All long-haul SU awards are zeroed out through end-of-schedule, confirmed by SkyMiles
Mar 5, 2018, 8:10 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: ZRH / SEA, DL PM
Posts: 1,163
All long-haul SU awards are zeroed out through end-of-schedule, confirmed by SkyMiles
SVO-Europe and Russian domestic Aeroflot (SU) awards are still available for SkyMiles redemption, but no SVO-JFK/LAX/MIA/HKG/PEK/PVG/HKG/ICN/NRT/etc available through the end of schedule in any class. There is some phantom availability online if you book connecting flight like JFK-SVO-PRG on SU but it ends up unavailable when you try to book.
I spent 30 minute call with Skymiles rep, who basically confirmed that SU is zeroed out for long haul and she said it was SU who was blocking awards and there was nothing they could do. Looks like another enhancement! Does anyone has FlyingBlue or other SkyTeam membership to verify if these flights are still offered to other SkyTeam member airlines?
Many of long haul SU awards were easily available just a few weeks ago.
I think if DL is not offering long-haul SU, it should be explicitly mentioned on the partner awards section on delta.com.
I spent 30 minute call with Skymiles rep, who basically confirmed that SU is zeroed out for long haul and she said it was SU who was blocking awards and there was nothing they could do. Looks like another enhancement! Does anyone has FlyingBlue or other SkyTeam membership to verify if these flights are still offered to other SkyTeam member airlines?
Many of long haul SU awards were easily available just a few weeks ago.
I think if DL is not offering long-haul SU, it should be explicitly mentioned on the partner awards section on delta.com.
Mar 6, 2018, 12:38 am
#2
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: HNL
Programs: DL PM/1MM, BW DE (lifetime), HH DE, Marriott PE (lifetime), National Emerald Executive
Posts: 7,205
This is becoming more and more the trend. Multiple award levels or not, more and more airlines and reserving more award inventory for their own FFPs and releasing ever less to others w/in the alliance. It's like a death of alliances in very slow motion.
SU, KL/AF, GA, KE, and I believe some other SkyTeam airlines - obviously also DL (that is what started all this, arguably) - are restricting ever more award availability to others (e.g. KE to 1O/2X per flight on Mon-Thu, with Fri-Sun usually totally blocked).
Same is true in other alliances also. Want to fly on LH? Don't even dream of booking it using UA, AC, or other *A miles during anything close to peak season. With LH miles, however, availability is good.
So, it'll become increasingly important to bank miles in multiple FFPs, including airlines w/in the same alliance. Of course it's also defeating the whole purpose of an alliance, where you could fly 8 different airlines in a single RT trip and get much better routing on an award than you ever could on a revenue flight. But, that is the trend. It's very slow, but very surely, moving toward this.
SU, KL/AF, GA, KE, and I believe some other SkyTeam airlines - obviously also DL (that is what started all this, arguably) - are restricting ever more award availability to others (e.g. KE to 1O/2X per flight on Mon-Thu, with Fri-Sun usually totally blocked).
Same is true in other alliances also. Want to fly on LH? Don't even dream of booking it using UA, AC, or other *A miles during anything close to peak season. With LH miles, however, availability is good.
So, it'll become increasingly important to bank miles in multiple FFPs, including airlines w/in the same alliance. Of course it's also defeating the whole purpose of an alliance, where you could fly 8 different airlines in a single RT trip and get much better routing on an award than you ever could on a revenue flight. But, that is the trend. It's very slow, but very surely, moving toward this.
Mar 6, 2018, 2:37 am
#3
Join Date: Feb 2018
Programs: Delta Skymiles
Posts: 35
Sadly, this is actually a move by SU who starts block the partner redemptions on long-haul flights. I have tried to use FlyingBlue and Skypass and agents from neither programs can see the award space although the space is available to SU's own members.
Currently, for a certain long-haul SU flight, only certain days in a month (for example, every Thursday in March) would be available for partner booking.
Currently, for a certain long-haul SU flight, only certain days in a month (for example, every Thursday in March) would be available for partner booking.
