Multi segment award question
 

I've found low availabilty doing one way searches on the folowing itinerary...

XXX-ATL-SFO (all DL metal) stop for a few days then continue...

SFO-SEA on Alaska stop for a few days then continue

SEA-ATL-XXX on DL metal

When I try to piece it all together using multi-city, it's pricing out at 37,500 even though I know I'm selecting the flights that show 25,000 when looking at the one-way segments.

It's like it's adding 12,500 for the SFO-SEA trip. Delta doesn't do one way awards so it can't be a one-way charge. Seems like this should all price at 25,000. Is delta.com just not pricing it right? Worth a call to book it with an agent? Do I have too many segments for one award ticket?

You need to tell us what XXX is. Most likely, you have an invalid routing for XXX-SEA. These circle trips are the one time that we see DL price a one-way rather than a r/t into award pricing. Don't get why it works that way, but it does.

Even though Delta doesn't do one way awards, they will price three segment trips as 37,500. It's called a "circle trip".

SFO probably isn't a valid stopover city for your routing XXX-SEA.

Interesting...

So how to I find out what cities are a valid stopover?? Originating in BHM.

Everytime I try to book an award, I feel like my miles get more and more devalued. Maybe this invalid stopover city thing on "circle routes" is an industry practice but it's just frustrating. I'm being super flexible with my dates and connections and I still can't do what I want. :mad:

The easiest way is to get ExpertFlyer and look at the Fare Info, Routing Rules for BHM-SEA for an F fare. The cheapest way is to book a dummy flight for an F fare class on delta.com. After you've selected your flights, click on "View change & cancellation policies" on the pricing page near the bottom. A new window will come up where you click on the "View Full Fare Rules" button. It'll take a while, but when the full rules are displayed, scroll to the bottom and you'll see the routing rules. They will be one or more lines and look something like "BHM-ATL/CVG/DTT/MEM/MSP/SLC/LAX/WAS/RDU-SEA*" This example says that you can have a connection in one of those cities between BHM and SEA. Unfortunately looking at delta.com is often more problematic than at ExpertFlyer.com since delta.com doesn't necessarily show the least restrictive rules.

As to not being able to do what you want -- life is tough. I want to fly to r/t to Sydney in business for 30K Skymiles, but it's not going to happen.:(

Life is tough?:rolleyes: Not really but redeeming skymiles is tough.

The part that bugs me is I know Delta would be more than happy to sell me a ticket for cash for what I want to do. The invalid routing thing doesn't make any sense to me. I can book it for cash, why not award?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Price your paid ticket on ITA Matrix. I'm confident that you'll find that the fare is breaking at the stopover in SFO, which is exactly what's happening with the award ticket.

Sure you can book an award for the routing/stopover that you want, but you'll have to pay extra for it. And while DL would be happy to sell you a ticket, I'm pretty sure that a revenue ticket BHM-SFO-SEA-BHM would cost more than BHM-SEA-BHM. On international itineraries you can often have do-it-yourself routings, but domestic ones are more limiting. You could probably have BHM-ATL-SLC(stopover)-SEA-ATL-BHM for 25k miles (if you can find all the segments in low), but that's because SLC is a hub, SFO isn't.

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Can you point out where the break is? I'm new to this break thing so I'd just like to know for future reference. TIA.





Provide this information to a travel agent to help them match the fares found.

Make sure to provide the exact booking and fare codes shown.

Fare 1: Carrier DL TA21B3SG BHM to SFO (rules)
Passenger type ADT, one-way fare, booking code T
Covers BHM-ATL (Economy), ATL-SFO (Economy) $153.49

Fare 2: Carrier DL TA07H3SY SFO to SEA (rules)
Passenger type ADT, one-way fare, booking code T
Covers SFO-SEA (Economy) $91.16

Fare 3: Carrier DL TA21B3SG SEA to BHM (rules)
Passenger type ADT, one-way fare, booking code T
Covers SEA-ATL (Economy), ATL-BHM (Economy) $164.65

US Transportation Tax (US) $30.70
US September 11th Security Fee (AY) $10.00
US Passenger Facility Charge (XF) $18.00
US Flight Segment Tax (ZP) $19.00

Subtotal per passenger $487.00
Number of passengers x1

Total airfare & taxes $487.00
• This ticket is non-refundable.
• Changes to this ticket will incur a penalty fee.

