Jan 23, 2015, 12:14 pm
Last edit by: 3Cforme
2015 award rules:
All award travel booked with Delta miles must be booked online or through Delta reservations - even if all travel is on partner carriers.
As of 2/6/2015, award charts are gone from delta.com.
From ~April 7, 2017, partner awards at lowest level may cost more than DL awards at low level. Including a Delta-operated segment appears to yield DL pricing instead of partner pricing. Remember - awards are one way; you may need a Delta segment in each direction to avoid partner-level pricing.
You can book one-ways but a one-way departing Europe will incur international origin surcharges shown as YQ or YR in the detailed pricing breakdown.
Some of Delta's lowest award redemption levels require round-trip purchases, so searches one-way will not display these fares. Some of the lowest award levels can also have significant advance purchase requirements. These can be 14 or 21-days for domestic awards; as much as 90 days for international. Do Advanced Search on LBJ's posts for 'award, advance purchase'.
To see the lowest award prices/itineraries for a selected date it may be necessary to change the display sort order from Best Match to Price.
Between origin and destination one is allowed a max of three segments on US & Canada itins, and four segments internationally each way. City pairs or routings that require more segments will have a fare break and demand more miles.
Open-jaws are still allowed, for example you can book JFK-BCN, FCO-JFK.
Stopovers (spending more than 24 hours in any city on your international itinerary, or more than 4 hours domestic) are no longer allowed. Origin and destination are not stopovers. See posts #27 and #28 for examples of successful overnight connections on international itineraries.
Married segment logic may be applied to award tickets. Even if AAA-BBB is available in low and BBB-CCC is available in low, AAA-BBB-CCC may not price at the low level.
Multi-city award search may give odd results if you are trying to construct an itinerary segment by segment. Pricing may be additive, as AAA-BBB + BBB-CCC instead of through-pricing AAA-CCC as a single award redemption.
Awards that have segments on two or more award bands may price additively, not just the highest band applied between origin and destination. For example, if TVC-DTW is band 3 and DTW-FLL is band 1, the award TVC-DTW-FLL may price as band 3 + band 1. Because of this, if you are originating in or traveling to an area served by multiple airports you may find significant pricing differences at nearby airports.
Delta.com accepts NYC for LGA/JFK/EWR (but don't forget White Plains HPN, Islip ISP, and Newburgh SWF); WAS for BWI/DCA/IAD; CHI for ORD/MDW; PAR for CDG/ORY; LON for LGW/LHR/LCY; SAO for GRU/VCP/CGH; BUE for EZE/AEP. I'm not aware of single codes for the Bay Area, SoCal, nor SoFlorida.
Not tested with new partner pricing 4/4/17: This is not new but still in effect: mixing award level 2 - 5 DL flights with partner flights results in additive pricing because partner flights always book in the lowest award tier. For example, you travel US-AMS in DL medium level award and you connect AMS-anywhere in Europe on KLM, you will pay US-Europe medium level award cost + low level intra-Europe price.
AF/KL Classic Award flights you see at airfrance.us may not be bookable with DL miles, therefore you should not use airfrance.us to search for AF/KL flights if you want to book with DL miles. With DL miles, AF availability seems to be good at 10-11 months out.
Delta's mobile site - m.delta.com - may yield available partner flights even when delta.com does not. This was observed on ~9/12/17.
List of DL partners that can be booked online:
Aeroflot (first reported 3/25/2015)
Aerolineas Argentina AR (first reported 11 March 15)
Aeromexico (AM is back as of 7 March)
Air France
Alaska Airlines - terminated 4/30/2017
Alitalia
China Airlines (first reported 24 Feb 15)
China Eastern
China Southern
Garuda Indonesia (reported/confirmed 10 March 15)
GOL G3 (first reported 3/4/2015)
Jet Airways 9W, first reported 2/12/2017
KLM
Korean Air
Middle East Airlines, per SkyMilesTeam 1 April 15
Saudia Airlines, per SkyMilesTeam 1 April 15
Shanghai Airlines FM (spotted in late June 2016)
TAROM RO (spotted on 2/14/2016)
Vietnam Airlines
Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Australia
WestJet
Xiamen Airlines MF (spotted on 10/14/16)
Hawaiian HA can be booked online as inter-island, or as multi-city. Delta.com award searches will give an error instead of constructing a connection like ATL-HNL-ITO. If used in conjunction with another carrier to Hawaii mileage will be additive. Example: 22,500 miles SLC-HNL + 7,500 miles HNL-Hilo.
