Skymiles miracle fare
 

Before purchasing a JFK-FCO business return with the outgoing date being less than a month away, I thought to look up the cost in miles just to have a chuckle and see how many hundreds of thousands Skymiles the system would ask for and... lo and behold... I get a figure of 100k for a non-stop DL metal flight!!! Naturally I jumped at the chance and snatched it. I checked the day after and the same ticket is now 225k. I guess miracles dont last...

It's so sad that Skymiles members call a 100,000 mile redemption "a miracle" these days. Anyway, JFK-FCO is relatively easier than connecting from another US airport. Congrats on your redemption.

+1,000,000,000

I could be in the minority here, but I've been discovering that it's easier to find award travel at the "low" level when the flight dates are nearby as opposed to dates several months out.

I just booked two seats for my wife and I in September at 100k roundtrip in Business.

9/21 ATL-CDG-EDI Air France
9/27 EDI-CDG Air France
9/30 CDG-AMS-ATL KLM

So it appears that it can be done if you dig about. I found the flights I wanted on NWA.com, but they were also bookable on Delta.com. The flights were on the exact days I wanted but traveling out on a tuesday and back on a thursday may have helped.

These flights were available for over a week as we had to coordinate our vacation.

Isn't 100,000 the minimum miles need for TATL business? OP must have gotten the last low-demand seat available.

I got a JKF-TXL-AMS-TXL-JFK business seat, for next August, for 100,000 miles by redeeming more than 300 days in advance. Now the best available routing is 245,000. If there are unsold seats closer to the departure date, the company may open more up to reward redemption.

This is why DL management created the Platinum Elite Award Redeposit Fee Profit Center.

I think one needs to bear in mind that there are some people on this board that just like to complain. Those that don't have trouble finding availability don't feel the need to post, so the reality of SkyMiles redemptions is not nearly as bad as the 'consensus' on this board. I have little more trouble using my DL miles than I do using CO, SK, or BA miles.

^. I'm keeping my eye open for 2 FC tix to Mexico for the summer. Some low availability for the next couple months, but after that all dates are mid to high. I hope this changes as my desired date gets closer. It's low season there then as well.

Especially < 3 weeks out. For obvious reasons. This is what I saw last month while shopping for BE to Europe for 100,000 (which I successfully bought, about 2 weeks out, and then changed the return portion while at the destination).

FWIW, I've had the same experience. Last time I booked in J (and then it was 90K for miles) I did it with literally less than 24 hrs before the flight was due to leave.

Dave

Doesn't Delta charge a "close to departure" fee for non elite members? Could this be why?

That makes perfect sense. The closer to departure it gets the more accurately an airline can predict a flight's load factor at time of departure. Way far out inventory allocations will be more a function of the forecast and less a function of actual reservations held.

If you have a transatlantic flight (to a place like FCO, markets like LON with more close-in booking business travel could be another story) only booked to say 60% 2-3 weeks before departure it's a very safe bet that there's no way the plane is going out full or even close to it. No harm in opening the floodgates to award bookings to try and capture any incremental traffic you can...

It's all a numbers game and it's much easier to predict those numbers close to departure.

There's a nice, 1000+ post thread here on award ticket successes.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...post-here.html

It's good to see another satisfied SkyMiles participant. There's no better spending use for miles than intercontinental Business tickets.

Although it is good that people have found such inventory, in broad view, it's indicative of poor SM performance that such a thread exists on the DL board...i.e. that low-level J redemptions are remarkable enough to be celebrated. It wasn't that way with NW and not so with CO.