Kay_nyc

Can anyone tell me why my itinerary is pricing at 55K miles on delta.com? It should be 35K miles, it's a trip to Mexico, all on AM.


Day Date Flight City Time Cabin
--- ----- ------------------- ---------------- ----- ------ --------
Sat 05OCT AeroMexico 401 LV NEW YORK JOHN (JFK) 1:15am Coach
AR MEXICO CITY, (MEX) 5:45am

Sat 05OCT AeroMexico 724* LV MEXICO CITY, (MEX) 7:00am Coach
AR CHETUMAL, MEX (CTM) 9:05am
*Operated by AEROLITORAL DBA AEROMEXICO CONNECT

Sun 13OCT AeroMexico 2441* LV CAMPECHE, MEX (CPE) 11:15am Coach
AR MEXICO CITY, (MEX) 1:10pm
*Operated by AEROLITORAL DBA AEROMEXICO CONNECT

Sun 13OCT AeroMexico 404 LV MEXICO CITY, (MEX) 6:10pm Coach
AR NEW YORK JOHN (JFK) 11:45pm

mnredfox

This sounds odd, call DL and ask for manual reissue desk to troubleshoot. If you're PM or higher you can book and then the fare codes will tell us more.

mnredfox

I feel like I should know this, but is MPM based upon each segment that is less than 500 miles being 500 miles, or actual amount?

I.E if you have LAX-SFO leg, is the MPM calculation for this 500 miles or 337?

Seems like the latter (at least how EF calcs it), but if someone can confirm that would be great.

mtkeller

Actual distance. The 500-mile minimum is just for earning.

shuom

Are there any tools available to search possible routings using miles? I've been trying the awardtravelr.com site but it seems like it's been down for the past month or so.

I'm trying to book a trip from PER-MSP using miles, but the medallion line had no luck. I was hoping to give it a go on my own.

mtkeller

DL.dumb actually works pretty well for this. Search SYD/MEL/BNE-LAX, ignoring the calendar, since it won't go green if there's just VA inventory and not DL inventory at low. Then find yourself PER-SYD/MEL/BNE, which should be pretty available. Finally, search LAX-MSP, and be willing to do it in Y. Then go multi-city, search by schedule.

shuom

You'd think so....

Annoyingly hard.

So I found a SYD-LAX that priced at 170k via MEL which is excellent. But I called Delta to add a MSP leg (pricing at 60k!), and the representative said she wouldn't be able to price it because there's no inventory. Sure enough, I couldn't even book it on the website. Why would delta.dumb show me a price if it's not available?

I do appreciate your tips though! They'll be good for the future.

mtkeller

60K from LAX to MSP is not low, so you can't combine it with SYD-LAX on VA for no extra miles.

shuom

Oh. I couldn't even get it to price via delta.dumb. I couldn't select the VA fare.

Heck, I was even thinking about just booking SYD-LAX and LAX-MSP on separate itineraries and buying PER-SYD. No go though.

michael_v

Since you are searching for va flights only, mileage amounts are irrelevant because they will all price at low level, use 'search by schedule' for the routes indicated by mtkeller above and around your dates. Delta sometimes also has low-level availability on syd-lax, but for simplicity you should not worry about that now. Then once you find those non-stop va flights, work on the lax-msp segment. For this you can also use the AS website, if you want. From my personal experience, there is good availability generally on lax-slc first or coach and slc-msp 6 am flight in first. Then the last step is the intra-Australia flight which should be similar to the trans-Pacific search. Then when you have found all of the segments in low, do a multi-segment search on dl.com and it should price correctly if availability exists at low-level. Good luck!

shuom

I appreciate the tips I've received from michael_v and mtkeller. You two have provided guidance the guide to actually tackle the issue of finding reasonable fares. Looking at it from a step-by-step approach through the website, while tedious, is definitely worthwhile. Sorting by schedule for VA flights helped immensely too.

I ended up booking PER-MEL-LAX, LAX-BNE-SYD-PER all in business minus MEL-LAX, which was Y. I'll have to buy a LAX-MSP trip, but considering how last minute this all is I'm happy with how things worked out. Cheers fellas.

decibel08

I'm looking to book for myself and the Paris loving GF from SFO to either CDG or AMS (and back from the other one) next fall - like late August or early September. I'm having a hell of a time trying to find this in Biz using SkyMiles.

I've read a bit to catch up and it seems like I need to use EF to look for O inventory if I want to get on the AF nonstop SFO-CDG or the KL nonstop SFO-AMS. Problem is even with EF I am not seeing a single seat available in O near my time frame. Of course on AF's website it shows oodles of availability on the SFO-CDG nonstop.

What should my strategy be here? Merci

mnredfox

Well, it used to be use KVS/EF to search for O, but right now things with DL are a bit screwed up. So yes try that route for now, search FB as well. I would map out all possible routes US city-CDG or US city-AMS-CDG or US city-FCO-CDG. Then once you find availability go backwards and find from SFO-said US city.

AS has great SM availability, so that gives you YYZ, SEA, and PDX as options. DL SFO-LAX is decent, and that opens up more stuff. Otherwise getting from SFO-ATL/JFK is pretty tough on DL metal IME, so just try your best and be flexible.

wpxstar

I'm looking into a honeymoon flight from ATL to FCO with return FCO to MCO in early august '13 in biz class... but I can't seem to get any flight options on Alitalia. Any tricks to share about getting access to Alitalia's inventory or Air France? Best I could get was 200k pp in DL biz. Thanks!

mtkeller

AZ cannot be booked online. Check ExpertFlyer, then call to book it. The agent will need to do a long sell.