LV702

I was looking at Delta's site and they say Southwest Pacific goes to Austrilia and New Zealand. The award chart ranges from

(Coach) 50,000 70,000 95,000 (First) 75,000 120,000 185,000

I tried to search for DFW > AKL and it said I would have to call in for that. I tried to search for DFW > SYD and I got a quote of 140k for a coach ticket. I was wondering why the price difference, and when is Low season? I was hopefully looking to travel for my honeymoon in July 2013. Would it be cheaper if I got myself ot LAX/SFO?

Also what Delta partners fly into AKL? Would I be better off flying to SYD, then getting myself ot AKL?

Thanks for the help.

3Cforme

70K (medium band) to Australia + 70K back yields a price of 140K for a round-trip coach ticket.

Your Delta or Alaska flights to/from LAX are included in the award, but could push you into the Medium or High award band. Select flights and dates carefully.

There is no Low band season - award flight prices vary due to perceived loads, not dates.

Award travel to AKL will be via Virgin Australia and that carrier can't be booked online. Think about a stopover in SYD, MEL or BNE before continuing to AKL. Delta miles can also be used for Virgin Australia's flights LAX-MEL/SYD/BNE, not just the Delta-operated LAX-SYD flight.

LV702

I was mis reading the chart, I thought it was RT. Just curious why you recommend a stopover in SYD, MEL, or BNE? Also if the miles are the same would you recommend Virgin or Delta?

Thanks again for all of the help

belfordrocks

Odds are, it will be very hard (read: practically impossible) to get a low-band BusinessElite award on Delta, so your chances here will mostly lie with VA.

mtkeller

The first part of July is outside the Korean Air blackout dates most years, so I'd also look at them. They fly to DFW (not daily, but right now it appears to be 5x weekly), so you could do DFW-ICN-AKL. They'd be angled flat seats most likely (unless you go to LAX with DL first), but KE is great. Also, no fuel surcharges, so way cheaper than VA. You'll have to call to check availability, but if you can find an agent who knows how to do it, they've got pretty good availability.

3Cforme

The pricing chart is one-way - but DL awards price as round-trips.

An international award itinerary can have a stopover, your destination, and an open jaw allowing a return from a 3rd city. You could stop in SYD, MEL, or BNE (all reachable non-stop from LAX) at no additional mileage cost for your round-trip award. If you wish to spend all of your time in NZ, ignore the suggestion.

I like the Delta 777-200LR that operates SYD-LAX - and I get Economy Comfort seating at no surcharge. AVOD and USB power for all; AC power for Business and the first ~10 rows of coach.

Low awards in Business on Delta-operated flights to SYD are, by reputation, very difficult to find. Before you pay Medium band pricing, however, call Delta to check for availability on Virgin Australia and perhaps explore the Korean Air routings suggested above.

LV702

Between VA, DL, and Korean, which has the better coach product? I'd only be able to Fly business one-way.... Unless they want to upgrade myself and the future Mrs LV702 to first (I know not likely)

I assume the US > NZ portion is the longer one?

mtkeller

On DL you could buy seats in Economy Comfort, which will offer more legroom and more recline in coach. KE has some of the best Y pitch on their A380 at a uniform 34". The rest of their fleet tends to be 33-34" according to SeatGuru. DL is 31-32" in regular Y but 36" in Economy Comfort and VA is 32". I'd probably stick with VA or DL in Y, just because with KE, you'd be looking at 24 hours in Y versus 14-ish TPAC on SYD-LAX.

sbjnyc

Sorry I haven't checked this thread for a while but yes I'm sorted now. Thanks.

donjc451

I believe this has been discussed before but my understanding was that if you went to the AF site and found an itinerary with availability that if you plugged that exact itinerary into DL.dumb's award search you could find a seat at the low award level. I am able to find many dates where there is a direct flight from IAD-CDG in business on AF.com However when I plug these dates in DL.dumb even using one-way search not only does it not bring up a low award ticket it doesn't even have the direct flight, the routings are through MSP or ATl at a minimum of 200k miles with ridiculous layovers of 13+ hours. Has anyone had success in calling Delta and being able to book flights that are showing up on AF.com at a low award level even if they are not showing up that way on DL.dumb?

mtkeller

Are you doing search by schedule on DL.dumb? Also, make sure that the check box for showing only DL flights is NOT checked. (How I wish there were a box for "Do not show DL flights"!)

If that fails, call. If there's O inventory (classic biz), the agents should be able to get it. The only possible issue is if you're trying to go beyond CDG and married segments get in the way. This tends to be a problem more with KL than AF, however.

donjc451

Ok, I see the direct flights now that I have done a search by by schedule but it only allows you to select economy, Business says not available, guess I'll try calling.

michael_v

I am having the same issue. Agents are no help.

For example, business availability on ORD-CDG on 9/11/12 on AF 667. ExpertFlyer (class O) and FlyingBlue say 1 business seat is available. DL.com says only Economy available on that flight -- yes, I did search by schedule, only one-way, with "only Delta flights" unchecked.

Another example with KLM this time. AMS-OTP 9/9/12 KL 1373: FB says business available (prime classic), but nothing EF and DL.com. Moreover, on the same route, same day, a later flight, KL 1379 shows available on DL.com but not on EF.

Is someone playing tricks with us?

PS. donjc451, what dates are you looking at for IAD-CDG? I can plug them into EF, I am curious if it will show anything.

PS #2. One strong proof that something is wrong is the fact that DL cannot see any business availability on the YUL-CDG A380 non-stop AF route that gets 9 award seats (fact confirmed by EF and FB). The question are then: has this happened before and if so, how long it took to get fixed?

Denolloyd

As a frequent traveler to OTP both on revenue and award tickets, I can tell you many options for RO are not available on DL.com, even via the point to point search. For example, one will not find the LHR-OTP flight operated by RO (at least I have not up until my last trip), however it is in fact available and bookable with DL miles. Unfortunately, you must call and have the DL rep search segment by segment or point to point on their end. Some agents are able to get it done, others not. This is the case for many ST flights which are bookable with DL miles. DL.com is not the end all, nor is every rep you speak with unfortunately.

michael_v

Thank you for reminding me that RO availability does not show on dl.com. Same thing with AZ. I am using the Wandering Aramean website to search RO availability.

But for the rest of the partners (AF, KL), are you saying that even when dl.com one-way single segment searches by schedule returns nothing, agents can still find it if instructed to search segment by segment and the award really exists?