stan1162

I figured it would be all manual "leg" work. According to the first page of this thread, using Delta miles for a ST non-DL leg, ALL is low, even if it says otherwise... So when I look up a one way ATL-FCO I see 31.5 miles plus fees. Some other days I have seen 50K miles. As long as it doesn't say No Flights Available, its 30K miles and available?(no Low, Med High) all are LOW. Its is offering me a flight to choose.

Does it have to say Classic NOT Flex? in order to be 30K

So I find my TATL first, then going backwards add the legs. Like the ATL-FCO, then do I have to find a MEM-ATL in LOW to keep the whole ticket LOW. OR DTW-FCO then find the MEM to DTW leg.

My cruise is June 6, so we are leaving on the 4th, we can fly into a close non-FCO city. I should check those too?

We are leaving BCN the 16th, and if I can convince DH that the world won't shut down if he goes back to work on Tues instead of Mon, I can add the 17th as well.

So in a nutshell, search one-way, leg by leg looking for LOW on DL, but just ANY availability on KL, AF, AZ etc even if it shows more than low miles???

Thank so much

J.

3Cforme

If the AF/KL/AZ segment isn't a qualified Low band segment - as defined by Delta - it will not be available for redemption with Delta miles. Until a few months ago Classic inventory shown by Flying Blue mapped well to what was available from Delta; FB changed some redemption options so this is no longer true.

As mnredfox notes, there are MANY possible routings (even limited to three segments each way) MEM-FCO and BCN-MEM. I would encourage you to search these thoroughly before expanding the scope of search and settling for an award that didn't start/end in MEM, or giving up on FCO and BCN specifically. There's still plenty of service from MEM to numerous useful trans-Atlantic gateway airports.

stan1162

Will check all the others (BOS,JFK etc..) The only reason I focused on ATL is that if I HAD to $$ to get to my dep city for the TATL, I can get to ATL pretty cheap.

Price and availability to anywhere make MEM a VERY difficult city.

mnredfox

As 3C said, AF/KL changed things around. So again if you don't have EF, use FB to check and make sure it is classic (flex def won't work). Still then it won't 100% correspond but it's as good as you can do.

You may want to check out post 1, I think some free tools (wandering aramean).

While ATL may be most convenient for you, you limit yourself drastically to options. DL typically opens up the most inconvenient options. I often see TATL flights open via BOS, and sometimes JFK, but getting to those cities things are never at low.

Like I said, check ALL east coast cities (BOS, JFK, LGA, EWR, PHL, DCA, IAD, BWI, etc) then go back from there. I'd also check CVG, DTW, MSP, ORD, IAH, DFW, etc.

stan1162

So I did some leg work and I found a MSP-CDG for 60K miles on DL. 1st step

And I SEE a BCN-JFK on FB for 25K miles. Do I keep working this route to find my domestic low legs, and my intra Europe legs, write it all down (knowing that the BCN-JFK might not even be real) and call DL anyway when I find a 90% match?

Do I HAVE to find 100% match in order to call?

mnredfox

Yes, so find your way to MEM-MSP, this you have to do on DL metal. I'd make no more than 1 stop. Try to find a back up if MSP doesn't work.

On the way back, find your way back from JFK (this may be hard), but make sure that the BCN-JFK is actually on low and exists (call DL to verify), or give us the flight numbers and dates and someone kind on FT will look it up for you.

stan1162

OK, this is what I have found so far..

MEM-YUL on June 4 low on DL
YUL-CDG (thru AMS) on KL on June 4

then i can look for CDG-FCO on June 5 on FB.

so now for the return....

IS this right what I am doing so far??

Everything is so fluid, by the time I find my returns (I'm slow) these could be gone!!

stan1162

All of these legs show LOW miles

MEM-RIC thru atl 6/4
RIC-JFk 6/4
JFK-LHR 6/4
LHR-FCO 6/5


It took me almost 3 days to find this.

How do I save it, so I can work on the return!!!!

mnredfox

Are you elite?

Call DL and have them put it on hold. You'll only have 24-48 horus on hold though

mtkeller

That's five segments, so it won't work (at least assuming MEM-RIC thru ATL means MEM-ATL-RIC).

stan1162

OK, so I have to try and find a MEM-DTW-LHR-FCO for example. Max 4 legs?

Just getting from MEM to my TATL departure city is a problem.

Ugh! This is sooo hard. I have a limited budget, and have to stay within that. So one ticket using miles and one purchase is what I have to do. What I do have is time, so back to work.

Thank you so much for your help all!

J.

mtkeller

Yes, you get four segments each direction. Are you looking at AZ inventory at all? There's a seat on BOS-FCO on 4 June 13 in economy. Also JFK-FCO on that date. Another three seats on YYZ-FCO. Another two on ORD-FCO. You'll have to call to book, but if you can save that intra-European segment, you can take three segments within the US to get to the gateway if need be. Given the time until travel, book yourself at least one tight domestic connection and you'll almost certainly get a schedule change you can leverage to reduce the number of segments within the US.

stan1162

I am using all the tools I can. FB, ITA DL... I see those flights, but getting the MEM-BOS or MEM-JFK is the problem, or if I find a MEM-MSP low flight, there is no MSP to EU available in LOW.

I didn't think I could "save" that TATL leg?

I thought I had to have the total trip mapped out with all flight numbers before I call? I cannot hold only a portion.

I'll just keep working at it. Like I said, I don't have a lot of $$$, but I DO have a lot of time, and as long as I understand what I am doing, I will do the legwork. I just need to totally understand the How-to's and the rules.

Thanks.

mtkeller

Try MEM-XXX-BOS/JFK/ORD/YYZ if the non-stop isn't available. I haven't checked inventory, but RDU could be an interesting place to make a connection given the number of cities DL serves from there. MSP is tough to go TATL from since it's all DL metal other than the new AF flight that starts next year.

mnredfox

My experience is TATL flights seem most available from BOS, JFK, MSP, DTW, ATL in that order. Like I said, check AF/KL flights from IAD, ORD etc as well.