Mar 6, 2018, 6:28 am
#4
Join Date: Feb 2016
Programs: DL DM, SPG Plat 100/LT Gold, Marriott Plat, National Executive Elite
Posts: 2,988
SVO-Europe and Russian domestic Aeroflot (SU) awards are still available for SkyMiles redemption, but no SVO-JFK/LAX/MIA/HKG/PEK/PVG/HKG/ICN/NRT/etc available through the end of schedule in any class. There is some phantom availability online if you book connecting flight like JFK-SVO-PRG on SU but it ends up unavailable when you try to book.
I spent 30 minute call with Skymiles rep, who basically confirmed that SU is zeroed out for long haul and she said it was SU who was blocking awards and there was nothing they could do. Looks like another enhancement! Does anyone has FlyingBlue or other SkyTeam membership to verify if these flights are still offered to other SkyTeam member airlines?
Many of long haul SU awards were easily available just a few weeks ago.
I think if DL is not offering long-haul SU, it should be explicitly mentioned on the partner awards section on delta.com.
I spent 30 minute call with Skymiles rep, who basically confirmed that SU is zeroed out for long haul and she said it was SU who was blocking awards and there was nothing they could do. Looks like another enhancement! Does anyone has FlyingBlue or other SkyTeam membership to verify if these flights are still offered to other SkyTeam member airlines?
Many of long haul SU awards were easily available just a few weeks ago.
I think if DL is not offering long-haul SU, it should be explicitly mentioned on the partner awards section on delta.com.
You cannot speak to any real SkyMiles Reps on the phone yourself. A Gold Medallion line agent searching 1 or 2 routes and telling you it is "basically zeroed out" does not mean what the agent said is true. I also doubt a short search by a random phone agent justifies generalizing a partner's action.
I bet many of these routes will again become available on certain married segment routes where DL doesn't have closer partner relationships with corresponding awards to offer.
But your phone conversation does not in any way prove SkyMiles or SU have zeroed out award availability. Silly to think so.
Mar 6, 2018, 7:48 am
#5
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: DCA
Programs: DL DM, AA EXP, various hotel
Posts: 2,227
HIGHLY MISLEADING thread title, and a continuation of a trend of hyperbole.
You cannot speak to any real SkyMiles Reps on the phone yourself. A Gold Medallion line agent searching 1 or 2 routes and telling you it is "basically zeroed out" does not mean what the agent said is true. I also doubt a short search by a random phone agent justifies generalizing a partner's action.
I bet many of these routes will again become available on certain married segment routes where DL doesn't have closer partner relationships with corresponding awards to offer.
But your phone conversation does not in any way prove SkyMiles or SU have zeroed out award availability. Silly to think so.
You cannot speak to any real SkyMiles Reps on the phone yourself. A Gold Medallion line agent searching 1 or 2 routes and telling you it is "basically zeroed out" does not mean what the agent said is true. I also doubt a short search by a random phone agent justifies generalizing a partner's action.
I bet many of these routes will again become available on certain married segment routes where DL doesn't have closer partner relationships with corresponding awards to offer.
But your phone conversation does not in any way prove SkyMiles or SU have zeroed out award availability. Silly to think so.
And if you’re so offended by the OP, there’s an easy rebuttal—find longhaul SU award space.
Mar 6, 2018, 12:29 pm
#7
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: PSC
Programs: Hilton Diamond/IHG Platinum/DL Plutononium
Posts: 1,728
Looks like revenue tickets are also being blocked out. Checked JFK/MIA/LAX-SVO (all cities with SU nonstops) with no results found for April/May
Mar 6, 2018, 3:31 pm
#8
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: ZRH / SEA, DL PM
Posts: 1,163
OP here, apologies for "generalization" after searching a few routes, but I challenge anyone to find a single SU long haul seat for Skymiles redemption in any class. I could not. The only exception is SVO-TFS which is available on some dates, but it's redeemed at European mileage levels despite being 7-hour flight , so not a long haul from mileage prospective. Nothing on JFK/MIA/LAX/HKG/PEK/ICN/NRT/BKK/HKT/MLE/PVG/SGN/etc.
Agent I talked to searched a few routes through the end of schedule and called SkyMiles support desk as well, who confirmed the routes seemed to be zeroed out and blamed SU.
Agent I talked to searched a few routes through the end of schedule and called SkyMiles support desk as well, who confirmed the routes seemed to be zeroed out and blamed SU.
