Outbound, IAD and JFK have space. Return, I see space to IAD but not JFK. Didn't check YUL or YYZ, given recent issues reported using SWUs through there.

Thanks. I had only checked ATL and DTW since that is my normal routing for places like GVA.

Edited to say plus I missed O2 DTW-CDG. I'm just too distracted at the moment and will not get know until Monday if I am doing MSQ with this trip or STR in September.

Now I also noticed that if I force IAD as the return that delta.com gives a far of $3.8K.

I decided to buy OKC-DTW-CDG-GVA (10/30) and GVA-CDG-IAD (11/5) which the DL web prices as $1,597 and EF has O availability.

The lowest price according to the DM agent was $3,8xx and when I asked that she try the above schedule it came in over $4K. I asked the fare basis and she said it was S (lower than W).

I got the $1,597 fare by searching for DL M fares and it put the domestic as Y and the international segment as Premium Economy. Must I purchase this delta.com fare online to see the actual fare basis?

The DM agent said she never heard of an upgraded ticket to Europe that cost only $1,597. I have bought these in the past but this was so long ago that I don't remember much about the tickets since they were all eventually changed over to regular DL medal probably through AMS.

At initial ticketing, the agent needs to code everything with DL flight numbers to get it booked as a DL W fare basis. I'm guessing the agent was pricing either a DL S fare (discounted biz) or AF S fare (although it sounds high for that, since it'd be a PV fare). You should be able to see the fare basis online prior to ticketing by checking the fare rules. If they won't come up (as usually happens to me), try reproducing the itinerary on IT by using advanced routing code "DL+ /f bc=w", as this will book domestic sectors into Y and AF-operated, DL-coded sectors into W. If you can ticket it online, I'd do it that way.

I feel like a novice. I cannot get the codes to work with the IT web. BTW, I think she was saying AF S not DL W.

So I tried to actually almost purchase tickets on the Delta web and for a fare of $1,695 simple RT OKC-GVA (10/30-11/6) or open jaw OKC-GVA (10/30) SVO-OKC (11/8) at a price of $2,839 puts the codes for both tickets as WLXLSUS.

Should I then purchase my ticket online and then hope DL can do the upgrades within my 24 hours? I think I did this one time but don't remember how it turned out.

Should work to do it online and then call in. You might have to prompt the agent to re-code the AF-operated flights to the AF flight numbers, but once they do that the upgrade should be fine. I used that approach for my round trip in W, and everything went smoothly.

business awards on AF/KL bit the dust again?
 

For the past few days or a week, delta.com has not been showing transatlantic 100K business awards on AF/KL, whereas they do show on ExpertFlyer. Economy class award tickets are listed correctly. Are we back where we were last month again?

It seems it's still buggy, but no longer completely nonfunctional. I can see IAD-CDG on a random date in October, but strangely only the flight that is O3 on that date, not the O9 flight.

For the sake of anyone else looking at this option, I did purchase the WLXLSUS fare online for $1,597 compared to $3.8K the DM agent insisted I must pay. Having chosen my particular routing according to O availability for GVA, I then called DM line to confirm the upgrades and after that was done she forwarded me to a specialist who applied the SWUs and confirmed my seats.

I hope this sticks or maybe even better like last year AF made a major change and I was able to switch to DL medal going to Riga.

JFK-CDG, 7 days each direction, no "O" inventory
 

I look from today's date all the way to 5/2. No award in "O" in any of the dates. On some flights, I see as many as "C" 9 (J award inventory for flying blue elites) but no "O" (classic award). Verified EF results with both their tech support team and with the DM line. It 'smells' bad. Even flights leaving in 48 hours or so have no "O" inventory (even on relatively light 'load' flights)

There's no O anywhere lately, it seems. I'm hoping for better routings (willing to pay change fee) on upcoming trip outbound from EU on 2 May and back on 9 May, and I can't find O on any AF route to/from NA on those dates, even when the flights are Z9. (For those who don't know, Z is the AF/KL deeply discounted business bucket.) I don't know that anything smells bad about it, however, as I am seeing a number of heavily loaded flights on those dates, so AF may be trying to force paid passengers onto the other flights and thus isn't releasing O.

Looks bad !!!!
 

I think AF has found an effective way to block DL tickets and keep it reserved for their elites.

- naroowal

Hardly. The flex awards come out of revenue buckets and cost double miles for FB elites, so unless it's a Delta-fication of FB awards, I don't think there's anything nefarious going on.

So I was not dreaming... I did not see O on flights that had BOTH Z9 for pay, and C9 for awards. It feels bad, indeed. I think there is something going on which is NOT a technical problem.


Not sure. But, I am sure that someone knows what's going on, but just can't explain it to us, the passengers (because we will not necessary be happy with the explanation)

Sounds like DL and AF have finally "aligned" award availability between themselves, so now AF is practically no availability -- same as DL. (So now DL FFs get next to no AF availability, which is how AF/KL FFs have been getting on DL for quite a while. Seems only fair.)