mnredfox

International for DL is bad. Asia is the worst. There are lots of threads, but basically if you're very lucky, you can get to NRT. Any other destination after that is very difficult. Check out the numerous threads on Asia, I (and many others) can't find J tickets from Sep 10-May 11 at low, not a single one.

DL2SXM

For the month of August, JFK to FRA in J rings in at 100K miles. I'd say that over 80% of the outbound and 75% of the return are available at the low level.

l1fe

Tried to do a DCA --> SFO (9/1) --> HNL (9/4) --> MSP (9/10) --> DCA (9/11). Each of the one way first class were priced under 80k, but mysteriously combined it shot up to 110K+. Must be missing something...any suggestions?

goodandclassy

maybe because you have a stop over...?
what if you do sfo-hnl-dca on miles and a one-way from dca to sfo...?

l1fe

I tried that last night and for some reason it actually came out to be MORE expensive (150k+). I was able to price the above itinerary in coach for 52.5k (even with the stopover), though.

l1fe

Was able to figure out what was wrong. Only 5 segments in a multi-city award reservation before it begins adding to the total. Also, since it is a Domestic first and then Hawaii first, even though the points were below say 80k, the tiers were different. I know...I'm a noob :P

goodandclassy

That was a good find! How did you end up constructing the trip?

Bikeguy

Try PDX-NRT 10/12, return 10/15. 120,000 plus $50 for C.

If you don't want to leave from PDX, find a low award to your city and back.

It took about 15 minutes to come up with those dates and city pairs, all by using the instructions at the beginning of this thread.

FTers I trust are telling me these tickets are out there, you just need to use effort to find them. And while I agree they are not plentiful and take effort, they are out there.

And if I couldn't find the low award C, and really wanted to go, I'd hire a pro like gleff or lucky9876coins, who both offer award ticket booking services.

Do NOT waste your miles for a mid or high business award.

seychellesbound

I followed your instructions to a T but my multi-segment J itin priced out as follows.....

Departs Arrives Stops Travel Time Flights & Cabin
Price per passenger (USD):
View fare rules and baggage policies
View Award Travel Rules & Conditions
Type

Base Fare
232,500 Miles required
Taxes/Fees
+ $ 199.40 Taxes/Fees
Redemption Fee
Price per passenger
= $ 199.40 *
Total


Detroit-Wayne County, MI (DTW) to Amsterdam, Netherlands (AMS) on 15 Jan 2011
8:45am
DTW 7:05am
AMS

Arrives 16 Jan 1-stop
Chicago-Ohare, IL (ORD)
(7 hr 12 min layover) 16 hr 20 min Delta 1767
DC-9-50
In-Flight Services First
View Seats KLM 612
74M
In-Flight Services Business

Amsterdam, Netherlands (AMS) to Mahe Island, Seychelles Islands (SEZ) on 22 Jan 2011
3:20pm
AMS 7:15am
SEZ

Arrives 23 Jan 1-stop
Paris-De Gaulle, France (CDG)
(2 hr 55 min layover) 12 hr 55 min Air France 1741
Airbus A321
In-Flight Services Business
Air France 952
Boeing 767-300
Operated by Air Seychelles
In-Flight Services Business

Mahe Island, Seychelles Islands (SEZ) to Amsterdam, Netherlands (AMS) on 29 Jan 2011
9:15am
SEZ 8:35am
AMS

Arrives 30 Jan 1-stop
Paris-De Gaulle, France (CDG)
(13 hr 45 min layover) 26 hr 20 min Air France 953
Boeing 767-300
Operated by Air Seychelles
In-Flight Services Business
Air France 1240
Airbus A321
In-Flight Services Business

Amsterdam, Netherlands (AMS) to Detroit-Wayne County, MI (DTW) on 30 Jan 2011
2:20pm
AMS 5:00pm
DTW Nonstop 8 hr 40 min Delta 249
Airbus A330-300
In-Flight Services Business
View Seats

Shouldn't this be 120,000 for low level J (per award chart)?

TravellingMan

Anyone had luck in putting together an award ticket to Kenya or Tanzania? I see nothing show up at all.

TravellingMan

WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!

I could redeem a Business Class award ticket to South America for next year at 100K miles. The outbound has couple of domestic connections but knowing Delta, I am sure by next year some flights might even disappear if not have dozen schedule changes that I can optimize during the course of the year.

Thanks to the OP for his tips ^

Now having successfully burnt all (~30k miles left) my NW/DL miles I can fly in peace with other carriers.

Points Scrounger

I'm trying for one J r/t SEA - CDG approx. 10/19 - 24, all I get is either 200K J or Y lists with no J in them? I'm even willing to get myself to LAX or SFO for 100K r/t.

Or are there just no 100K r/t's at all that with DL miles (or a one week min stay required)?

Thanks in advance!

3Cforme

ExpertFlyer will search AF award inventory on the non-stops to CDG from SEA, SFO and LAX. With that in hand, look for the AS connection if necessary.

Points Scrounger

So ... I need to search Expert Flyer myself (a/k/a Do All the Work), and then call DL Partner Desk with the exact information, so they can charge me the phone booking fee?

bmh3s

I booked MCI-MSP-NBO-ZNZ-NBO-CDG-DTW-MCI for 120K for 2 tix in J for November/December. Took a lot of searching airfrance.us and expertflyer.com, but got the days I wanted.