The Definitive "How To Search for Low Tier Business Awards"
Aug 30, 2011, 11:08 am
#556
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: RDU
Programs: A few
Posts: 5,499
On the flight to CDG there was no AB or KL available but we did get row 3 EF which seatguru says is a good choice. On the flight back we are row 9 AB but the seatguru chart for this flight doesn't match the seat chart that comes up on the airfrance site. Are there any sites besides seatguru where I could see what seats are best on that flight. It says that the aircraft is a 777-300er?
Aug 31, 2011, 1:16 pm
#558
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: West Palm Beach, FL
Programs: Marriott LT Titanium, Hilton Diamond, DL DM & 2MM
Posts: 235
Could use some help
I've been beating my head against the wall trying to find a "low" tier routing for an upcoming trip. I'm surprising my wife for our anniversary with a trip to Madrid for a concert and while I was able to get us Y in the "low" tier via ATL on DL I am having a lot of difficulty finding Z via DL or any of the Skyteam partners. I've used EF, Airfrance.us as well as other partner airline sites to search for availability with no luck.
Here are the restrictions of the itinerary I'm trying to find.
PAX - 2
Departure - Fri, 23 Sep (non-flexible)
Return - Mon, 25 Sep (non-flexible)
Available departure / arrival gateways - PBI, FLL, MIA
Final Destination - MAD
I am absolutely willing to purchase a round-trip Y ticket from one of the gateways to a hub if that's all that is available for origination on the award ticket in the "low" bucket.
I'm even willing to send a nice bottle of Spanish wine to anyone who is able to help me find this "low" bucket itinerary.
Here are the restrictions of the itinerary I'm trying to find.
PAX - 2
Departure - Fri, 23 Sep (non-flexible)
Return - Mon, 25 Sep (non-flexible)
Available departure / arrival gateways - PBI, FLL, MIA
Final Destination - MAD
I am absolutely willing to purchase a round-trip Y ticket from one of the gateways to a hub if that's all that is available for origination on the award ticket in the "low" bucket.
I'm even willing to send a nice bottle of Spanish wine to anyone who is able to help me find this "low" bucket itinerary.
Aug 31, 2011, 2:43 pm
#559
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: SUX
Programs: BA Silver; HHonors Gold; SPG Gold; Points but dirt with everyone else
Posts: 8,050
I've been beating my head against the wall trying to find a "low" tier routing for an upcoming trip. I'm surprising my wife for our anniversary with a trip to Madrid for a concert and while I was able to get us Y in the "low" tier via ATL on DL I am having a lot of difficulty finding Z via DL or any of the Skyteam partners. I've used EF, Airfrance.us as well as other partner airline sites to search for availability with no luck.
Here are the restrictions of the itinerary I'm trying to find.
PAX - 2
Departure - Fri, 23 Sep (non-flexible)
Return - Mon, 25 Sep (non-flexible)
Available departure / arrival gateways - PBI, FLL, MIA
Final Destination - MAD
I am absolutely willing to purchase a round-trip Y ticket from one of the gateways to a hub if that's all that is available for origination on the award ticket in the "low" bucket.
I'm even willing to send a nice bottle of Spanish wine to anyone who is able to help me find this "low" bucket itinerary.
Here are the restrictions of the itinerary I'm trying to find.
PAX - 2
Departure - Fri, 23 Sep (non-flexible)
Return - Mon, 25 Sep (non-flexible)
Available departure / arrival gateways - PBI, FLL, MIA
Final Destination - MAD
I am absolutely willing to purchase a round-trip Y ticket from one of the gateways to a hub if that's all that is available for origination on the award ticket in the "low" bucket.
I'm even willing to send a nice bottle of Spanish wine to anyone who is able to help me find this "low" bucket itinerary.
Aug 31, 2011, 6:32 pm
#560
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 18
EF for awards
I've followed this board for years (and posted on occasion) and I have to say that I have never made a better investment than an EF subscription. I have two success stories to share:
About a month ago, I successfully booked two BE tix ATL-CDG-VCE for my EXACT dates over the Thanksgiving holiday with an open jaw in Paris on the return trip (my husband and I are taking a one week cruise that departs from Venice...we will then extend for 2 nights in Venice and 4 nights in Paris post-cruise). Using EF, I was able to snag these tickets for 100,000 miles each on Air France. I even used EF's alert tool to continually search for an earlier connection flight for the outbound CDG-VCE leg, and about 10 days after I set up the alert....MAGIC....I got an e-mail telling me that award inventory was available. A quick 10 minute phone call to the DM desk at Delta and the itineraries were changed.
