bgriff

Is it an overnight layover in LHR?

As long as the layover in LHR is less than 24 hours (whether overnight or not) this should be a legitimate routing, I would think. If the Delta flight prices at 62.5K that is theoretically low, and as far as we know partner flights are still always at low. So together these should price at 80K.

This is simple enough to be worth a call, but may still be a frustrating experience. I would recommend calling M-F during business hours, when the most senior agents are working, and hopefully you'll get one that knows what they're doing. You may have to call back a couple of times until you do.

I would suggest just starting out saying "I want to go from DTW to JNB in J on this date", and they will probably come back offering you an astronomically priced routing via ATL. Then gently push back and ask "are there any routings via Europe? Maybe something on Virgin Atlantic via London?" and see if they take the hint and go from there (you should be able to tell at this point if you have an agent you can work with, or if you just want to hang up and try again). Eventually feed them the specific flights you found, and when the computer gives the additive price, act confused and say something like, "that's odd, I would have thought that would just price as a connection, right?" and hopefully the agent will do some more investigating. Good luck.

Bradhattan

Dear FT:

Mods - please move if posted in wrong area!

I am looking at multi-segment tickets on Delta.com. If it is 2 or less, at checkout I am offered a set amount of miles to upgrade all segments. If it is 3 or more segments, the upgrade with miles offered PER SEGMENT. Is there any way around paying miles per segment?

I am returning from vacation on a Saturday, so I have the whole day to burn and thought I would go Sky Clubbing. I am attempting NYC-MSP-MEM/DFW(yes dfw)-ATL-GRR. The price is right but it wants to charge me 6000+ miles per segment to upgrade.

Any input or suggestions are appreciated! Happy Flying!

bgriff

As far as I've ever seen, these upgrade with miles offers are calculated based on the cash price difference between an economy seat and a first class seat, and translated into miles at a rate of 1 cent per mile.

So the big jump in cost for your three-segment itinerary likely means that, for whatever reason, your third segment is very expensive in first class (or the combination of all three is).

Are you actually stopping at multiple places the way or are you just trying to book extra connections for fun/MQMs? If the former you could try buying two segments and then a separate one-way. If the latter you may be out of luck, as I've found Delta has increasingly cracked down on these sorts of out-of-the-way, just-for-the-extra-MQMs routings and/or made them much more expensive than they used to be.

Regardless of what you do, consider just paying cash for the first class ticket rather than burning your miles for the upgrade which is really only giving you 1 cent per mile for them (though whether that is a good deal depends what else you would have done with the miles instead).

(I assume you also know that a domestic first class ticket by itself does not get you access to the Sky Club, unless you have access some other way like a membership or Amex Platinum card?)

Bradhattan

Thanks for the input! Yes just flying for fun. Yes I am aware of Sky Club access (or lack there of unless D1) but a reminder to other readers is always appreciated!

mnredfox

Obviously there have been a lot of changes recently. And thus the old rules seem to be changing constantly. I do agree with this statement - however even before the destruction of the award charts and introduction of 5 tier DL seemed to change their search engine a few years ago causing odd pricing.

You used to be able to book the ticket and then look at the fare breakdown and then decipher how the award engine was pricing it, and potentially find a savvy ST desk agent to fix it for the elusive low award. These days I'm at a loss on how that really works.

If anyone has any suggestions I'd be happy to update the first few posts and/or have the mods make it into a sticky.

For now, has anyone confirmed that there is variable pricing on partner awards only (ie no DL metal on an itin)?

RealHJ

I don't believe so (thank the heavens for that!). Just more direct routings will result in a broken here and DL forces a less direct routing. Say DPS-NRT-SVO will price additevely (no >24h stop or anything), while DPS-NRT-PVG-SVO will price as a through.

So, it's not variable pricing, just additive - much more so often than it's been in the past, now seemingly forcing, for certain routes at least, less direct routing and more flights, while charging more (breaking the fare) for more direct routing with shorter flying time.

mnredfox

Thanks for your input. Additive pricing with partners snuck itself into DL's systems maybe 1-2 years ago, so no surprise. Sadly gone are the days of finding low segments and piecing them together, then working with a savvy ST agent to make it work.

nomii

I used to be able to see tons of Korean airline availability on Delta.com but not lately. What's the best place to find availability before I call the agents with flights? (I don't have paid expertflyer etc, looking for ideas like AirFrance etc)

hilmar

Hi all,

I'm trying to book a YVR-CDG flight where AF is showing lowest level availability on AF.com - but when I call the diamond line, they tell me that they only have access to some of the award space. Is that really correct? Or do I need to hang up and call again (again)?

Thanks!

michael_v

Yes, that is correct.

kilbornr

Does anyone have tips on how to search CI space from the US to TPE (JFK or LAX)? I can find intra-asia flights on DL.com (e.g. ICN-TPE), but I can't find a single flight from the US. These flights were apparently bookable on DL.com in the spring for a while, but have apparently been pulled from DL.com. Flying blue doesn't seem to show CI either. Any ideas?

anc305

deleted

akcae

To clarify, it is correct that DL has access only to a subset of what AF website shows. Searching on AS may give you a better idea of what DL can access, but even that isn't a sure thing.

DL of course hasn't yet fixed he issue with showing partner flights when searching one-way, so at this point, it's anyone's guess...

kilbornr

Looks like the ability to search DL.com for partner space on CI is back. Must have been related to DL.com's recent partner award space searching glitch.

lakers6902

I'm a bit confused with the new rules. So, if I find lax-tpe-ICN all at level 1 J, under the old rules this would price out at 70k when calling in. My confusion is under the new rules this will Maybe be 70k, or Maybe price out as two separate level 1 flights? It's up to how the computer feels that day? That's what I'm starting to believe reading different blogs