Any travel using any of the other partners must be booked by phone.
Air Europa UX
Air Tahiti Nui TN
Czech OK
Kenya Airways KQ - It's been reported that segments on KQ can only be booked by an agent familiar with the old-school long sell process. Details here: https://onemileatatime.com/long-sell-airline-tickets/
Delta.com now publishes the list of blackout dates for KE Korean Airlines: http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_...nditions.html# (click on AWARD TRAVEL AND PAY WITH MILES RULES & CONDITIONS, and then scroll down to "Blackout dates" section).
Useful threads:
Which DL Partners Incur Fuel Surcharges (YQ/YR) when Redeeming DL miles for an Award
2015 Korean Air Blackout dates for DL Skymiles redemptions Fare rules again show blackout dates for KE travel as mentioned by ENFO's post 2 May 15.
Award Ticket Success - Post It Here
Using SkyMiles on SkyTeam & Other Partners Master Thread - Please do not post questions or discussion in this thread. For discussion, use this other thread: Using SkyMiles on SkyTeam & Other Partners: The Discussion Thread
Ongoing issues with booking awards on Kenya Airways
Anyone book a flight on KQ with Skymiles in 2015?
Phantom availability on AZ (and a possible solution)
Earn and redeem on Aerolineas Argentinas
Virgin Atlantic Award Seats Available at Delta.com but not on Phone, How to Book? (with possible solution in post #8)
New SkyMiles Award Pricing For Travel On or After October 1, 2016 New Award Pricing Travel after Oct 2016
All award travel booked with Delta miles must be booked online or through Delta reservations - even if all travel is on partner carriers.
As of 2/6/2015, award charts are gone from delta.com.
From ~April 7, 2017, partner awards at lowest level may cost more than DL awards at low level. Including a Delta-operated segment appears to yield DL pricing instead of partner pricing. Remember - awards are one way; you may need a Delta segment in each direction to avoid partner-level pricing.
You can book one-ways but a one-way departing Europe will incur international origin surcharges shown as YQ or YR in the detailed pricing breakdown.
Some of Delta's lowest award redemption levels require round-trip purchases, so searches one-way will not display these fares. Some of the lowest award levels can also have significant advance purchase requirements. These can be 14 or 21-days for domestic awards; as much as 90 days for international. Do Advanced Search on LBJ's posts for 'award, advance purchase'.
To see the lowest award prices/itineraries for a selected date it may be necessary to change the display sort order from Best Match to Price.
Between origin and destination one is allowed a max of three segments on US & Canada itins, and four segments internationally each way. City pairs or routings that require more segments will have a fare break and demand more miles.
Open-jaws are still allowed, for example you can book JFK-BCN, FCO-JFK.
Stopovers (spending more than 24 hours in any city on your international itinerary, or more than 4 hours domestic) are no longer allowed. Origin and destination are not stopovers. See posts #27 and #28 for examples of successful overnight connections on international itineraries.
Married segment logic may be applied to award tickets. Even if AAA-BBB is available in low and BBB-CCC is available in low, AAA-BBB-CCC may not price at the low level.
Multi-city award search may give odd results if you are trying to construct an itinerary segment by segment. Pricing may be additive, as AAA-BBB + BBB-CCC instead of through-pricing AAA-CCC as a single award redemption.
Awards that have segments on two or more award bands may price additively, not just the highest band applied between origin and destination. For example, if TVC-DTW is band 3 and DTW-FLL is band 1, the award TVC-DTW-FLL may price as band 3 + band 1. Because of this, if you are originating in or traveling to an area served by multiple airports you may find significant pricing differences at nearby airports.
Delta.com accepts NYC for LGA/JFK/EWR (but don't forget White Plains HPN, Islip ISP, and Newburgh SWF); WAS for BWI/DCA/IAD; CHI for ORD/MDW; PAR for CDG/ORY; LON for LGW/LHR/LCY; SAO for GRU/VCP/CGH; BUE for EZE/AEP. I'm not aware of single codes for the Bay Area, SoCal, nor SoFlorida.
Not tested with new partner pricing 4/4/17: This is not new but still in effect: mixing award level 2 - 5 DL flights with partner flights results in additive pricing because partner flights always book in the lowest award tier. For example, you travel US-AMS in DL medium level award and you connect AMS-anywhere in Europe on KLM, you will pay US-Europe medium level award cost + low level intra-Europe price.
