Award Ticket Success - Post It Here

Old Oct 18, 2005, 3:49 pm
  #1  
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Award Ticket Success - Post It Here

I for one am tired of the BALing over DAL's Award availability. My personal experience has been that when I, or a family member, need a ticket, I have been able to get acceptable flight times and dates on DL or a partner airline. I have twice used a SkyChoice type award. Both times were for Thanksgiving holiday travel booked less than 2 months prior to the holiday.

I would like to propose that those who feel comfortable posting their successes, do so in this thread. Please feel free to be as specific or vague as you like. Please list flights using DL miles on DL or Partner airlines.

I will begin:

I booked travel for 3 FC SkySaver tickets on DL from PVD-LAX in Aug. 2005
I booked travel for 2 FC SkySaver tickets on DL and KE from IAD-LAX (stopover to get hitched)-ICN-IAD in Aug. 2005
I booked travel for 2 BC SkySaver tickets on KE from ICN-BKK in Aug. 2005

In all cases I was able to book for the day of my choice. The PVD-LAX tickets were not at the most desirable times.

Last edited by El Boocho; Oct 18, 2005 at 4:04 pm Reason: to add that LAX was a stopover not some lame routing due to unavailability
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Old Oct 18, 2005, 3:56 pm
  #2  
 
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Great thread idea.

In the last year I've booked:

-SDF-ATL-CDG-FLR(stopover)-MXP-VLC-(stopover)-CDG-ATL-SDF in AF F for the long hauls, domestic F/J for all the shorthauls except CDG-FLR.
-CVG-SFO-HKG(open jaw)-SIN-LAX-CVG for 2 people in SQ J within 3 days of requested dates

Also, I helped a friend book GSO-ATL-OGG and back on the new BizElite configured ATL-OGG aircraft on days of choice with the old M2 award.


People need to stop complaining and be more realistic with what they want.
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Old Oct 18, 2005, 4:04 pm
  #3  
 
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I have yet to ever have to cash in any of my DL miles but in the last month, I had two occasions where I thought I was going to use them for family trips. The first time, the exact flights to Europe had seats available on the dates I wanted. The second time, I was good on the outbound to Seattle, but there were no seats available the day I wanted to return, I would have had to return one day later or earlier (oh the horrors).

I'm sure it is YMMV, but I have had good experiences so far.
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Old Oct 18, 2005, 4:17 pm
  #4  
TTT
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This is a great thread idea!

Most recent experience:

2 tickets
BZN-SLC-CVG-LGW Dec28 return LGW-CVG-SLC-BZN Jan15 in BusinessEilte
Booked in July for the dates we wanted. The connections are not the best, but it works.

Also reserved, but never ticketed:
SFO-AMS-KWI Dec27, KWI-CDG Jan9, and CDG-SFO Jan14
Also reserved in July in Business on NW, KL and AF.

Last edited by tbangs; Oct 18, 2005 at 4:36 pm
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Old Oct 18, 2005, 4:19 pm
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I guess that I won the lotto. I scored a RTW in biz AND it is over the holidays.

ATL-EZE on DL, EZE-CDG-AMS on AF, AMS-CPT on KL, JNB-CDG-HKG on AF, HKG-ICN-SYD on KE, AKL-ICN-NRT-ATL on KE & DL.

So what's the magic secret? The advice I got here on FT: start calling 331 days out, be flexible, be flexible, and most importantly, be flexible. I am leaving on the date that I wanted, I am returning on the date that I wanted, and I got within 1 day of my preferred travel date for each leg. I did have to add a stopover in AMS that I hadn't planned on to get the other flights, but I can think of worse fates than spending two days in AMS.

Yes, it took a lot of planning and a fair amount of time on the phone with the RTW award desk (some of the best people in all of Delta-dom) but I gave DL my business, they gave me my miles, and I cashed them in for an award. The system does work. ^
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Old Oct 18, 2005, 4:22 pm
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Originally Posted by ecaarch
Yes, it took a lot of planning and a fair amount of time on the phone with the RTW award desk (some of the best people in all of Delta-dom) but I gave DL my business, they gave me my miles, and I cashed them in for an award. The system does work. ^
Sadly, the system only seems to work for the type of people who read FT. I guess we need to keep it more of a secret.

