Originally Posted by ikonos

Unless your layover in FRA is under 24 hours, this is considered multiple stopovers. Am surprised it still priced at 100K. Is DL getting lenient on stopovers?

Originally Posted by michael_v

But even with FRA not being stopover, there are still 2 stopovers left: LHR and AMS. I thought we were only allowed one stopover per round-trip?

Originally Posted by antonius66

Well, I FINALLY got my trip with 2 business tickets. I had to change the dates slightly and many thanks for the tip to search by schedule. After 3 hours of trying and calling and searching, I tried another search by schedule only on specific dates without the calendar, using the available dates per the AF tool. Eventually I got the DL site to bring up the flights that were available in business per AF and got the system to allow me to book them, despite 2 DL agents insisting there was no availability. Apparently forcing a search by "schedule" and by only allowing to search on specific dates did something.

A ton of thanks to you guys here for the tips as I would not have been able to get them otherwise. Adios DL as I finally burned the last 200,000 miles now.

Originally Posted by sbjnyc

There is only 1 stopover and 1 layover. You can either consider LHR as my destination with AMS being a stopover on the outbound leg, or AMS as my destination with LHR as a stopover on the inbound leg.

Otherwise if I just flew JFK-LHR-JFK then LHR would be considered a stopover and Delta allowing us a stopover on an award flight wouldn't really be worth much.

Originally Posted by craig44485

I want to fly my parent to MNL for a few week to visit. They will be flying PIT to MNL, the dates are fairly wide open, any time in February or anytime in March after March 2. I have about 300L SM to work with.
I have seen some low level from JFK to MNL, but not sure how to book the PIT>JFK leg, then when I did find low level awards, and clicked to select flights, there were no low mile flights available. Why does this happen? Can I book an award trip on mixed metal? DL from PIT>JFK, then KE to MNL via ICN?

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

Originally Posted by Jaimito Cartero

I assume you mean you have 300k of DL miles. That should be enough if you're flexible.

Finding the gateway flight like you've done, is important. Searching for each individual flight to that gateway, will then help you get there at the low level.

Some flights can not be booked online. So limiting yourself to DL only flights may make you frustrated. KE flights are nice, but I don't think they show up online. I'd take a KE flight over DL any day.

Check the major hubs, (LAX, ATL, SEA, DTW, SLC) in addition to JFK. If you list dates you find the MNL flights, others may be able to give you some suggestions for the domestic leg.

Originally Posted by craig44485

Am I correct in assuming that all awards booked thru DL on ST partners always book at the low level for BE? IF I find an award from a hub city to my destination (MNL), and then book and award for the flight from PIT to JFK, will another low level award be needed for the domestic routes, example, low level BE RT @120K SM on KE JFK>MNL, will there be another 50K RT needed for the PIT>JFK routes making it 170K SM total for the entire trip?

Originally Posted by craig44485

Am I correct in assuming that all awards booked thru DL on ST partners always book at the low level for BE? IF I find an award from a hub city to my destination (MNL), and then book and award for the flight from PIT to JFK, will another low level award be needed for the domestic routes, example, low level BE RT @120K SM on KE JFK>MNL, will there be another 50K RT needed for the PIT>JFK routes making it 170K SM total for the entire trip?

Originally Posted by Jaimito Cartero

As MTK has pointed out, you need low on all segments. Finding the intl leg in biz is the first important step. I've purchased short hop domestic legs before, when they increased the price a lot.

DL agents often leave a lot to be desired. I've caught them lying multiple times, and the reasons for mileage being so high would be comical if I didn't hear them so often.

I just called in yesterday to work on a previously booked flight that didn't have the domestic legs in FC. It took me hours on the phone to set it up initially, and one agent messed it up yesterday so much, it took a supervisor almost an hour to fix it. And this was only working on the domestic segments.

Originally Posted by craig44485

So what you basically saying is I am the one who is going to have to do the searching for all low award levels for each segment, then, call DL and explain what I want an dhope they understand? Is there no easier way? How do I check DL SM low award availabilty on KE? By calling DL and asking? If I call DL and asked them to find low level BE awards on DL or ST partners anytime in February or March would they be able to do that for me?

Originally Posted by mtkeller

The only way to check KE is to call DL. If you find one of the top 0.1% of agents, they'll be able to do what you ask. Since that's unlikely, you generally have to call up and say "Here are the flights I want." If it's someone other than KE (so you can check availability somewhere), it's easier, since you know there's availability. Otherwise, you need to ask them to check, which can be a crap shoot. If you ask for them to find you an award, they'll put it in their computer and it will find something on DL metal for one million SkyPesos.

Originally Posted by craig44485

Checking the DL award calendar today and no matter what hub city I put in the low level awards are available on the exact same dates from each hub city. Can this be correct?? On Low level is March 20 returning Mar 26. I want the trip to be approx 2 weeks, not 6 days.