AF/KL Classic Award flights you see at airfrance.us may not be bookable with DL miles, therefore you should not use airfrance.us to search for AF/KL flights if you want to book with DL miles. With DL miles, AF availability seems to be good at 10-11 months out.
Delta's mobile site - m.delta.com - may yield available partner flights even when delta.com does not. This was observed on ~9/12/17.
List of DL partners that can be booked online:
Aeroflot (first reported 3/25/2015)
Aerolineas Argentina AR (first reported 11 March 15)
Aeromexico (AM is back as of 7 March)
Air France
Alaska Airlines - terminated 4/30/2017
Alitalia
China Airlines (first reported 24 Feb 15)
China Eastern
China Southern
Garuda Indonesia (reported/confirmed 10 March 15)
GOL G3 (first reported 3/4/2015)
Jet Airways 9W, first reported 2/12/2017
KLM
Korean Air
Middle East Airlines, per SkyMilesTeam 1 April 15
Saudia Airlines, per SkyMilesTeam 1 April 15
Shanghai Airlines FM (spotted in late June 2016)
TAROM RO (spotted on 2/14/2016)
Vietnam Airlines
Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Australia
WestJet
Xiamen Airlines MF (spotted on 10/14/16)
Hawaiian HA can be booked online as inter-island, or as multi-city. Delta.com award searches will give an error instead of constructing a connection like ATL-HNL-ITO. If used in conjunction with another carrier to Hawaii mileage will be additive. Example: 22,500 miles SLC-HNL + 7,500 miles HNL-Hilo.
Any travel using any of the other partners must be booked by phone.
Air Europa UX
Air Tahiti Nui TN
Czech OK
Kenya Airways KQ - It's been reported that segments on KQ can only be booked by an agent familiar with the old-school long sell process. Details here: https://onemileatatime.com/long-sell-airline-tickets/
Delta.com now publishes the list of blackout dates for KE Korean Airlines: http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_...nditions.html# (click on AWARD TRAVEL AND PAY WITH MILES RULES & CONDITIONS, and then scroll down to "Blackout dates" section).
Useful threads:
Which DL Partners Incur Fuel Surcharges (YQ/YR) when Redeeming DL miles for an Award
2015 Korean Air Blackout dates for DL Skymiles redemptions Fare rules again show blackout dates for KE travel as mentioned by ENFO's post 2 May 15.
Award Ticket Success - Post It Here
Using SkyMiles on SkyTeam & Other Partners Master Thread - Please do not post questions or discussion in this thread. For discussion, use this other thread: Using SkyMiles on SkyTeam & Other Partners: The Discussion Thread
Ongoing issues with booking awards on Kenya Airways
Anyone book a flight on KQ with Skymiles in 2015?
Phantom availability on AZ (and a possible solution)
Earn and redeem on Aerolineas Argentinas
Virgin Atlantic Award Seats Available at Delta.com but not on Phone, How to Book? (with possible solution in post #8)
New SkyMiles Award Pricing For Travel On or After October 1, 2016 New Award Pricing Travel after Oct 2016
Booking Delta Award Tickets, 2015 on
Jun 5, 2018, 7:57 pm
#451
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: HNL
Programs: DL PM/1MM, BW DE (lifetime), HH DE, Marriott PE (lifetime), National Emerald Executive
Posts: 7,205
I do have a saved copy of the receipt from before the MU segments dropped, but they all say "OPEN" then the booking class "O". What is also interesting is that I had 4 MU segments that were booked, 2 of which were dropped, but the other 2 (booked at the same time) were fine and stayed in tact. Despite this the agent claimed that MU had taken no action on my itinerary.... But as this thread and others have pointed out agents will pretty much say anything.
I've had that happen too. Show up at airport. MU has no record of me (no PNR), though ticket is valid. As Delta handles MU US ground operations (at least here in HNL), though, they got Delta Atlanta on the phone, some three or four levels of escalation, and after nearly an hour got it fixed. Thankfully flight still had open seats, but there weren't enough meals catered for us, which caused a bit of a stir and almost a fight in the J cabin. In the end the MU FAs acted professionally and made more meals from the limited catering that they had onboard, vs. delaying the whole flight by nearly two hours as it would take to get more meals catered. Since then lesson learned to get confirmation from MU that the flights are good in advance. (Same with CA and other PRC-based airlines.)
