nichojo

That's a great deal and have looked at it myself. Too bad CI is stingy like KE with the # of seats they let loose for award bookings.

SFCav

Lax - cdg - tnr (Madagascar) on AF in business on their 777 with "Best" seats for 95k SkyMiles one way, which includes a 22 hour stopover in Paris (who could turn down spending a night in Paris?!). That ticket was nearly $11k, so, I'd consider that a good redemption!

flyerCO

I usually use mine for JNB-AMS-XXX-SYD in J. OW is 85k last time i booked about three months ago.

miklcct

In my region I can choose between Star Alliance and Skyteam on the same routes with frequent flights throughout the day. I'll accumulate Delta for Skyteam and Aegean for Star Alliance, since they both never expire. Which one is more valuable to redeem HKG-TPE round-trip economy? (~1400 HKD = ~180 USD to buy using money)?

gooselee

I booked 8 ATL-MCO RTs for 9k each (+$11.60 or whatever) for Mrs. Lee and her friends doing a girls' trip. All same flights. I was sort of surprised that kind of inventory was available...I figured I'd have to do 3 at one rate, 2 at another, and then tell the rest to just pay cash after DL detects "increased demand" for that one flight.

Tickets were around $250 at the time, so actually a very decent redemption value, and also allowed a couple folks who were tentative to basically go ahead and secure refundable tickets since they're coming from my PM account.

Maybe domestic short-haul coach is the new sweet-spot for DL redemptions. Can't say I mind it, really. I'll happily save a bunch of cash on those trips and then not be locked into SkyTeam for int'l J trips just because that's where most of my miles are.

drminn

I booked several MSP-SLC flights for this coming winter for 22K miles. The cash price is between $400 - $500. And best of all, as a PM I can cancel if the snow conditions are not good.

I also booked several MSP-CLE flights (I know, not exactly an aspirational route) for 20K miles. The cash price is $400+.

SFCav

I just searched for this but it keeps coming back with an error message. Is it something you'd have to call in for?

floridagal23

We booked JNB NYC in J (VS operated) for 70k pp and NYC JRO in J (klm) in J for 65k a few years ago.

flyerCO

There's limited flights that connect to begin with. Also partner award searches have been broke for a bit. Priced out JNB-CDG-PVG-AKL in J for 90k on Nov 8th. Had to use DL App or m.delta.com

Also on 8th, JNB-CDG-SGN-SYD. All in J for 90k via app or m.delta.com

shimps1

SYD>CAN>HND for 65k pp in J on CZ, got 2 seats booked. However this was booked nearly exactly 331 days out.

Tacked on NRT>DTW>DSM to that for 80k pp, and lucked out b/c NRT>DTW is the first route to get the A350, I was going to have to suffer through a 772 flight.

safigan

ATL-PDX-ATL nonstop: 24k miles

It's difficult to get a good deal on NS out of ATL but this is an example. It even includes a Monday morning flight. It's also seasonal; no way was I getting this deal for summer travel to PDX. Note: I booked these a few days ago. When I checked again just now they were 36k miles. So maybe it makes sense to check back often (kind of like a slot machine?)

xliioper

There are currently 18K awards with 14-day advance purchase and 15K awards with 60-day advance purchase on the non-stop. However, there are currently 10.5K awards on the ATL-LAX non-stop with 14-day advance purchase, and there are also 5K LAX-PDX awards. So the system will price out a 15.5K broken fare award option at times by combining those. This information is available in the fare rules when you select a flight option.
There are some hidden city opportunities (if you don't mind violating the CoC) for the return as you can book PDX-ATL-STL or PDX-ATL-DFW for 11K miles one-way.