Feeling good about this success, I spent last Saturday afternoon searching for "O" inventory on AF from LAX-PPT in hopes of securing BE seats for our upcoming 15th wedding anniversary celebration in June 2012. We've never been to Tahiti and it is on our bucket list. For my investment of about 3 hours performing searches on EF, I ended up with dates that would work. I called the DM desk and within 15 minutes I had the award tickets booked for 150K miles each. One caveat is that there was no "low mileage" availability for the ATL-LAX legs. I will keep searching and can add those segments if/when they become available. The award tickets would have been 230K miles each if I added the ATL-LAX legs. I can find a lot of creative ways to get us from ATL to LAX in the front of the bus without burning through another 160K miles for the domestic legs.
FWIW, I priced the LAX-PPT trip in BE on our dates, and the tickets would have cost $3,011 each (relative value of $0.02 per mile). The ATL-CDG-VCE BE tickets priced out much more expensively than Tahiti, at a whopping $7,300 each. So the math really works out to a great value per mile for this trip (relative value of $0.073 per mile)!
Now, if I could only find a strategy that consistently works for finding low-mileage award seats on DL metal in First I would be the happiest camper on the planet.
About a month ago, I successfully booked two BE tix ATL-CDG-VCE for my EXACT dates over the Thanksgiving holiday with an open jaw in Paris on the return trip (my husband and I are taking a one week cruise that departs from Venice...we will then extend for 2 nights in Venice and 4 nights in Paris post-cruise). Using EF, I was able to snag these tickets for 100,000 miles each on Air France. I even used EF's alert tool to continually search for an earlier connection flight for the outbound CDG-VCE leg, and about 10 days after I set up the alert....MAGIC....I got an e-mail telling me that award inventory was available. A quick 10 minute phone call to the DM desk at Delta and the itineraries were changed.
Feeling good about this success, I spent last Saturday afternoon searching for "O" inventory on AF from LAX-PPT in hopes of securing BE seats for our upcoming 15th wedding anniversary celebration in June 2012. We've never been to Tahiti and it is on our bucket list. For my investment of about 3 hours performing searches on EF, I ended up with dates that would work. I called the DM desk and within 15 minutes I had the award tickets booked for 150K miles each. One caveat is that there was no "low mileage" availability for the ATL-LAX legs. I will keep searching and can add those segments if/when they become available. The award tickets would have been 230K miles each if I added the ATL-LAX legs. I can find a lot of creative ways to get us from ATL to LAX in the front of the bus without burning through another 160K miles for the domestic legs.
FWIW, I priced the LAX-PPT trip in BE on our dates, and the tickets would have cost $3,011 each (relative value of $0.02 per mile). The ATL-CDG-VCE BE tickets priced out much more expensively than Tahiti, at a whopping $7,300 each. So the math really works out to a great value per mile for this trip (relative value of $0.073 per mile)!
Now, if I could only find a strategy that consistently works for finding low-mileage award seats on DL metal in First I would be the happiest camper on the planet.
Aug 31, 2011, 6:35 pm
#561
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Bay Area
Programs: DL SM, UA MP.
Posts: 12,729
Thought I had booked an award for 2 week trip next May, SFO-LAX-CDG-FLR and back. Dates were suppose to be 5/19/12 to 6/2/12.
Instead I find it's 5/26/12 to 6/2/12.
I called in and they said 5/19 was not available.
When I log on, it's indicating that some of the connection times are too tight. In fact, they changed some of the connecting flights on both ends of the LAX-CDG long-haul.
So the web site gives option to change flight and I click it and try 6/9/12 for the return and it returns a lot of flights connecting through LAX or SEA. Looks like AF long hauls from CDG to SEA or LAX, which should be a low award. But regardless of the ones I pick it says "we are unable to complete your request, try again later, if the problem persists contact us"
I call in again and the agent says none of those flights are showing up, even though it did on the web site and continues to appear in the results -- I just can't select any of them.
Meanwhile, I've already booked hotels and car rental. I got time to cancel them but wait too long and accommodations dry up. Either have to keep the 1-week trip or cancel it altogether.
If I have to buy a ticket instead, it will definitely not be on DL.
Instead I find it's 5/26/12 to 6/2/12.
I called in and they said 5/19 was not available.
When I log on, it's indicating that some of the connection times are too tight. In fact, they changed some of the connecting flights on both ends of the LAX-CDG long-haul.
So the web site gives option to change flight and I click it and try 6/9/12 for the return and it returns a lot of flights connecting through LAX or SEA. Looks like AF long hauls from CDG to SEA or LAX, which should be a low award. But regardless of the ones I pick it says "we are unable to complete your request, try again later, if the problem persists contact us"
I call in again and the agent says none of those flights are showing up, even though it did on the web site and continues to appear in the results -- I just can't select any of them.
Meanwhile, I've already booked hotels and car rental. I got time to cancel them but wait too long and accommodations dry up. Either have to keep the 1-week trip or cancel it altogether.
If I have to buy a ticket instead, it will definitely not be on DL.
