jrl767

we went LHR-JFK in summer 2008 upstairs on the 744 (the whole day was AMS-LHR-JFK-DCA, so no opportunity for the Clubhouse -- and since I wasn't FTing at that time I don't think I even knew or cared about those sort of things ) ... my then-17-year-old son was totally impressed, and of course my wife was about the most relaxed I've ever seen her on a flight
it took a 2-minute call to VS but was basically painless

arkangel

Both yesterday, and today, I tried to book two low level J award tickets that included an AF segment, specifically CDG-MAN, as part of a CDG-MAN-JFK itinerary. Online showed two seats available for the trip. I went thru the booking process and clicked on "complete purchase," only to find the screen go "gray" and go no further.

So, I called the PLT line and the agent proceeded to input the flights that I had just done so online. She had the same issue, with the AF segment actually telling her "sale denied." Is this common, that the award shows being available initially, but when trying to actually reserve, comes back "unavailable?"

KDCAflyer

CVG-ATL-LHR; AMS-MSP

All low-level J. Flying out of AMS to avoid ~$300 per ticket UK Air Passenger Duty. Using BA Avios to fly LHR-AMS. Still have to find a good way to get from MSP-CVG. R level space just opened up on MSP-CVG, but they won't let me add it onto the reservation without repricing the whole thing at a higher level. Pretty sure you used to be able to do that.

flyerCO

Yes they did use to let you add piece meal to your itinerary. However with the change to forced enforcement of married segments/pricing based on origin/destination, they've made it so that the whole ticket has to be available. I'm still able to find agents willing to do it, but it's becoming harder and harder to find one.

mattp1987

Good thing about being PM or DM is that you can just keep trying to add the segments rather than having to get it done before risk-free cancellation expires. But I agree, it's definitely not as easy as it used to be. Having only one domestic DL flight connection to international partner flights seems to make it somewhat easier.

KDCAflyer

Three different agents, the international reissue desk, and the Singapore call center all told me that they were unable to add the segment without using additional miles. Two of them told me that the system was hard-coded to prevent agents from doing a manual reissue.

If this is indeed the case, it seems that I've found yet another stealth devaluation, and a pretty major one at that.

baccarat_king

Doesn't adding LHR-AMS increase your elapsed travel time quite a bit. And, while I agree the devaluations of Avios have been supreme, there is still a mileage+taxes cost for your LHR-AMS Avios flights. True, perhaps not $300 in total valuation/cost... but, perhaps a lot of inconvenience.

I guess, it just gets kind of depressing when to use miles you are adding so much inconvenience like the extra LHR-AMS segment and the trouble of now coordinating your MSP-CVG final segment. In my personal life, I only use miles (90% low) when the flights and flight times are optimal. Otherwise, I pass and just wait for another opportunity. Of course, we are a family of five that constantly "shuffles" back and forth to Europe (and some trips to Asia)... so there are many opportunities throughout the year...

discstickers

Picked up 2 J seats on AM's 787 MEX-CDG-FCO (to replace my earlier JFK-CDG-FCO).

foofiter

This (minor) success is not typical of this thread but thought I would share anyway.

On the surface it sounds bad but it really worked out well for me in the end.

On December 26th I was scheduled to fly a Southwest award ticket from JAX to ATL at 8PM. At 10AM on December 26th I got a delay notification of 2 hours.

Having just flown ATL-JAX on Southwest inbound December 23 and I was delayed 6 hours (weather, 3 AM arrival) I didn't like the idea of being delayed again. I checked all other flights between ATL and JAX and no others were delayed on any airline in either direction that I could find. No weather in the area that I could see causing my delay.

I checked and saw an ideally timed Delta flight JAX-ATL was 20,000 + $5.60. It was "expensive" in miles for a short one way domestic economy ticket. Cash price was $450++

I first called Southwest and they had no other alternatives to offer me. I was stuck with a delay which had now grown to 3 hours. Not wanting another 3AM arrival I cancelled the southwest ticket (free) and booked the Delta flight for 20k Skypesos + $5.60.

While I always strive to redeem at the lowest level there are a few cases, like this one, where paying a higher price makes sense for me. There is no close in booking charge and I got home at a reasonable hour. For the record my Southwest flight I was originally booked on got in 4 hours late (after midnight so no more MARTA trains home for me) and would have had me waiting around for quite a long time.

I call this one a great success!

KDCAflyer

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mattp1987

I mentioned this cryptically on another thread a couple months ago, but now that it's been awhile and I've made some changes due to schedule changes without agents even mentioning repricing I'll go ahead and share openly.

Originally ticketed SAT-DTW-MUC and IAD-DTW-MUC at 62.5k/person on the day the flights came available. When return flights opened up I called to add them because 1) I wanted to avoid European origination fee on a one-way and 2) I wanted to add an overnight (<24 hr) stop in London.

The agent added LUX-AMS-LHR-DTW-IAD to the first ticket and then actually apologized it would price as 92.5k. At first I thought he meant an add-collect of 92.5k, but I was ecstatic when I realized he meant total price. I actually only had about 115k miles in my account at the time, so I was planning to call back the next week after my AMEX statement closed to add the return on the second ticket. Instead, I was able to add LUX-AMS-LHR-DTW-SAT to that one which also priced at a total of 92.5k roundtrip.

I have no idea whether any of this was caused by combining partners (KL, VS, along with DL domestic), having an open jaw, stopping overnight on an itinerary that isn't normally shown in search results, or some other glitch. Regardless, I'm happy about it because I saved 60k miles and didn't have to worry about space disappearing while I waited for my credit card miles to post.

KDCAflyer

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seychellesbound

Sounds like they charged you for Y one-way. I would make sure both the outbound and inbound are indeed in J.

KDCAflyer

Deleted

mattp1987

Same here. I checked my itinerary and receipt on DL.com, and my itineraries on the KL and VS websites including seat selection on the operating carrier sites.

BTW, I'm fine deleting the original post. Maybe we should leave them up for another day or so in order for a few more FTers to see them. No agent has mentioned anything about it to me, and I've made a couple calls for changes due to several schedule changes.