here did anything beyond quote the standard biz class fare on this proposed routing.
3. What is the combined FT wisdom on upgrading?
4. What are different options (I read a lot about CZ availability in business) to get across the pond with arrival in REP on the 22nd of April? And/or departure from HKG on the 7th of May?

A primer or pointers on where to begin to learn how to do my own research would also be appreciated... even via private messages...

Jaimito Cartero

The problem with DL is they make it quite difficult to upgrade from a low paid fare. You either pay nosebleed Y or B fares, and hope you can use an SWU, or pay 5-6k for most discounted business class tickets.

Either buy a coach ticket on an airline with easy Transpacific upgrades, and trade for an upgrade, or just use mikes for an award. If your nonprofit is flexible, perhaps they'll pay for the lowest fare, and you can use your own miles/traded miles.

I fly US/Asia regularly in J/F. Usually on CX using AA miles. I buy/trade miles for trips, average cost is $1200-$2000 per RT.

vsepr

I booked an award ticket on Delta SkyMiles on CI, KE and MH (SIN-TPE-CTS-ICN-HKG-KUL-SIN). The taxes the agent quoted me is S$456.20. I asked for the tax breakdown and they are:
OO S$8.00
OP S$6.10
SG S$19.90
SW S$13.30
BP S$33.60
HK S$19.80
YQ S$336.70
YR S$12.80

Total add up to S$450.20. Any idea where the extra S$6 is from?? The call centre agent also could not explain. Thanks!