sbjnyc

Thanks. I forgot about the no int'l F but KE's website with all its tables really confused me.

Right but does that mean we get the lowest class of service that DL's award chart pays for? KE appears to base awards on cabin, peak vs off peak and sleeper vs non-sleeper. For example assuming I fly KE JFK-BKK during peak season on prestige. Sleeper is 185k and non-sleeper is 155k. Would I still get the flight for 120k? If instead I got the flight for 180k could I still get prestige sleeper?

Suppose instead that I different segments on different carriers. Would the possible class of service provided by KE change? (

Thanks. I never flew KE or CZ. My brother keeps telling me I should fly CX but I have no OW miles (maybe a mistake not to take advantage of the 33% MR bonus to BA). Still it';s something to think about. I would love to fly up front in a A380.


BTW - maybe the wrong place to ask this, but on flights with 3 classes of service, do airlines ever oversell J and opup to F?

Thanks for the advice.

mtkeller

Partner awards are only available at LOW, and once again, DL's chart applies. You can't book peak season, as those are blackout dates for DL. If KE has peak season pricing for a single route on a given date, you can't book any KE flight with DL miles on that date. It's all really simple, other than needing to track the blackout dates. DL doesn't care about what type of seat KE's putting you in, they charge you low or it's not bookable.

arcticbull

And of course DL doesn't use KE's blackout dates on a route-by-route basis. If ANY route is blacked out on KE, you can't use SkyMiles to book ANY KE flight during that period, whether they include that route or not. For example, if KE has just Korea-China blacked out on the 3rd-4th of March, you can't fly on KE AT ALL on the 3rd of 4th of March using SkyMiles.

mnredfox

And keep in mind all partners are only at low, or not available at all.

GrizShel

What are you talking about?
Redemptions with Flying Blue or Skymiles?
If you are looking at FB redemptions I don't understand what this has to do with Skymiles redemptions.
And what do you mean by sleeper vs non-sleeper - first vs business class award redemptions with FB?

mtkeller

KE has two types of long-haul J seats, Prestige Plus and Prestige Sleeper. They charge more miles to SkyPass members (where did FB even come into this discussion) to redeem for the better Prestige Sleeper seats, and sbjnyc was confused about if those surcharges applied when redeeming SkyMiles. I think we got him/her all sorted.

DBruce49

I agree wholeheartedly mtkeller.

My tactics and results have varied over the years as DL & others make changes. The basic advice of ignoring the DL calendar and, if using delta.com searching one-way gateway-gateway on "Schedule" (as opposed to "Price"), still applies.

Regarding a recent post on linking TATL J with intra-European Y, although delta.com can occasionally find those, I've had better success having a DL agent do that. They have sometimes found more inventory and occasionally in J as well.

drsaith

just booked my first awards tickets which will likely also be my first time flying business class. ORD to AMS on aug 21 in KLM biz, then CDG to ORD sept 30 in AF biz. flight was $3000 on expedia, but cost me roughly $700 actual money using 100k miles from the skymall 25k event and $130. very happy with myself right now.

mnredfox

+1, this thread only becomes about the last few posts...

michael_v

Has anyone else noticed hiccups with AF's award search engine?

With the help of DL's award calendar and AS's search engine, I was able to find a SLC-ORD-CDG-SLC 3/6/12 - 11/27/12 all in first/business and all on DL. It prices correctly at 100,000 miles on DL's site, but AF cannot see it no matter what.

3Cforme

FlyingBlue sometimes has difficulty appending a Delta domestic segment to the gateway-CDG flight, as in your SLC-ORD segment. I use the FB search engine a lot, but it has its own extensive set of anomalies.

3Cforme

AeroMexico has added online award searches to its Club Premier program. No miles are needed for searching. I will assume that awards shown as Classic Coach and Classic Business are available for SkyMiles redemption, and Always Coach and Always Business are not.

There is no flexible date search: date by date, only.

It will show awards with some horrifically long layovers; not just up to 24 hours on an international itin, but >48.

It fails even to recognize some codeshared airports (DTW, for one), so I don't hold up much hope for SkyTeam partner carrier inventory being searched proficiently. I tested CDG-MEX where AF showed available award inventory, without success.

Still, AM has a sizeable network and can be useful throughout Latin America, and on select routes MEX-Europe.

michael_v

Does Delta allow US-Europe via MEX on award tickets?

3Cforme

One might make some Texas/southwest routings work via MEX but others will run into MPM issues.

I came upon several DL-coded, AM-operated segments found in delta.com award searches USA-Mexico. I didn't click through to see if they would ticket or error-out, however.

belfordrocks

Also on a similar note don't forget AM's TIJ-PVG which could be useful for SAN/southern California pax connecting to MU's hub in PVG.