Award Booking Issue/False Advertising
 

I'm trying to book a biz awards flight from Chicago to Kenya transferring via Nairobi for May, 2018 (one way). The flight is from the US to Amsterdam on Delta One with the final leg to Nairobi on KLM. Oddly the KLM leg comes up as an economy (X Fare) even though it's a business award booking.

The main issue though is when I go to book (i.e. try to complete the order) it says no inventory is available. I called the medallion line and the agents ran into the same issue. They weren't sure how to solve it however simply blamed KLM and said there's nothing they could do. I've followed this itinerary for a few days and it has always shown availability and still shows availability today. Seems rather misleading to have it available to book in the system however not allow the transaction to go through.

Has anyone ran into a similar situation? Am I SOL or is there a way to escalate and resolve?

I'm a lowly gold medallion so I'm not counting on Delta going above and beyond the call of duty to address/solve the issue.

If you're trying to fly ORD to AMS nonstop connecting to a KLM flight to Nairobi, I strongly suspect that's the TATL flight is operated by KLM and not DL. Hence there would be no D1 on the flight. There might be a problem with the way this is being booked. In particular, check whether an award ticket should be booked with the DL codeshare or KLM flight number.

My suggestion would be to first look for dates with low or classic award availability (probably fare class O is needed, but check this) on the KLM flight from AMS to Nairobi, perhaps on EF or using the FB website, presumably in business class. Then look for DL TATL itineraries from Chicago to AMS that are available in low; don't search segment by segment for this.

Finally call DL and ask them to put it together on an award ticket by first (this can be important) putting the KLM flight segment to Africa on the PNR and then adding the DL flights from Chicago to AMS. Sometimes partner award flights are easier to confirm if there's nothing else on the PNR at the time.

Thanks. After calling again was able to book. The KLM leg from AMS to NBO is in economy however at least the overnight flight is in D1.

X class is indeed economy. Utilize the fare class codes to determine what it is booking in despite what things are called by name.