Jun 8, 2018, 8:54 pm
#452
Join Date: Jun 2017
Posts: 56
Changing Segments on Award Ticket
Is it possible to change segments on an award ticket without rebooking the whole ticket? I currently have an open jaw from SEA-PRG and ZAG-SEA, and was trying to switch the ZAG-SEA leg to SPU-SEA. SEA-PRG is on DL and ZAG-SEA is on AF/VS. I would be keeping the VS on the return and just switching ZAG-CDG-LHR to SPU-AMS-LHR. I can see availability on the one way SPU-SEA at the same level as my original ticket, have called PL line twice and both times they said they had to rebook the whole ticket (and since low level availability wasn't available on the DL segments, would have to pay more). I saw some discussions on this topic from a couple of years ago where it is supposedly possible to change segments, is it still? Perhaps it is because I am changing my point of departure? Thanks.
Jun 9, 2018, 12:06 am
#453
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: HNL
Programs: DL PM/1MM, BW DE (lifetime), HH DE, Marriott PE (lifetime), National Emerald Executive
Posts: 7,205
Is it possible to change segments on an award ticket without rebooking the whole ticket? I currently have an open jaw from SEA-PRG and ZAG-SEA, and was trying to switch the ZAG-SEA leg to SPU-SEA. SEA-PRG is on DL and ZAG-SEA is on AF/VS. I would be keeping the VS on the return and just switching ZAG-CDG-LHR to SPU-AMS-LHR. I can see availability on the one way SPU-SEA at the same level as my original ticket, have called PL line twice and both times they said they had to rebook the whole ticket (and since low level availability wasn't available on the DL segments, would have to pay more). I saw some discussions on this topic from a couple of years ago where it is supposedly possible to change segments, is it still? Perhaps it is because I am changing my point of departure? Thanks.
If there are no DL flights on the ticket, then, however, you can make a change without there needing to be additional availability (e.g. if you have a KE flight booked in O that is staying put and you want to change another flight on the ticket, of course you cannot possibly get another seat on KE in O, and then it needs to be escalated to Global Ticketing Support who can use the less buggy old reservation system that is not going to try to pull new inventory for all the flights and just change the flights you want to change - it can be a hassle and take easily an hour or two, but it is doable).
In short, avoid booking DL flights for awards, and if you do keep in mind that it will be almost impossible to change any part of your reservation later, unless you want to pay a lot more. On the upside, however, you can simply reprice and rebook an existing ticket, even if no flights are being changed, if the current price is lower. It does sometimes happen.
Jun 9, 2018, 12:44 am
#454
Join Date: Jun 2017
Posts: 56
If there are any DL flights on the ticket, it will be repriced at the current pricing level for those. Basically you are booking a new ticket first, and then releasing your old reservation back into the inventory (so right after you rebook it, someone else may be able to book the same flight at a lower level - may be). It's exactly the same as it is for revenue for award flights now involving DL flights, that it is always repriced at the current point-to-point availability and pricing.
If there are no DL flights on the ticket, then, however, you can make a change without there needing to be additional availability (e.g. if you have a KE flight booked in O that is staying put and you want to change another flight on the ticket, of course you cannot possibly get another seat on KE in O, and then it needs to be escalated to Global Ticketing Support who can use the less buggy old reservation system that is not going to try to pull new inventory for all the flights and just change the flights you want to change - it can be a hassle and take easily an hour or two, but it is doable).
In short, avoid booking DL flights for awards, and if you do keep in mind that it will be almost impossible to change any part of your reservation later, unless you want to pay a lot more. On the upside, however, you can simply reprice and rebook an existing ticket, even if no flights are being changed, if the current price is lower. It does sometimes happen.
If there are no DL flights on the ticket, then, however, you can make a change without there needing to be additional availability (e.g. if you have a KE flight booked in O that is staying put and you want to change another flight on the ticket, of course you cannot possibly get another seat on KE in O, and then it needs to be escalated to Global Ticketing Support who can use the less buggy old reservation system that is not going to try to pull new inventory for all the flights and just change the flights you want to change - it can be a hassle and take easily an hour or two, but it is doable).
In short, avoid booking DL flights for awards, and if you do keep in mind that it will be almost impossible to change any part of your reservation later, unless you want to pay a lot more. On the upside, however, you can simply reprice and rebook an existing ticket, even if no flights are being changed, if the current price is lower. It does sometimes happen.
Jun 9, 2018, 10:34 am
#455
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: HNL
Programs: DL PM/1MM, BW DE (lifetime), HH DE, Marriott PE (lifetime), National Emerald Executive
Posts: 7,205
That is excellent advice! Yes, once you've flown the Delta segments, then you should be able to change the non-Delta ones without pricing it out of the wazoo.