The Definitive "How To Search for Low Tier Business Awards"
#61
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Bay Area
Programs: DL SM, UA MP.
Posts: 12,729
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.
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.
#62
FlyerTalk Evangelist & Ambassador: China
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: DEN
Programs: DL DM/MM, UA 1K, AA Exp, HH Dia, WOH Glob, IHG Plat, Marriott Gold, NA EE, Hertz PC
Posts: 17,410
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.
Any corrections to my thoughts would be great though, I'm no expert.
#64
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: KUL/TPA/OTP
Programs: UA1k, DL
Posts: 3,138
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...
#65
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: NYC
Programs: Amtrak Select Plus, Marriott Platinum, Marriott Lifetime Gold, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 3,122
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!
DL award redemption is soooooo frustrating!
#66
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: KUL/TPA/OTP
Programs: UA1k, DL
Posts: 3,138
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)
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
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!
DL award redemption is soooooo frustrating!
Good luck
#67
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: NYC
Programs: Amtrak Select Plus, Marriott Platinum, Marriott Lifetime Gold, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 3,122
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
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
#68
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: LAS
Programs: PA FT, TW Gold, NW/CO PE, VK Eagleflyer
Posts: 7,173
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.
#71
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Laguna Niguel, CA
Posts: 3,780
I constantly have this problem Why do your results always price out higher than the colored award calendar indicates?
#72
Join Date: May 2001
Location: MSP
Programs: Delta/United/AA/BA
Posts: 33
#74
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Silver
Posts: 1,155
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.
(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.