hauteboy

In my experience I'm usually able to see availability online that the DL agents apparently can't see (KLM).

A friend and I were recently trying to book the same itins; I'd first checked to see that two seats were available IAH-AMS-ACC. We both then booked the same flights, both showed 80k availability. Mine went through and got confirmation#, but when he put in his credit card it then spit out 'this flight has just sold out'. We called DL and they weren't able to see availablity at all on KLM. Finally was able to get him booked DFW-AMS-ACC online.

RealHJ

That is very common. Esp. for BE seats on DL and others (SkyTeam and other partners), there is very often just one seat available per flight at the low award level (and on partners usually at all there is just one seat); sometimes also just one on the partner airlines in coach also.

So if two or more people travel, it's very common to take different flights if you want an award ticket -- at all on a partner airline, and at a low level on DL itself.

That is why it's always best to book award seats one at a time, as if you select two passangers in the search you will get a lot less results, and you may end up paying mid or high level for both seats, while if you searched one-by-one you could get first at low and only pay mid or high for the second one. This same logic also applies to pay seats. Always book one-by-one, so you can get one in lower first class and second in higher fare class, vs. book two at a time and if only one lower fare class available, you'll end up paying the higher fare class for both.

generaltao

Any tips for how to get that to work when you have children?

Aitchly

+1

(or a weekend with more than the SO)

travelblond

I did call and by mixing Y class with J class, that made the ticket mileage required change from 240,000 miles to 120,000 miles.
The one portion in J class was 12 hours and the Y class is only a 1 hour flight.
Have to mix J and Y class to get the mileage down by half.
The agent was very nice on the line with DL.

bradfordm

I get that same message - I gave up.

cfischer

Looks like you'll have to call their best in call customer service to book them ... but wait, the Elite phone line is in ever worse shape they can't even locate and/or fix their own revenue reservations.

Try *A

SirJman

I really can't complain about inter-asia availability for this ICN based plat. It took 30 minutes on the website, and 55 minutes on the telephone to get it booked for flights leaving in 2 days. But I have a
ICN-PEK-SHE-TPE-CAN-RGN-CAN/HKG-PUS-CJU-GMP

SHE has 23h50m stop
TPE has 22h10m stop
CAN has 16 hour stop (the only forced overnight because the CAN-RGN leaves at 8am )
CAN-HKG planned transfer has 20h stop.
PUS has 23h10m stop
CJU has 22h55m stop.
RGN is my destination for 7 days.

Booked entirely for 20,000m. Flights on MU, CZ, CI & KE.

Now, I did notice when I was talking to the agent, she must have been an DL agent, because she seemed completely dumbfounded by some of my routings/destinations. I've done crazy routings like this before and the Chisholm agents usually ask me some questions about how I found routings like this, and generally have fun with me whilst on hold for 1h+. This agent, was nice, but you could tell she was beginning to get frustrated when she had problems pricing. In the end, she got everything done, so I really can't complain.

Though, she originally though CZ was Czech and was having problems finding PEK-SHE-TPE on Czech airlines

Bikeguy

Trying to find C flights to Rome or Paris from DTW.

NWA.com is showing no low availability for May, Oct or Nov in either class to Rome.

3 days outbound to Paris May 1,2,3 no return in low for the same months.

Ridiculous and frustrating.

I am Gold and supposedly have access to enhanced inventory.

Although, I did find availability for individual days that wasn't showing on the nwa.com calendar.

And I refuse to look day by day.

I guess time to call or subscribe to expertflyer.

This wasn't supposed to be this hard.

koly79

I agree the new system is far from great, but if you click "search by schedule" you can find flights.

dh01

Unfortunately, GM is probably the new SM, in that with all the promotions last year, Delta has inflated their Elite membership numbers, so the old time Platinums have become Diamond (will become I mean), old Golds made Platinum, so there are so many supposed "enhanced availability" passengers, it is close to meaningless.

Regarding mileage levels for awards, I am not particularly surprised that it takes double or even triple the old mileage levels to actually find availability. On the other hand, being a heavy DL traveller, most of last year, I received 3x actual miles, one time for the actual miles, second for being Platinum, and third for the DL/Amex promotion. So therefore if I cna manage to find a 100000 mile Business class European award, it is really a discounted price considering how DL was throwing miles at me last year......

I understand it has "devalued" miles for all but the most frequent travellers, but it is trying to keep the heaviest travellers on board i guess.

jascmil

I was under the impression the enhanced inventory for Medallions only applied to Y awards? Can anyone confirm?

Winkdaddy

That is correct. Your medallion status ONLY increases coach availability. It does NOT affect First class and Business Elite availability.

tnsharebear

Hi,
I have been shopping on Delta for quite some time for two award tickets for a trip in October 2010. Have been considering a variety of destinations in Europe and Asia (HKG, NRT, MXP, AMS, CDG) Throughout last fall, I was consistently finding plenty of roundtrip tickets for 60,000 to all of these destinations. Now, nothing! Flights are 75,000-12,000, and that's if I am not picky on dates. What gives?

Is this because the time is now getting closer? Or is this a change to Delta's system after the merger? I have read others having similar troubles of less flight availability.

Thanks for any advice!

generaltao

Join the club. It's not yet clear if this is the new normal or whether this is a side-effect of merger trouble.