What on earth is going with AF + Award Travel
Oct 2, 2012, 11:24 am
#16
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Oct 2, 2012, 11:36 am
#17
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Oct 2, 2012, 12:03 pm
#18
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I think it also works the other way. I recently tried to use my AF miles on a Skyteam and part-Delta award ex-MNL final destination MEX and was told by AF that it is almost impossible to find any Delta flights with AF miles.
So the same dissatisfaction also the other way around...
Incidentally, AF told me that there would be no problem doing it for the dates I wanted on AFKLM.....if I wanted to spend 2 days travelling....
Allez
Sim
So the same dissatisfaction also the other way around...
Incidentally, AF told me that there would be no problem doing it for the dates I wanted on AFKLM.....if I wanted to spend 2 days travelling....
Allez
Sim
So if you are the other airlines, how do you feel? Will you take some reasonable actions, as a protest or at least expression of unhappiness to DL? Maybe that is why AF and KL just started doing now, maybe that is why China Eastern has eliminated all business class award seats inventory to DL on LAX-PVG and JFK-PVG route. It sounds like a fair action to me.
Oct 2, 2012, 12:12 pm
#19
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Oct 2, 2012, 2:11 pm
#21
Join Date: Jul 2011
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Example
I had almost 100K miles in OK Plus (Czech Airlines) program and experienced first hand how difficult it is to get a DL flight (especially domestic) booked using partner FF miles.
OK Plus would not allow redemption on AS-operated flights (even if those codeshare with DL), so there is almost no way to come up with a domestic portion in the itinerary. I tried several times and always kept getting a response that it is impossible to get any availability on domestic DL flights with OK Plus miles. To travel from SEA to Europe on OK Plus miles they suggested that I buy a revenue ticket to a major gateaway airport (i.e. JFK) served by a non-American partner of theirs and that would resolve the issue with availability. Prior to this advise they surprised me by finding one set of return tickets (after a month of fruitless searching conducted by them) which include the Delta-operated SEA-CDG in Business (I gave them a 1.5 month window to search) but with taxes of over $1,500 (DL YR) for a seat in the old 763... it was unreasonable.
It seems much easier to find award space intra-Europe on partner using DL miles than it is to find award space for US domestic flights operated by Delta.
OK Plus would not allow redemption on AS-operated flights (even if those codeshare with DL), so there is almost no way to come up with a domestic portion in the itinerary. I tried several times and always kept getting a response that it is impossible to get any availability on domestic DL flights with OK Plus miles. To travel from SEA to Europe on OK Plus miles they suggested that I buy a revenue ticket to a major gateaway airport (i.e. JFK) served by a non-American partner of theirs and that would resolve the issue with availability. Prior to this advise they surprised me by finding one set of return tickets (after a month of fruitless searching conducted by them) which include the Delta-operated SEA-CDG in Business (I gave them a 1.5 month window to search) but with taxes of over $1,500 (DL YR) for a seat in the old 763... it was unreasonable.
It seems much easier to find award space intra-Europe on partner using DL miles than it is to find award space for US domestic flights operated by Delta.
Oct 2, 2012, 3:48 pm
#22
Join Date: Jun 2011
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This is actually something I have been wondering - if it is quite painful or hard for Delta's own members (even platinum, diamond) to find available award seats at low level (coach or BE) on Delta, I can just imagine that it will almost be impossible for DL's partner airlines to get any award seats on DL's metal (save for flights like BOS-LGA,LGA-DCA) since the available award seats to partner airlines must be at low level, except that DL release some special inventory to partner airlines which are not to DL's own members (which I highly doubt).
So if you are the other airlines, how do you feel? Will you take some reasonable actions, as a protest or at least expression of unhappiness to DL? Maybe that is why AF and KL just started doing now, maybe that is why China Eastern has eliminated all business class award seats inventory to DL on LAX-PVG and JFK-PVG route. It sounds like a fair action to me.
So if you are the other airlines, how do you feel? Will you take some reasonable actions, as a protest or at least expression of unhappiness to DL? Maybe that is why AF and KL just started doing now, maybe that is why China Eastern has eliminated all business class award seats inventory to DL on LAX-PVG and JFK-PVG route. It sounds like a fair action to me.
Oct 2, 2012, 4:18 pm
#23
Original Poster
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AF has drastically cut, if not eliminated, award availability out of the U.S. and Canada. There has been no official explanation from DL. It baffles me why they stay quiet on these issues. A post here or on Delta.com acknowledging (a) that there is an issue; (b) what the cause of the issue is; and (c) what steps (if any) are being taken to resolve the issue, would go a long way and cost absolutely nothing both financially and PR-wise. Even if the answer to (c) is that they intend to do nothing about it, would be good to know, instead of guessing.
I've booked almost 100 AF awards CDG-LAX RT in O over the past decade and now it looks like we're at the last straw.
They owe it to their customers to explain this BS and not just stay silent. I'm a Delta Diamond and find the program to be totally worthless.
The question is, what do I do with 1+ million AMEX Membership Rewards.
Wish I could get Miles & More miles somehow without a bad exchange rate.
What's the point of these two being partners when they don't offer crap anymore?
Oct 2, 2012, 4:58 pm
#24
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 96
I'm a DL Gold based in Atlanta who does most of my flying to destinations served only by Delta and as much as I would love to vote with my feet and take my business elsewhere it's not really an option. I have however quit trying to gain any SM's through credit cards or other ways due to the how difficult Delta makes it to redeem them. I quit using my AMEX card and now use Chase and have close to 100k miles that can be transferred to airline programs that are worth something.
Oct 2, 2012, 7:15 pm
#26
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One problem with doing this is that you pay twice, with FB and with DL miles, if you need a ticket with USA domestic connections, although at least a low TATL ticket from FB plus most domestic tickets from DL cost fewer total miles that a DL medium or high TATL RT.
Oct 2, 2012, 8:03 pm
#27
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The situation is not that much better in star alliance. lufthansa, swiss and sq all provide greater award availability to their own members than ua. This is particularly true for lx and sq. Lh c class is often available for awards but f is.available close in if at all.
Oct 2, 2012, 8:31 pm
#28
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Under no circumstances can SkyMiles be used for KE or AF First Class, so at least your UA miles have the potential for IFC redemptions. Using DL miles for a J award on ST partners is becoming Mission Improbable.
Oct 2, 2012, 8:33 pm
#29
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One way award pricing makes the close in booking fee worth it, particularly for LX business and first, and LH first.
Oct 2, 2012, 8:52 pm
#30
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Agreed, but I was more thinking of upgrade awards.