Adoption Issue Part II Stuck in China
 

So, there was a security incident (white powder envelope) at the consulate here in Guangzhou this week and they have closed the Consulate Tues, Wed and Thurs. We were supposed to fly out Thursday night but we may get pushed into next week.

We booked business class using points through Delta on China Southern on the CZ327 flight on 05/16 to LAX. I called the Delta Asia office and they said that I should cancel our return trip and just wait to rebook when we know our return trip date. Assuming that we will probably not leave for the States until 05/21 or 05/22, I asked to check availability on those dates and was told there was not business class availability.

They said that there are a multitude (at least 10 seats) available in business but nothing for the mileage that we used.

Is there anything I can do here or are we just hosed?

Additional award space might open up closer to the travel date if there are still seats available for sale. Are TPAC BE seats available on DL (or partners) for other routings?

Are coach award tickets available for the new dates you need? Have you checked more than two dates?

Yes, we can get back via coach. Just hoping with 4 of us (2 kids and one of them special needs), we could keep our business seats.

Two lap kids for such a long trip?

We bought 4 business tickets.

Four business class award seats on the same flight might not be realistic. How about two different flights, with parent and kid on each? Or book two and see whether two more award seats are released?

If looking on expert flyer what are the fare codes on China Southern for First or Business?

In EF, if you go to the Award & Upgrade page, you will find an Airline pull down list and within each the codes are listed(which is where you end up anyway to check the boxes beside the codes you are searching for).

You will be looking for "I" class if looking for business. You can't book first class with delta miles on china southern.

Aslanlab,

Check MU from PVG - looks like there's availability.

Tim

I believe if award seats are available on CZ you can get them for low Delta awards (120K business RT).

Yeah - I'm not so sure what that comment means. Regardless, EF is showing no inventory available on CZ for the next two weeks or so. OP will likely have to try an alternate routing and hope for a sympathetic agent at DL.

How old are the kids? You might be better off with 4 coach seats rather than business. If you can get the 'couples' style seats then 2 people could sit right together, but the other seats have large dividers between them which wouldn't really work for a child. The 'couples' seats are every other row down the middle section. Luckily there are plenty of business seats on the A380 and it looks like you wouldn't have an issue getting 2 sets of those seats (on Alitalia, they are taken right away).

Looks like plenty of space available in Y, and you could have a whole middle section of 4 seats together for convenience. Also 4 seats on PVG-LAX on MU for a few days that week, as well as PVG-SFO.

I think it means that business class seats are available for purchase on the flights, but no (low, for DL miles) award space.

Flying on two different flights/dates? Sounds like a rather uncomfortable idea.

I would consider booking two on the same flight and seeing if more were released.