RealHJ

It doesn't make any sense. If you had no problem putting itinerary together, you would have booked it on delta.com without need for all of this extra time and hassle. You wouldn't have had to call or "Twitter" it in and have them manually force it together. You never answered the question why did you have to "Twitter" it in and couldn't book it online normally.

RealHJ

That is indeed correct and a very valid observation. Where the connections are allowed that is for regional flights, where the SlyMiles value is, often, well below even $0.01 per mile.

There is a very clear concentrated move to limit any redemptions with value >$0.01 per mile.

hikouki

Sort of newbie question...

1) Will I earn MQM/ MQD if I buy a ticket from KE, all legs have KE flight numbers, but some are operated by AS?

2) I know CI has lower earnings on SkyMiles than KE. But what if it is CI-operated but all with KE flight numbers?

Thanks for any info!

Zorak

This thread is more about burning miles on partners than earning, but based on

https://www.delta.com/en_US/skymiles...rline-partners

"Partner-marketed flights will earn miles based on a percentage of distance flown as determined by the fare class paid. Unless otherwise noted, mileage credit is only applicable to SkyTeam-marketed flights operated by a SkyTeam member airline. Mileage credit is not applicable to a SkyTeam-marketed flight operated by another airline."

Thus you should earn on KE-coded flights operated by KE or CI, but not operated by AS.

flyerCO

Partner marketed flights must be operated by a Skyteam carrier to earn. No miles on the AS operated segments, though you can credit elsewhere if wish.

You earn per the carrier flight is marketed as. Thus CI operated, but KE marketed, earns at the KE rate.

WidgetTravels

For what it's worth, I just searched for around 12 city pairs, US-Asia.

I checked many different origins (east coast, west coast, Hawaii) and destinations (China, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, etc).

With the exception of one search (SFO-BKK), I had no issue seeing KE-KE results.

Admittedly, CI doesn't come up. But KE connections appeared to be no issue whatsoever.

RealHJ

IME KE-KE connections show up in ICN, but not in NRT. Did you see the KE connections at NRT (only DL-KE show up in NRT, and KE-KE DL forces you to book as two separate tix)?

WidgetTravels

I didn't, but to be fair I wasn't looking.

It's certainly possible things like routing rules could prevent a KE-KE connection at NRT.

Routing rules could be Delta's doing, or Korean's, no real way to know.

Same thing with CI through TPE. CI may not allow Delta to sell connections via TPE.

RealHJ

That would be DL imposed, DL blocking e.g. HNL-NRT-ICN or HNL-NRT-PUS, unless HNL-NRT is on 2x to 4x more expensive DL vs KE flight 1/2.

100% Delta's, and it's easy to know. Just search in ITA matrix, on any online flights search, on koreanair.com, and you will see the KE connections come up, both as revenue and award (via KE and other SkyTeam airlines) through fare. It's just DL that is blocking.

They do. That is 100%. Many have booked it many times. Just DL is blocking it from being booked easily. It's not CI, it is DL. If DL agents know how to enter it, it'll come even in an O&D search (a few extra steps, that they don't get trained in and that are purposefully not documented), but with incorrect pricing, but even that will price out right at ticketing, just won't disclose the right price until ticketed. It's all just far-too-detailed-and-specific-to-be-unintentional "bugs" in the DL res system. At the back end it works just fine, like it always has. It's just at the dumbed down GUI front-end it's very "buggy" (as if anyone believes it's not intentional...).

WidgetTravels

Just because KE sells it on their website (and other SkyTeam partners), doesn't mean it still couldn't be KE having different award fares for DL flights. This does happen sometimes.

But fair enough, I'll give you that one.

Once again though, your Res comments are off base. They ARE trained in how to force connections. It's one step, forcing a particular connection city/airline, which is still done in the GUI front end (there's no back end (Delta Term) work required). But if the fare isn't filed allowing connections via TPE, it just won't price right, no matter how the agent sells it in. Yes, ticketing support can and does override the price, though if the fare doesn't allow CI-CI connections in TPE they probably shouldn't.

You also keep calling the system dumbed down, but it's far more accessible and easy to use for agents now than it was several years ago. There used to be 6-10 airlines that required long selling or other special handling steps, and there are none now. It all comes down to how the award fares are published.

RealHJ

You are misunderstanding this. There is no override required. At the back end (actual DeltaTerm that this GUI is a wrapper for and executes commands in, or equivalent) DOES price it correctly. It's just that the GUI system (a) doesn't piece the connection together though it is a valid through fare (no manual intervention required to ticket it so properly) at all unless one goes to a separate screen and specifically asks for that (clearly it's configured to not display (suppress) CI connections, though the results for that do come back in the search likely), and (b) when it is manually selected, it displays incorrect additive price estimate, though that is wrong and the agents who know their job know that when they go to ticket it, it'll charge the correct through fare that it really is (again, no manual intervention required).

Basically, it won't show the valid most logical connections unless a few extra steps are taken to enable displaying those. Even then, before the very last screen it'll show an incorrect (additive) price estimate, though the underlying reservation system is pricing it correctly when it is actually ticketed.

sleuth

WidgetTravels

I found other cities via ICN to BKK, but not SFO. I randomly searched dates, and didn't bother searching high and low.

sleuth

ryandc99

Folks,
​​​​​Kind reminder to please keep this thread on topic.

Ryandc99, Moderator Delta Air Lines