stephem

i think that is what i said, in far fewer words… except I didnt say anything about Canada or roundtrips.

italdesign

Got CGK-China Y for 17.5k + $30. I have some questions about that itin which I will ask in a separate thread, but if it works out (or even if it doesn't and cancellation turns out free), I'd consider it a great use of DL miles, considering the difficulty and expense of getting to China these days.

yoyo

SIN-HKG-HGH oneway CX J for 22.5K AA miles. It is a red eye 2 hr stopover in HKG but considering the cash price is 2.5K thats over 10 cents a point

matchbox20_is

Nice, but this thread is for SkyMiles redemptions.

flyerCO

95k OW Business

Aug 1

MEX-JFK AM408 (788)
JFK-LAX DL985 (764)
LAX-SYD DL041 (359)

DLATL777

Why not just fly MEX-LAX-SYD? Same number of miles and HOURS less travel time. 787 as well on MEX-LAX.

xliioper

Because the mileage amounts will be radically different when you start/end in US (or Canada). There's also the not so minor issue of AM not having any MEX-SYD flights from what I can see. DL has harmonized partner award levels with their own award levels for awards to/from US/Canada (as of last Fall). Awards which neither start nor end in US/Canada still generally have separate (much cheaper) award levels on partner metal redemptions. They aren't even that picky about which flights are on partner metal to qualify for them. On the previously available partner levels ex-US, the TPAC/TATL segment had to be flown on partner metal to qualify. On the partner awards out of Mexico/Caribbean, you just need a single flight on a partner to qualify for them.

I'm guessing the oddball routing above is to goose MQM/MQD earn.



At times in the past, DL would sometimes present broken fare awards which began in US and connected in MEX to places like LHR where US-MEX and MEX-LHR were on separate awards (with the MEX-LHR award being a cheap partner award). However, they look to have tightened up the fare end-on-end combination restrictions on awards between US and Mexico/Carribean and these redemptions are no longer being shown (and you now have to book the separate awards on separate tickets to achieve the same result).

flyerCO

In addition, earn extra MQM/MQD and to fly AM 787 MEX-LAX means at 10 hour layover at LAX.

This way I earn the extra and don't need to pay for a day use hotel on LA.

DLATL777

Just easily ticketed MEX-LAX-SYD for 95k. Wont use it but easily went through-the irony is the 10 hour layover is ideal if having anything work wise to do in LA before flying on. Its also much less flying-im not a mileage or status runner.

xliioper

Right, but your original post said LAX-MEX-SYD which is not the same thing I now realize you really meant to type MEX-LAX-SYD. Since MEX-LAX-SYD does not start or end in US, it qualifies for partner award levels.

DLATL777

Late Saturday nights will do this to you Folks. Indeed I did mean MEX-LAX-SYD.

Duke787

Did DL.com offer you this routing or did you have to manually search for it. I completely forgot about this option to get to SYD and unexpectedly need to travel there later this year -- grabbing an RDU - MEX cash flight would be easy if it meant getting 95k to SYD instead of 450k

xliioper

It's one of a number of possible routings offered. You can't manually force routings on a single fare component with multi-city search with either revenue or award searches any more. The multi-city fare search will force fare breaks on each search term when you try to do this and will not try to combine segments on a single fare component.

Duke787

In that case, dates I'm looking don't seem to have any AM saver availability. I'm getting 195k which is still much better than 350-450k but can't get it down to 95k. My actual destination is AKL and in both cases I'm getting crazy pricing with the AM segment included

flyerCO

Booked in app. Simply searched for MEX-SYD