RealHJ

KE is always limited to 1O/2X per flight (and some routes are blocked out Fri-Sun entirely, while others are always completely blocked out), so if you have 2 pax who want to fly, your choices are 1 in O and 1 in X if you want to be on the same flight, or to fly on different flights or dates. This is not unique to DL; that is so for all SkyTeam airlines and is the limited inventory that KE releases.

SFCav

Thanks for the explanation - super helpful. Abandoning this and looking at SFO-TNR on AF for just 195k round trip in J. Seems like a much more effective use of points.

michael_v

And if you find a routing with DL operating the trans-Atlantic flight, it should be 80k one-way in J.

szerfam

Looking to book BOS-VCE and return FCO-BOS in Biz mid October. Will pay for one tcket and hope to get one on points. Right now DL is showing anywhere from 250 to 305K. We really could leave and return from any EC city. Any insight on lowering the points required?
2nd Question, Should I be looking to book now or wait until after labor day for a fare sale?
Thanks

chicago747

I'm sure this has been discussed at length....but having some issues searching threads via my tablet.

Is it possible to book AF J class using skypesos? I'm looking at next MAy and have found some AF routes that have 4+ seats available using Flying Blue pts but can't find even 1 using DL. Is there a better program than DL/AF to use to book AF awards? Skyteam is not my goto alliance and I'm loaded with Chace/AMEX pts so am pretty open to wh i ticket thru. Thanks for any help.

mattp1987

You should be able to book AF J with SkyMiles. Are you sure the awards you're seeing are available at the lowest price in miles? Those are the only ones that would be available to partners.

If you have lots of Chase URs, you might look into transferring to Korean. You can only book roundtrip, but US-Europe in J is 80k.

akcae

Korean adds YQ to those, unlike DL.

mattp1987

Ah, that's unfortunate but good to know. I guess it could still be a good deal for someone rich in Chase points but not SkyMiles (although I'd argue SkyMiles are easier to earn quickly).

akcae

Best way to earn Skymiles is to earn Amex MRs and transfer. They accumulate fast.

elleana

Looking to book 2x one way tickets in cheap J from Singapore to somewhere near DTW, Thursdays or Fridays in early to mid April 2018. Can do ORD/CLE/CMH and whatever else is reasonably close by. Cheapest I can find is in China Southern (or Eastern?) to ORD at 95K SkyMiles per ticket, but I'd rather not do that.

Have ~300K SkyMiles so with a stretch I could probably do a 160K ticket (which I can find pretty easily), but looking to go out the door max 240K, so thats 120K per person.. Any tips? I used to be able to find KE inventory quite easily but that seems to have disappeared. Otherwise a transpac flight on DL metal is minimum 160K, most of the time 200K and up. Any point in calling up the call center and asking them to search?

KLM.com gives me 300K per person and some ridiculous amount in taxes on AF metal, so that is absolutely out of the question.

RealHJ

As repeatedly reported here, dullta.com has been recently broken so many SkyTeam award flights are not shown. Try to use the DL app on your phone which used to work more reliably, but as of late is often completely down for award search also. Also use airfrance.us and other SkyTeam airline award search. Look for flights by segment (on dullta.com and elsewhere). Once you have pieced together availability segment by segment, call and book. Don't expect dullta.com to put together logical, available flight connections for you (it used to work somewhat decently, but recently seems almost completely broken). With DL, you have to do it yourself...esp. now the last month or two that dullta.com has been badly broken for non-DL flights award search.

Denolloyd

Folks, what is the current going rate for DL "Saver" Business Class awards each way for USA - APAC? A few weeks ago, I was able to find flights in the range of 80,000 miles each way, which I think had DL partners and a DL domestic flight combined into the routing. Now, looking at the same type of carriers / routings, I am seeing 95,000 at a minimum. Any thoughts?

Cheers

JHake10

I'm no DL expert, but I did read DL increased Asia awards recently (this already happened to Europe previously). Below is a link blog post noting the 95K one way Asia awards.

http://pointmetotheplane.boardingare...a-no-good-yet/

akcae

95K seems to be the new normal "saver" rate, I just booked N. America - Asia on partner metal and that was the price.

hurnik

So what's the "best" way of finding the elusive low-level (saver/whatever) business/First awards?

Do you still have to literally go through delta.com and try each segment (since we have no award chart, how do we know what the "low level" is anymore)?

Or is this where expert flyer comes into play?

Thanks!