StayingHomeIsBetter

I have a business trip to Denmark in late October and started looking for options for my wife to join me after the business is concluded.

Checked Copenhagen, Hamburg, and Berlin so far. No award seats available in the late October, early November time frame.

Did find some random dates in December where a Delta One fare was 720,000 miles.

I'm so glad that the DL partner network is adding so much value to membership in the SkyMiles program.

I can't get an award ticket to the capital city of Germany, 3 months out? Really?

I can buy a ticket to any of these cities, but no mileage tickets 3 months out. Ludicrous.

I guess that I should just be satisfied if both I and my luggage arrive in the same city domestically within 2 or 3 days of the originally scheduled arrival.

Pianoman109876

Routing? Dates?

I did a super random check and I’m seeing several options DTW-CPH and DTW-BER on Tues-Thurs Oct 24-26…including some 35k mile one ways.

VFR

Well... you might want to check some destinations that Delta flies to in October and November . Although you can book any seat on Delta metal with SkyMiles (for absurd prices), you have to find award availability to book a connecting journey with a partner airline like Air France or KLM. In October and November, you will have to connect through AMS or CDG (or MAD) to get to any of those cities.

I think a saver award for US-Europe is 105,000 SkyMiles one way for Delta-operated flights and 120,000 SkyMiles one way for partner-operated flights. So the best you can do for business class will be about 210,000 SkyMiles per person round trip.

xliioper

I guess we're assuming OP is only looking for J rewards, and not coach, even though this is not explicitly stated. As already noted, there looks to be reasonable partner availability in coach to these destinations at the partner rate of 35K miles each way. The fact that international J availability and pricing tends to be very poor with Skymiles program is not exactly news around here.

While partner metal J awards to/from EU are still 120K each-way (with 60-day advance purchase), the 105K (each-way with roundtrip booking required) DL metal D1 EU awards look to be completely gone. For anyone looking for reasonable pricing on DL metal D1 EU awards, you'll likely need to hope for another 48-hour sale like they had a couple weeks ago (148K miles roundtrip). Note that these D1 sales require 100% DL metal (so they wouldn't be available to cities like HAM and BER which are only served by partner metal).
DL metal D1 EU awards now look to be route-based (rather than region/continent based) and about the cheapest available look to be BOS-LHR for 220K roundtrip (JFK-LHR is slightly more at 230K roundtrip). Most other routes now look to be 310K-360K roundtrip as lowest-level for DL metal D1 awards.

Adam1222

There are a lot of complaints in this post, but I'll focus on the fact that talking about "the capital city of Germany" is a bit non sequitur. Berlin is the 3rd largest airport in Germany, with less than half the passenger volume of Frankfurt. There are very few transatlantic flights there.
But moreover, it's pretty irrelevant to your post. If you're looking at partner business class award availability only three months out, the best bet is to start with the transatlantic route and then go from there. Many European routes have very few business class seats and that may be tripping up your search.
If you'd like assistance, providing specifics on where your wife would be flying from would be helpful.

StayingHomeIsBetter

Preferably departing from PHL, outbound on 10/28, returning on 11/5 or 11/6.

jimrpa

departing from PHL makes things even MORE problematic. You’re asking to depart from what is arguably the most expensive city in Delta’s network (and I have no idea why). Perhaps consider a departure from WAS? I hate to suggest a NYC departure because the PHL-NYC logistics are nightmarish, but is that a possibility? Also, Europe has better trains than we do - perhaps look for a flight to a less expensive European destination, coupled with a train?
Or, do what I usually end up doing - miles and points? Or, and I hate to say this - consider another airline and buy a ticket if you must have specific city pairs and dates?

Goodoldflyer

Late October is only two months out. Given that GUCs are running out in January, and a lot of folks are traveling again after having been pent up for two years, I can imagine you might have to spend some miles for award business travel.

flyerfirsts

The times have changed. Once upon a time ticket pricing to Europe bottomed out approximately 4 months out. You now have to be far earlier.

Dawgfan6291

Pent up demand and reduced capacity due to lack of airplanes/crews/airplanes in mods etc = a pain in the ....

Next year Europe should be a lot better in theory. A few more flights but i expect seasons of a lot of stuff will be extended. More 339s/359s this year and I think like 8-10 more 339s next year. And PS mods will be complete on the 767/330CEO fleet.

lindros2

well stated.
My mother gave up on PHL and EWR, and now flies out of ... ACY (not Delta).

xliioper

D1 awards are now market-based to EU (different award levels between different city pairs) and cheapest award levels are only available from large, competitive DL gateway cities (basically, JFK and BOS). There are roundtrip D1 awards available from 210K on JFK-FRA, but you won't get anything near that low from JFK to BER, CPH, or HAM (let alone from PHL). The 210K award levels require mid-week travel (cheapest award level for weekend travel is 230K miles roundtrip) and a 60-day advance purchase (which means they will no longer be available for late October/early November travel in another week or so). The partner business class award rate to Europe is 240K roundtrip, but partner availability tends to be very limited. This rate also requires a 60-day advance purchase (there are different partner rates for 21-day and no advance purchase awards).

M60_to_LGA

How is that nightmarish? It's a perfectly easy (if long) trip by train from Philly to JFK. And can be as cheap as $25 o/w, if booked a few weeks in advance.