yw_a330

Only 100k? Isn't it 80k in Y and 120k in J for Europe - Asia?

Edit:
Nevermind, didn't see the return was from KTM...

Bowgie

Two tickets in coach for LAX-OGG in May for 40k + $5 tax each (the published "low" redemption rate for Hawaii). Yeah, a lousy value in terms of cents per mile, so don't make me feel worse by reminding me. Booked on Delta's calendar with lots of mid-week availability.

amtrakusa

Was this done online with multi city or by calling Delta?

jjglaze77

WOW! You must have some pretty strong confidence in delta.com!

Kingfisher? China Southern? Jet? Non-US Award origination? delta.com? HA!

ekartash

hahaha. definitely not online. it took some knowledgeable agents and A LOT of patience on my part. I would call, put some segments on hold, adjust my trip, repeat. I learned from this site not to take no for an answer.

"there is no availability on kingfisher"
"are you sure? you didnt even ask me for my friends name. how were you able to request seats?
"i checked our system. no availability"
"can you please check with another agent or supervisor"
"ok (with attitude)"
"thank you"
"what is your friends name?"
"mr. delta"
"just checked and there are seats available"

oh you have to love delta!!! they make this such an adventure

Savage25

How long did they allow you to put Kingfisher segments on hold?

For future reference, Expertflyer now shows IT First award class (Z), so its easy to find award availability online before calling. Redeeming on IT was the best feature of the WP program for me; glad its still around for this year at least with DL before IT joins oneworld next year.

chuckd

I was planning a trip to London and used both the internet and the phone agents to look for flights; the cheapest both could do was 125k miles and $250 for economy. After deciding to stop being lazy and actually take an FT- approach to it I thought of other places I'd like to go that might be good connections/ stopovers. So now I have the following (where ???= me forgetting because it doesn't matter): BNA-???-FRA-AMS-LHR-CDG-MAD-???-BNA, with all but one segment (a short domestic) in biz or first, with total cost being 100k miles and $166. Knowing how easy it is to get into town I played the 23-hour stopover game in FRA and AMS and will spend a few days in Spain visiting friends. This is for the end of April/ early May.

kahuna613

This is the norm, it's ridiculous, and it's why I hate calling in to talk with people at Delta. I went through the same charade over flights on Malaysia. Customers should not have to argue with or teach the people who answer the phone because they have not been trained correctly or are outrightly lazy.

DL2SXM

I had been looking for about a month now for a RT business class ticket, only 240K had been coming up, until this morning. I must have looked well in excess of a hundred times for low to med availability. This morning, I found a combi of low and med. the itin is as follows, all in BE.

JFK to BKK connecting in NRT all on DL metal. then, SIN to JFK connecting in NRT and again, all flights on DL metal. Total mileage for the itin was 170K plus $72.00 in redemption fees.

Not great but not bad either. I am happy. I can stop worrying when my budget promo miles and american cellar promo miles will post!

For shyts and giggles, I went back to the award calendar and tried to book another BE ticket for the same itin and I get a message saying that the fare just sold out, guess I got the last ticket for that mileage amount. Doesnt make sense though as I couldnt even get a ticket for that mileage amount up until today anyway.

Oh, and I had to use the 'schedule' option to find the ticket.

jabez

And that,sir,is ther secret to winning on Delta-at least for now. Congrats!

mot29

DCA-DTW-NGO 5/9
NGO-NRT-PVG 5/14
PVG-DTW-DCA 5/21

All flights in first/business (upper deck 77 and 73 for the 747 flights^)


180,000 miles and $65.90 taxes and fees.

In the past I've booked this on nwa.com (and cancelled several times) at 120,000 miles and taxes but am relatively satisfied with this booking -- given that the Shanghai Expo will have already opened.

And although it looks like PVG-DTW is the 777LR with sleeper seats on some days, the day I'm flying it will be an ER. Or I have the designations confused, but the day I'm flying it is 2-2-2 up front and not 1-2-1.

DL2SXM

sad but true.

wilsonnyc

I guess I have to qualify this as a "success", even though it seemed more like dumb luck than anything.

Using the Calendar, I was able to book 2 tickets in First/Business

JFK>MAD 8/31
MAD>JFK 9/14

for 100K each ticket + $33 in fees

Looks like the lie flat seats both ways as well.

I'm not sure what I was more shocked at: the luck that using the calendar to find dates actually worked (that itin was just about perfect before checking anything else) or that they had "low" avails for 2 tickets at all. That same itin is now 200K per ticket.

Funny - with all the talk about how the calendar is busted and how Low awards in Business/First are few and far between, this was my first major attempt at booking multiple seats on an International flight and both the calendar and availability of seats to meet my travel plans worked like a charm. viva awards calendar?

rrgg

It looks like something has changed. In the past 2 weeks, transatlantic partner flights (AF) were blocked even though they showed up on EexpertFlyer. Today the DL site availability seems to match EF.

Denolloyd

Just booked TPA-CVG-DTW-AMS-PRG-AMS-DTW-TPA for a trip in May for 60k miles (Low Tier). Once I add another 40K miles to my account, will switch to J.