briancw80

I'll be booking a trip to DUS, out of CMH, spanning the upcoming Xmas & New Years holiday period using miles.

On non-holiday timeframes, I can book this route for 60K miles. For the trip in question, presently, the minimum required miles is 90K.

My travel dates are roughly 12/20 (Wed) to 1/6 (Sat).

Is there much hope to see some awards open up at sub 90K for this approximate time? Or is this the most likely cost going forward?

Appreciate the feedback & insight.

**MODS** Please move to a more appropriate thread, if need be.

Cory6188

Reality is that anything within the 3 week period around Christmas/New Year's is going to be easily 50-100% more than what you would pay on average for any other time of year (for DL or any other airline). There's a tremendous amount of demand around that period, and the airlines know it - so they charge accordingly.

It's far enough out that there's no harm in waiting to see if the price drops, but I wouldn't get your hopes up.

jrl767

asked and well-answered ... time to make this a sticky

briancw80

An update for future people who may stumble across this thread and have the same type of thoughts/questions...it is possible to get a fairly good redemption level around the holiday, if you are diligent about it.

For our trip (12/20 - 1/7/18), we booked 5 tickets at 80K/ticket, 1 stop. I booked them in April. Since April, I have seen the redemption level drop to 70K a couple of times on the same route. And if you're not looking to have the most efficient route, 60K was possible, too. However, those redemption levels do not stick around for long. And for time periods a bit closer in to the holidays, slightly higher (but reasonable) redemptions were possible, although much less frequent.

Long story short, if you give yourself some time and keep a keen eye on your route, you should be able to book what you need at levels close to non-holiday pricing. If you do this, no need to settle for 50-100% higher than normal redemption levels.

ATLawyer

Just another data point. The past two years I have been able to book ATL-CDG/LHR-ATL leaving on or after xmas and returning after NYE at low business levels. First year I found availability for what I wanted in about Aug. Last year I didn't start looking until mid-Oct and was able to get all the flights I wanted in low by mid-Nov. I would check 2-3 times a day, and as soon as a flight I wanted opened in low, book it. Once I had all the flights booked, I called in to have them "re-coded" as round trip to avoid the ex-EU fees DL charges on one way flights to the US.

I did have to get creative with the return last year, going LHR-PHL-ATL, but that was available in low on Jan 3.

CO-PLAT

I employ a similar strategy. I have two 1-way PDX-SEA-HKG award tickets booked in biz for 80,000 each, departing 23-Dec. I have two 1-way BKK-PVG-LAX-PDX award tickets booked in biz for 80,000 each, returning 10-Jan.

I had to pay over $250 in taxes/fees for the return. Is it possible to call and have these two awards combined and get a refund of some of the taxes/fees?

briancw80

Interesting. I've never heard of this nor did I know this is something they could do...

And I'm curious like ATLawyer...did they refund to you the difference in taxes and fees after having the two tickets joined/recoded as a r/t?

xliioper

No, you can't avoid the carrier-imposed fees when flying partner metal to/from Asia. If you try to book this as a single itin, you will see they still get charged. The carrier imposed fees are not that bad here (a little more than half of the $250 -- the rest is taxes). Flying from the EU, they are often 200 EU or more for carrier-imposed fees alone.

btonkid12345

There is a DL-imposed surcharge for one-way tix starting from the EU, there only because other its the norm in the region amongst its competitors. This is not a fuel surcharge but an international origination surcharge.

This international origination surcharge for tix starting from EU (that is really the return of a US-originated roundtrip) is what the other posters are referencing that DL has returned to them.

ATLawyer

Yes. If you book, for example atl-fco rt the taxes/fees are like $11. If you book 2 one ways, the fco-atl is like $200 in fees/taxes. If it is true US origination travel, call them and they will refund you that ex-EU fee back down to the $11 of the rt.

I was returning via LHR which has huge fees regardless, but still got some $$ back when combining.

This is really an issue with the booking engine, which often won't let you book multi city award trip itineraries correctly, thus forcing two one way bookings instead of a rt.

briancw80

I see. That's awesome, had no idea that was a possibility. Certainly something I will be paying attention to for our next redemption. Thanks!

CO-PLAT

So now I have two one-way award tix as follows:

1. PDX-SEA-HKG $5.60 each in taxes/fees paid
2. SIN-NRT-PDX SGD76.10 ($55.74) each in taxes/fees paid

Should I be able to call in, get these trips combined into one and receive some amount of refund?