daloosh

Booked JFK-BCN for three in February. I already have a summer booking, but it was 231K miles for C+ while here I'm getting D1 for 294K miles. Now, since it was summer I could book longer than a week, build in an eight hour layover in AMS to get a bite to eat in town, but BCN is almost 90 degrees in summer. And, I didn't have any plans yet for spring break so I booked it and now we can discuss when to go for the next couple months. The non-stops in February are sadly 767-400s, while the summer nonstops are A330s.

pulpfiction78

....! Here I was 2 weeks ago panicking to make sure I booked a SEA-AMS round trip. Used miles for a D1 upgrade..

Now an almost identical route is much much cheaper. If I were to try and rearrange it and make a second booking, would my only option be to pay a change fee for a flight Long way down the road and hope for a 30+ minute change allowing me to cancel completely? I am DM if it helps.

3Cforme

The published rule is greater than 90-minute change, not 30. (Or misconnect/below MCT.)

btonkid12345

Just to make sure - you searched for the roundtrip in J, but picked J on the way out and Y back, and it still priced at 49K outbound in J and 13K return in Y?

Did you just pick from different columns while selecting or what? Usually it allows J on the return with Y on the outbound, but not the other way around like you have...

OWs to Europe are now 86K minimum. The 70K level is gone.

Only 12K more miles to get the return in D1 (suites)? Yes, please.

I would book the new one with miles that's cheaper.

The system could auto cancel one or both as a duplicate and then you can have the one you want reinstated.

Or, book the new one, call and ask nicely what they can do for your other duplicate. They may just let you refund it now (don't forget operating carrier changes also allow for a change or refund for free)

btonkid12345

Check again now. They seem to have reloaded a bunch of inventory.

A flight where I bought the last 98K ticket last night is now showing 4 additional seats on that same flight available now again for the 98K level.

And another flight I bought that had a 10 hour layover now has 1, 4, and 7 hour layover options too for the same price (where last night they were 2x or more).

ncwillett

I snagged 2 RT to Dublin for late March/early April trip (which we'd been thinking about doing anyway), and then our friends immediately booked the same deal. Cash price was almost $7k, so around 7 cents/mile redemption. That's a darn good redemption in my book.

jdrtravel

I'm curious what incentivizes DL to offer this much discounted award J inventory? Does it help them clear out a bunch of miles from the books all at once?

TechMarauder

tearex

Thanks for the tip! I was checking for different itineraries last night for better options than my original booking, but didn't find anything. I was able to change from CDG to AMS this morning, now on A330 out, A350 back!

pfreet

Booked JAX-ATL-CDG-ATL-JAX in February. 98k miles plus $133. New 777 suites. What a deal! Thanks for posting this.

3Cforme

Probably not. They hold a lot of miles on the books. 345 Billion (with a B) SkyMiles were redeemed in 2017 for 14.9 million awards according to the annual report. (Compare that to the number of D1 seats flown to Europe over the promo period.) As for Delta's the liability for miles, it's not trivial, but valuations get split into multiple components. Only the transportation component - when you fly on an award ticket - has the revenue deferred. The marketing component - say, the award of miles by Amex - gets recognized immediately. The trope of 'getting miles off the books' doesn't really have much value in this situation.

jdrtravel

So then it's just about building brand value & loyalty for Sky Miles?

pulpfiction78

Ok. For what I'd want to do I don't think I have the time to go through all the work to change and not know 100% it would work. Seems risky and time consuming..

I booked here Upgrade w/ Miles, Milage Value 2x tickets for $1,200/ea, and 65k each leg for D1. I would want to change 1 passenger to full cash fare and the other passenger to the special offer.

Advice?

emag_eh7

The route I was going to book (SEA-AMS, AMS-PDX-SEA) was available, I transferred over 10k MR to top off for the redemption, and then it was gone... It was going to be my first time to Europe, first time flying J/F, anniversary trip with my SO, etc. and its just gone. That hurt.

pulpfiction78

When I was looking at SEA-AMS-SEA options I was seeing plenty through airports like SLC, LAX, MSP and DTW. Those routes were not an option for you? Some of the other routes are in the new D1 Suites.