Fare construction (can be useful to travel agents)
BHM DL X/ATL DL SFO 153.49TA21B3SG DL SEA 91.16TA07H3SY DL X/ATL DL BHM 164.65TA21B3SG USD 409.30 END ZP BHM ATL SFO SEA ATL XT 30.70US 19.00ZP 10.00AY 18.00XF BHM4.50 ATL4.50 SEA4.50 ATL4.50

there are 3 fares as opposed to two fares in what u post.

Yup, it's as a few others stated, and you can easily tell in the fare breakdown.

First fare is BHM-ATL-SFO. Second fare is SFO-SEA. Third fare is SEA-ATL-BHM. If it was a standard round trip, then you would only have two fares (one to SEA and one back from SEA).

DL is doing the same thing when pricing the award:
BHM-ATL-SFO 12.5k miles
SFO-SEA 12.5k miles
SEA-ATL-BHM 12.5k miles

You could do it as an open jaw and leave the SFO-SEA segment out and it would price at 25k miles. Then you could just purchase the SFO-SEA segment as a separate ticket. It's up to you to determine if the 12.5k miles savings is worth the money paid for the ticket.

Thanks for your help rocknroll. I'll definitely check and see if the one way option is better than the 12.5.

One last question...

When doing an open-jaw, can you purchase a one-way paid ticket on another airline, say Alaska, to fly the open-jaw portion?

eg.
BHM-ATL-SFO (open jaw), SEA-ATL-BHM on award. Paid on Alaska, SFO-SEA one-way.

Would this cause any issues with the award ticket? Everything from SFO-SEA seems to be operated by Alaska but with codeshares for AA and DL. Better to purchase ticket from AA?

You are not limited in which airline you fly SFO-SEA. You could fly VX or WN if you so desired. That being said, if you are checking bags it might pay to fly AS on a DL codeshare because they may check the bags all the way through if you show your second ticket. Just leave more than enough time because if SFO-SEA is delayed and you miss your award ticket Delta is under no requirement to accommodate you

ronefatone plans to spend a few days in SFO before going on to SEA, so no need to worry about checking bags through.

There's no worries as to how you close off an open jaw. They assume that the point of the open jaw is that you're taking other transport to get back to your origin (or you took other transport to get there to start). I'm doing OMA-AKL//HKG-OMA on a DL award with AKL-HKG via SYD in QF F on the A380 using AA miles. (Well, the trans-Tasman flight is on a 737, but you get the point.) No issues whatsoever.

Yes, spending a few days in SFO before heading to SEA.

So using Delta to close an open-jaw on a Delta award is no big deal? I think I'll book on Alaska but I guess it doesn't matter. Though I do see your using AA to close your open jaw so not really the same as using Delta to close a Delta open-jaw award.

I think mtkeller misinterpreted my post. I know you are spending a few days in SFO. If you book AS via a DL codeshare you may be able to check bags SFO-SEA-ATL-BHM. Also as I said earlier if your SFO-SEA is delayed and you miss SEA-ATL-BHM Delta does not have to help you so leave enough time

Yes, my example isn't the most germane. The only time DL would care is if you're doing something to evade something like a Saturday night stay requirement, which doesn't exist on an award ticket. You're not buying SFO-SEA separately to reduce the cost of the DL award that you ticketed, so it's fine. (You're buying it separately because including it drives the price up.) Your award ticket is fine regardless of what carrier you book for SFO-SEA.

There's also a stop in SEA, based on the original post, so there'd be no concern about checking bags through to BHM or a delay on SFO-SEA, unless the situation has changed and SFO-BHM is to be done all at once. If it is, there's no need to book a separate ticket.

Thanks for the input mtkeller.

Nystate...just to clarify my situation...Stopping for a few days in SFO, then on to SEA for a few days, then back to BHM. As long as my flight SFO-SEA isn't delayed for more than 3-4 days, I think I'll be fine. Man...that would be one heck of a delay! Yikes!

You could also use 7500 BA Avios to book that Alaska segment if you want.