Last edited by AntonS; Mar 6, 2018 at 3:41 pm
Mar 7, 2018, 2:27 pm
#10
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: LAX
Posts: 10,909
Not too long ago AF could not see SU award space with AF CSRs claiming it was SU's fault...DL could easily see and book those back then
(on a semirelated note I would love to see SU join *A as speculated a few years back or better yet OW)
Mar 7, 2018, 9:27 pm
#11
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 877
If expertflyer can see O award space then how can this be SU blocking them? Is O still considered ST bus award?
Not too long ago AF could not see SU award space with AF CSRs claiming it was SU's fault...DL could easily see and book those back then
(on a semirelated note I would love to see SU join *A as speculated a few years back or better yet OW)
Not too long ago AF could not see SU award space with AF CSRs claiming it was SU's fault...DL could easily see and book those back then
(on a semirelated note I would love to see SU join *A as speculated a few years back or better yet OW)
actually, it is kinda crazy no SkyTeam partner can see O space from Aeroflot.
Mar 8, 2018, 4:58 am
#13
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: ZRH / SEA, DL PM
Posts: 1,163
It's phantom availability -- you can see JFK-SVO-XXX, but JFK-SVO is not available and every time II trie to book such connection, it gave me "fare sold out" after taking my credit card info.
II asked DL plat desk about this and after some research she came back and said it was a known issue with SU and website should not list JFK-SVO-XXX when JFK-SVO is unavailable.
Now thinking about it.... maybe connections are built based on "O" which seems to be available according to some posts (maybe it's "too costly" to pull availability from each partner when building connecting flights, so it's pulled / cached from GDS) and direct flights are pulled directly from SU? Once you hit purchase button on connecting flight, DL goes to SU anyway and it comes back unconfirmd. At least it would give some possible explanation of phantom availability?
II asked DL plat desk about this and after some research she came back and said it was a known issue with SU and website should not list JFK-SVO-XXX when JFK-SVO is unavailable.
Now thinking about it.... maybe connections are built based on "O" which seems to be available according to some posts (maybe it's "too costly" to pull availability from each partner when building connecting flights, so it's pulled / cached from GDS) and direct flights are pulled directly from SU? Once you hit purchase button on connecting flight, DL goes to SU anyway and it comes back unconfirmd. At least it would give some possible explanation of phantom availability?
Mar 18, 2018, 4:47 pm
#14
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: USA
Programs: Alaska MVP Gold 100K/ One World Emerald
Posts: 257
So glad someone directed me to this forum! I thought I was going crazy trying to find routes to get to Moscow from the US. I was thinking that there was no availability due to the World Cup but there's no availability though Feb. I had a SkyMiles agent check from here through Feb and she stated there was availability from LAX to SVO at all. That's terrible that SU is not releasing any bookings- one would think that that would violate some rules of the alliance. I think someone mentioned and I agree that if we can't book a single flight from the US to Russia on, they should be de-listed as a partner of Delta since there is no current partnership.
Does anyone know if SU Frequent Flyers can book their award miles on Delta metal? If so Delta should start blocking award seats for SU as well. If it's that Delta can't do that with one partner- i.e. releasing an award goes to all the SkyTeam then Delta needs to complain to the SkyTeam alliance. If SU only has fares from Europe to the SU open- it seems that only non-European partners of the SkyTeam are being hurt by this- mainly Delta which has to be the largest non-European based member of the Sky Team. Can we write to someone at the SkyTeam or Delta to complain about this? I understand if Delta can't do anything about it but surely they can complain about it to the SkyMiles alliance on our behalf.
Does anyone know if SU Frequent Flyers can book their award miles on Delta metal? If so Delta should start blocking award seats for SU as well. If it's that Delta can't do that with one partner- i.e. releasing an award goes to all the SkyTeam then Delta needs to complain to the SkyTeam alliance. If SU only has fares from Europe to the SU open- it seems that only non-European partners of the SkyTeam are being hurt by this- mainly Delta which has to be the largest non-European based member of the Sky Team. Can we write to someone at the SkyTeam or Delta to complain about this? I understand if Delta can't do anything about it but surely they can complain about it to the SkyMiles alliance on our behalf.
Last edited by Sky Dreamer; Mar 18, 2018 at 5:01 pm