GrizShel

No, sometime it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Currently getting about a 10% accuracy rate on displays of low availability* (i.e., about 1 in 10 times it says its there it actually is there, not sure if there are some false negatives also, haven't spent as much trying to see if medium flights can magically turn into low mileage when selected), either by individual segment searches or using the award calendar. Adding on this rate of inaccuracy to the already tedious process of searching by individual segments to build an itinerary, it makes it an nearly impossible tax for me to find award space for a complete trip at a reasonable Skymiles cost - just the way Delta wants it I guess. It's just getting harder and harder these days to use Skymiles.

* This is on international trips, the error rate is probably still a little more favorable for domestic US trips.

michael_v

The theory that the "just sold out" error message appears when there is no DL codeshare on the flight does not seem to be accurate. I am getting it because of AMS-OTP KL flight when searching for ATL-OTP for 7/1/2013 DL 33 / KL 1375 (but oddly enough I am not getting any error when searching for just AMS-OTP 7/2/2013 KL 1375). I have verified that DL has a codeshare on the KL 1375 flight: DL 9340.

roknroll

I'm trying to book 4 seats in J to LHR next summer. Last week (before the miles were all in my account), I was seeing a lot of days with 4 seats open out of multiple airports. Then over the weekend every block of 4 seats disappeared from all airports, and after investigating a little bit it seems that the sames flights are all still there, but now they all only have 3 seats available. Looks like DL decided to reduce their inventory by one on every flight.

My question is: does anyone have experience or input to add about the possibility of DL adding more seats on these flights? I'm looking at DTW-LHR? Right now I could just get the 3 seats and hopefully add on the 4th later and also have the option of rebooking it all together if I see 4 seats somewhere else.

turnpike17

Just booked two biz tickets AF over the Atlantic and Aeroflot on the way back. Surprisingly incredibly easy using the flying blue system on AF.com. The phone rep was returning 160k though, the he realized it was because we started in ORD and ended at JFK.... So he added a flight between the two (my first rep supported throwaway ticket) at the end and lowered the price too 100k! First intl biz tickets with Skymiles.... Much easier thanks to you guys!

Lomapaseo

I am trying to book low tier Business tickets for my family using Skymiles. JFK-AMS for Outbound Late July 2013 and return 10 days later giver or take.

I have flexibility with dates, etc.

My question at this time is how does one hold any availbility found today on the outbound portion until the return seats are posted without having to do it by two separate mileage deductions of 100k each way per ticket?

Other airlines like UA simply split the deduction as one ways for each leg (50K each way). Of course you take the chance that the UA ticketing return would be avaiable at the low tier rate.

Yet another method might be that you could simply hold the ticketing open by deducting the full RT mileage (100K) when booking the outbound and then later add the return to that reservation at a later date. Some risk that if you didn't then find award seats on the return that you would then have to cancel and pay a redeposit fee. I'm willing to take the chance but Delta said NO. That if I wanted to book the available seats to day on the outbound that they would charge the full 100K deduction for the one way and that I would have to generate a completely new and separate transaction weeks later to secure my return.

Now this sounds to me way out of line with their competition's method of handling award reservations and considering the miserly availability of low tier Business awards, there would be no chance that by ignoring available seats today for a family one would find them available two weeks from now.

Has anybody found a way to do this using Skymiles??

Jaimito Cartero

I know DL has held awards for a few days in the past. You don't list any DL status, so don't know if changes will be free or not.

In the past, I've just waited until the whole itinerary was bookable. DL is not the most friendly when it comes to award bookings.

3Cforme

It's been discussed over and over again that one can change a ticket and retain segments originally ticketed between origin and destination without repricing. One changes a ticket (and pays the fee unless miles are from a current Plat/Diamond account); don't book a separate one-way ticket.

vangogh69

Please advise how to find DELTA award chart via ALASKA web site?

Lomapaseo

It may have been discussed and I missed it. My problem is how do I get Delta to do it? I had a resv agent from the Medalion desk say no-way

An how do I book it as a roundtrip when the return flights haven't even been posted yet?

mtkeller

Call and book, you'll pay round-trip pricing for the one-way. Then when the window for the return opens up, call and tell them you want to change your ticket to add flights A, B, and C. They'll charge you $150 pp if not PM or DM. Most agents have no idea how the pricing mechanisms work, but that should just price it properly as a round trip. A change done properly will hold your existing segments at the price level you originally booked, but it does re-price the miles required for the routing based on that award band. Ran into this last night when I called to change the return on a ticket where the outbound is to NZ via ICN. It is nontrivial to get that to price properly as US-SW Pacific award, and unsurprisingly, even though the system held my flights at low pricing as before, it tried breaking the fare (jacking the miles from 135K to 230K) until a couple levels of escalation got involved. To avoid potential hassles in that realm, book a dummy return and then change it, as it won't cost any more than booking with no return flights and then changing. The bad part about this is that you're consuming award inventory someone else might want, and there's no guarantee it will go back into award inventory when you change.

Lomapaseo

OK

I managed to book the outbound @ 100k per ticket. I had to wait a day for the 331 days to open up on dummy return. I then went in and tried to add those flights.

Presto ... all the flights I had on hold disaopeared

I re-logged in an sure enough my ID profile showed no itenaries, however when I entered the record locator it simply showed no flights. I called Delta and the agent eplained that since they were AF flights that Delta had no control over them, and that AF probably cancled them in order to sell the seats since they don't honor Delta holds on tickets.

I escalated this higher up and they managed to reload my original flights.

I wonder if I now dare to try to add dummy flights for the return again

What I am still confused about is the tax & Fee pricing (not the miles). The outbound priced at $32 per ticket. But if I do a search on one-way Eur-US for a possible return it prices at $330-400 per ticket which is outlandish.

Will the add feature making it a roundtrip on one record locator price out the taxes back to something more reasonable?

akcae

DL adds "international origination fee" on awards departing from Europe, so this shows up when you search for one-way Europe-US. If you add these segments as a return on your original itinerary, the taxes/fees should be more reasonable.

Lomapaseo

Ah, that is the reason.

I managed to book a dummy return over the phone so as not to have the original itinerary disapear while doing it like yesterday.

The taxes and fees were $ 128 per ticket.

Interesting phone call as the first agent said that since they were at a call center in central US that they couldn't book 331 days out when my time was 0030 EDST while there time was 2330 EDCT so they transfered me to an East coast call center in ATL to complete the booking

That also made me wonder what precise time my ticket hold would expire stated in the itineraray as by Sept 3rd. Is it at 0001 clock and what time zone or 2359 clock ?

any experience out there with this?

beagleflyer1977

Guys, there are 84 pages here. If I am interested in booking only X awards on Delta, can someone give me some quick pointers how to search on Delta for low-tier economy awards?

Jaimito Cartero

If you change your page length to 40 messages per page, there are only 32 pages.

Give us a bit more info where and when you want to go. I think message 1 or so has some good info, too.