Sep 1, 2011, 1:54 pm
#562
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: SUX
Programs: BA Silver; HHonors Gold; SPG Gold; Points but dirt with everyone else
Posts: 8,050
EF doesn't give the miles required. All partner awards book at DL's low level, so use the award table to find out what the mileage is. Remember that the table shows one-way price, but you have to pay for a round-trip. Thus, the table will show 30K for US-Europe in coach, but the cheapest ticket you can book is 60K based on doing a round trip.
Sep 1, 2011, 6:35 pm
#563
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 2
100g trip
new to FT. Just booked a trip for me and my wife from jfk to paris, one nih=ght, then to turkey for a week then to amsterdam for 5 days then back to jfk. 100g each roundtrip in business class. I searched for about an hour and finally the 100g award ticket popped up. 
April 23-may 5
April 23-may 5
Last edited by fjr44; Sep 1, 2011 at 6:36 pm Reason: new info
Sep 1, 2011, 7:29 pm
#564
Join Date: Feb 1999
Location: LAX
Programs: AA Plat, Marriott Plat for Life, SPG Plat, United Silver, given up on Skypesos for good
Posts: 303
Air France Metal In Biz
Anyone have any insights on why only Delta shows up on close in JFK-CDG in biz at any price level? Hard to believe that there are no award seats available on AF when they have far more seats in the market. And besides, with the jv they are supposed to be metal neutral so there should not be holdbacks for AF vs DL FFers.
Sep 1, 2011, 7:40 pm
#565
Join Date: May 2011
Programs: Spg Gold, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 1,578
new to FT. Just booked a trip for me and my wife from jfk to paris, one nih=ght, then to turkey for a week then to amsterdam for 5 days then back to jfk. 100g each roundtrip in business class. I searched for about an hour and finally the 100g award ticket popped up.
April 23-may 5
April 23-may 5
Last edited by PETERPNYC; Sep 2, 2011 at 7:16 am Reason: Typo
Sep 1, 2011, 10:17 pm
#566
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2001
Programs: DL 1 million, AA 1 mil, HH lapsed Diamond, Marriott Plat
Posts: 28,190
Sep 2, 2011, 3:53 pm
#567
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: LFT
Programs: AA Plat, lots of AA, AS, DL, UA miles, former top level CO Elite (sigh...)
Posts: 10,795
I was able to utilize the excellent advice found in this thread to book a business class award MSY-ATL-CDG for 100K miles. I had looked at flights originating out of both LFT and BTR as well, but could not find any availability. However, MSY is about two hours by car from my home in LFT, so this is do-able.
However, Mr. Dummy (meaning me) then noticed that I depart MSY to ATL on 5/27/12 and my AF flight ATL-CDG does not depart until 5/28/12. Thus, I have a considerable layover in ATL.
I then used delta.com to try and change the 5/27 MSY-ATL to 5/28. No luck, even though I searched for a Y ticket in addition to F on this segment.
I have until this Sunday evening to comfirm this itinerary. Should I do so and then continue to try for an MSY-ATL flight on 5/28 or should I just start over?
Also, my final destination on the outbound on 5/28 (actually 5/29) is MUC and I would like to originate from GVA for my return on 6/4 (I already have DL flights reserved in the front cabin CDG-ATL-MSY on the 6/4). Quite frankly, I'm not sure about the best method to find these CDG-MUC (on 5/29) and GVA-CDG (on 6/4) flights.
Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated!
However, Mr. Dummy (meaning me) then noticed that I depart MSY to ATL on 5/27/12 and my AF flight ATL-CDG does not depart until 5/28/12. Thus, I have a considerable layover in ATL.
I then used delta.com to try and change the 5/27 MSY-ATL to 5/28. No luck, even though I searched for a Y ticket in addition to F on this segment.
I have until this Sunday evening to comfirm this itinerary. Should I do so and then continue to try for an MSY-ATL flight on 5/28 or should I just start over?
Also, my final destination on the outbound on 5/28 (actually 5/29) is MUC and I would like to originate from GVA for my return on 6/4 (I already have DL flights reserved in the front cabin CDG-ATL-MSY on the 6/4). Quite frankly, I'm not sure about the best method to find these CDG-MUC (on 5/29) and GVA-CDG (on 6/4) flights.
Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated!
Sep 3, 2011, 7:41 am
#568
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2001
Programs: DL 1 million, AA 1 mil, HH lapsed Diamond, Marriott Plat
Posts: 28,190
Sep 3, 2011, 10:17 am
#569
Join Date: Feb 1999
Location: LAX
Programs: AA Plat, Marriott Plat for Life, SPG Plat, United Silver, given up on Skypesos for good
Posts: 303
Sep 3, 2011, 1:35 pm
#570
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: LFT
Programs: AA Plat, lots of AA, AS, DL, UA miles, former top level CO Elite (sigh...)
Posts: 10,795
One might try a phone call to Delta asking for AirFrance availability for those segments specifically, a search on the FlyingBlue award search engine at www.airfrance.us, or an ExpertFlyer search.