jt71903

We are planning to visit family in Hong Kong in October and want to book two award tickets. Each of us has about 86,000 miles but the best I can find right now is about 96,000 miles from a nearby airport.

Do you think there maybe more tickets within our range when the date gets closer like April/May? or we should buy additional miles to secure the tickets now?

MSPeconomist

exwannabe

I assume RT in economy? That is a good price.

I think in theory 70k exists, but it might be more theory than reality (unless you want to fly in somewhere else like Tapei, or fly out of somewhere else like LAX).

Note that dl.com does not do a good job of finding the best fares. You might need to make a few dozen phone calls to DL to see if they find anything better.

Probably not going to vanish next week though. The deal is not great.

xliioper

Yes, 70K would be the partner over-water rate (and also the lowest) - YSM350 at 35K each way. Can find some out of the west coast (SEA/SFO/LAX/YVR), but about the only place I can find them out of the east is from YYZ and JFK (very limited) on MU. KL and AF are about $900 RT out of ATL. I think that'd be a lot simpler and better value than trying find 70K flights where you will have to reposition. Fees on some partners can also be on the high side. Cheapest DL over-water rate looks to be 86K (YSV430 each way).

RealHJ

Try looking for flights to/from TPE. If you see that at the normal price, then call to book that and just add on TPE-HKG (DL does not show CI connections in TPE typically).

jt71903

It did show tickets for 70K with BNA-TPE. Did you mean that I could call the DL directly and book the tickets BNA-TPE-HKG with the same 70K?

RealHJ

Yes, 99% likely. Search separately for the TPE-HKG connecting flights to confirm availability of that (there are so many daily flights on that route and it's practically always open and available) before you call.

Connections in TPE don't show on dullta.com, and don't price out properly for agents, but at ticketing will price out right.

So yes, call and ask the DL res agents to put it together segment by segment (that is why you want to check which specific TPE-HKG flights are available and pick your preferred one before you call) or otherwise by going to advanced options and forcing a connection in TPE on CI. It's cumbersome (even for res agents), but works.

jt71903

Thanks for the great advice! I will try it and let you know how it goes.

RealHJ

Please do.

Not all agents know how to book the CI connections in TPE. So if an agent says no, just thank them politely, hang up, and call again - unfortunately that's what you have to sometimes do with DL, as its systems are very buggy and its staff are not very well trained in how to overcome the numerous bugs, issues and limitations.

I believe that TPE connections will incorrectly show as pricing out additive (i.e. >70K in your case here), but at ticketing it will be priced properly as a through-fare, if the connection is valid (i.e. <24 hours). So if you are sure the right flights in are in and the connection is under 24 hours, you may need to tell the agent to try to ticket it anyway, as the price displayed to them may be buggy and incorrect.

Just one caution: if you have any DL flights in the mix, as you do here, then pricing is not always straightforward, as DL flights now use married segment logic, and thus depending on your origin and destination may not be always available at the same pricing level. Not too likely to impact you here, but it could. (If you had no DL flights it would be easier and more certain.)

jt71903

@RealHJ, would this method also work for BNA-ICN (Seoul)? Since ICN is Delta's hub in Asia, we can have more options to choose from.

And is it okay if I skip the last flight from ATL-BNA? We may want to drive from Atlanta to Nashville to avoid another layover at ATL.

RealHJ

If you mean CI via TPE, then yes, sure, if the flights are available. Just be wary if any DL flights are included that then pricing can do all sorts of crazy things and be inconsistent (if it's DL-flights-free then you can be sure it'll price properly; moment you throw in any DL flights it's not certain anymore).

Skipping last flight is normally fine, though I think technically against CoC, but if you do it only once it's unlikely to cause real-world issues. But only last flight, any other flight segments you skip, the rest of the ticket becomes invalid.

exwannabe

One practical point on skipping that ATL-BNA leg. The drive is brutal after a TPAC (mine was the other way, but same point).

jt71903

Tried to call two agents at different times, both of them also tried to ticket the additional flight from TPE-HKG, but still showing that a separate ticket was needed. They were very patient and helpful for looking other options for me, but ended up still 105K miles was the minimum.

I think we are considering to buy tickets ourselves this time to give us more options to choose from.

Thanks for your help on this!

jt71903

It is not that bad for us, we always drive between Nashville and Atlanta.

RealHJ

Did they actually ticket it and did it actually price out as additive? It's a well known and several years long bug that the system they are using prices it out wrong. It gives additive pricing, but when it's actually ticketed it is priced properly as a through fare. Basically, the agents need to ignore the wrong price on their screen and need to refer to the pricing/award chart to find the real price it'll be charged, as long as it's a valid connection.

Most likely you had agents who were not aware of this several years long standing bug, that displays pricing incorrect in their system, and unaware that when actually ticketed it'll be priced properly.

If they forced it through to ticket, it would have (most likely) priced out correctly vs. additively