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The Definitive "How To Search for Low Tier Business Awards"

The Definitive "How To Search for Low Tier Business Awards"

Old Apr 20, 2010, 10:54 am
  #61  
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Where do you select the fare class for these One Way Awards searches?

I only see the option for Coach or Business/First.

The search results do not display the fare class.

I just tried this for SFO-CDG on 9/4. No AF flights, all DL, 90-125k for Coach.
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Old Apr 21, 2010, 9:28 am
  #62  
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Originally Posted by lancexfang
What did I miss?
I don't think DL.com will let you do this. I don't think you can piece together a J and then Y fare at the same time when piecing all the parts together. If you try to include it, it'll try to book J for the last leg you want to sit in F and push the whole itin to medium or high.

Any corrections to my thoughts would be great though, I'm no expert.
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Old Apr 21, 2010, 11:11 am
  #63  
 
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Any chance a screen shot or two of the important steps could be shown?
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Old Apr 21, 2010, 11:15 am
  #64  
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Originally Posted by ajb216
Any chance a screen shot or two of the important steps could be shown?
Fantastic idea. I have finals next week, thus am really foccused on the books right now. I may be able to get screenshots done over the weekend. If anyone else can get them done before, that would be great. If not, give me a few days...
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Old Apr 23, 2010, 7:18 am
  #65  
 
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Not all of these tips are working for me. When I search Y for JFK-LHR, I get exactly and only Y. No J shows.

DL award redemption is soooooo frustrating!
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Old Apr 23, 2010, 7:24 am
  #66  
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Originally Posted by vatraveler
Not all of these tips are working for me. When I search Y for JFK-LHR, I get exactly and only Y. No J shows.

DL award redemption is soooooo frustrating!
If you do not find J in Y, search J. Last week I did not find USA-NRT at the low tier in Y, but found lots of availibility using the J search.

Good luck
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Old Apr 23, 2010, 11:36 am
  #67  
 
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I'm getting this about 40% of the time. What a piece of junk website.

Lets Try That Again

Were having some trouble completing your search right now. Give it another chance and start over.

If that doesnt work, contact us for help.

Message # 7500
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Old Apr 26, 2010, 5:53 pm
  #68  
 
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Originally Posted by vatraveler
I'm getting this about 40% of the time. What a piece of junk website.

Yes, but DL is spending thousands (millions?) of dollars to enhance your travel experience with SkyPriority, which seems to be working at least as well as their IT is. Pity they don't devote that kind of coin to doing something useful like fixing their feeble-minded customer-facing systems.

It might seem a cheap shot to recite the DL mantra of "Best In Class" but last Monday Delta ran a half-page ad in the NY Times that used that very phrase, so it must be true.
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Old Apr 26, 2010, 6:41 pm
  #69  
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Is it that DL IT is inadequate for showing BE inventory or that the BE inventory is inadequate, period?
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Old Apr 26, 2010, 8:34 pm
  #70  
 
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Originally Posted by wco81
Is it that DL IT is inadequate for showing BE inventory or that the BE inventory is inadequate, period?
Yes.
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Old Apr 28, 2010, 10:32 am
  #71  
 
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Originally Posted by DeJar
1. I found that even though the handy little color-coded calendar said there was only Mid-level awards available (200k miles), that really was not the case.
I constantly have this problem Why do your results always price out higher than the colored award calendar indicates?
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Old Apr 28, 2010, 3:38 pm
  #72  
 
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Originally Posted by ALadyNCal
I constantly have this problem Why do your results always price out higher than the colored award calendar indicates?
That is not always the case. Sometime I have seen low available even when the calendar says Med or n/a.
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Old Apr 29, 2010, 1:35 pm
  #73  
 
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So how does this work domestically? I can see the saver F ticket that would connect to a medium Y (SAN - ATL -MCO) but can't get one to price in F and the other in Y
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Old May 3, 2010, 5:51 pm
  #74  
 
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Here are the experiences I'd like to share:

(1) ExpertFlyer has fixed the problem of showing incorrect CZ award availability. We can now rely on EF to find CZ award availability, which is excellent. One thing to keep in mind is that the on time rate of CAN-LAX flight is horrible, and it is not at all uncommon that this flight arrives 2 hours late (because it needs to be parked at LAX for several hours anyway). Be careful to plan the connections.

(2) KE's LAX-NRT and NRT-LAX flights almost always have 1 J award available. It is also fairly easy to find 1 J award on LAX-ICN-LAX, SEA-ICN-SEA and YVR-ICN-YVR, but 2 seats on the same flight is most impossible to snag.

(3) AS has excellent award availability. If you live in the west, always try searching DL's TPAC and TATL flights from SEA or PDX. If it is available, then you can easily add an AS flight to/from SEA or PDX. Such routing (such as PHX-SEA-AMS-ZRH) will usually not automatically be shown if you only search the departure and arrival airports (e.g. PHX-ZRH). So, do a multi-city search.

(4) The following TATL flights have good availability: ORD-AMS/CDG, JFK-AMS/CDG, IAD-AMS/CDG, DFW-AMS, IAH-AMS/CDG, BOS-CDG. If you can find low award to these US gateway cities, you'll have a good shot at TATL awards. These routings will usually not shown automatically so do a multi-city search.

(5) Award availability on AZ can be seen on airfrance.us, but not delta.com. Sign up for a FB account and do a search there.

(6) Award availability on DL/AF/KL metal within a month changes very frequently. If you are searching for an award within a month, search at least 3 times a day.

(7) Don't forget OK. You can fly DL's ATL-PRG and JFK-PRG and connect to OK flights there. OK award availability can be seen on EF.

(8) The new SEA-KIX flight can be taken advantage of. CZ, MU and KE offers a decent number of destinations from KIX.
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Old May 3, 2010, 6:51 pm
  #75  
 
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Originally Posted by blug
(5) Award availability on AZ can be seen on airfrance.us, but not delta.com. Sign up for a FB account and do a search there.
AZ awards are also shown on.... <drumroll> the AZ website! EF has it too.
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