That said, I agree with you and have no complaints about redemption.
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Old Oct 18, 2005, 4:28 pm
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In 18 months, I have successfully confirmed 7 resevations in premium cabins on VS, SQ and AF. Two of the itineraries were rescheduled, so only 5 tickets have actually been redeemed.

In my experience, if I can be flexible by a day or two, DL agents have been able to get me to my destination in the preferred cabin with my preferred cabin.

Interestingly, in the past 3 years I have never succeeded in obtaining a BE seat on DL to Europe and so have been using VS or AF.

For me, skymiles still works and I am one happy customer.
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Old Oct 18, 2005, 4:43 pm
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I have had to adjust dates a few times, but availability has not been a problem. In July obtained tixs around Christmas (YUL -SIN) on SIA. In Feb, obtained biz tixs DCA-JNB on SAA for July. Last year obtained biz tixs for May travel CDG-TNR on AFR. These have all been SkySaver.
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Old Oct 18, 2005, 4:49 pm
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I just booked 3 F awards and 2 Y awards ATL-LAS in april. All on the same flights.

There was actually availability in F for 5 award tickets but I wasn't feeling that generous to some of my friends.. the other two are footing the $ for the hotel so i flew them up front with me..
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Old Oct 18, 2005, 4:53 pm
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My wife and I got the following:

ATL to OSL (connecting w/ KLM through AMS)--2 Sky Saver BE seats in Aug '05

ATL to MAN--2 Sky Saver BE seats in Sep '05

ATL to SRQ--2 Sky Saver FC in Oct '05

ATL to SRQ--2 Sky Saver FC for Jan' 06.

ATL to HNL, then HNL to SFO (for 4 days) to ATL--2 FC
(the M2 award, using "old miles"--75k total for both seats) for Aug '06.

Also, I gave a friend some miles to use in conjunction with some he had for three Sky Saver (on the same flight) coach from ATL to somewhere in the Caribbean for Jan '06.
And he has no medallion status.

We had 2 Sky Saver coach seats for my sister-in law and her husband for Mar '05 for ATL to SFO that we redeposited when they couldn't make the trip.

Last edited by atl runner; Oct 18, 2005 at 6:33 pm
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Old Oct 18, 2005, 4:56 pm
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I had to use a Sky Choice award to fly me son home for Thanksgiving, but I did get the flight times I wanted. I also had no problem using a Sky Saver award ticket to fly my son home for the Christmas Holidays. No problems here.
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Old Oct 18, 2005, 4:57 pm
  #12  
 
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Originally Posted by jfulcher
I just booked 3 F awards and 2 Y awards ATL-LAS in april. All on the same flights.

There was actually availability in F for 5 award tickets but I wasn't feeling that generous to some of my friends.. the other two are footing the $ for the hotel so i flew them up front with me..
This thread would mean more to me if was focused on domestic SkySaver for Delta. And then if I could really focus the thread I would have it focused on secondary markets.

I think everyone is agreed that SkyChoice is almost always easy to obtain domestically and that SkySaver is obtainable internationally.
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Old Oct 18, 2005, 5:11 pm
  #13  
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Originally Posted by odysseusinrtp
This thread would mean more to me if was focused on domestic SkySaver for Delta. And then if I could really focus the thread I would have it focused on secondary markets.

I think everyone is agreed that SkyChoice is almost always easy to obtain domestically and that SkySaver is obtainable internationally.
Just booked ATL-SEA for 10/22, SkyChoice, both ways direct flights.
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Old Oct 18, 2005, 5:12 pm
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I have got very good success rate with my SM redemption.

This July we went ATL-CDG-WAW (stop) WAW-PRG-BCN (stop) BCN-ATL in J. I was able to get all the dates I wanted, including July 1 (Friday before the holiday) departure.

Then I got a WAW-CDG-ATL (overnight) -CUN (stop) CUN-MEX-ATL (stop) ATL-CDG-WAW in Y for a family member. This is over this coming Thanksgiving, but reserved only a month ago. Had to be just a little bit flexible with the dates (return CUN-ATL pushed forward by 2 days).

Just this past Saturday I was able to get an emergency SkySaver ticket in Y on WAW-AMS-ATL for yesterday (just two days in advance).

Not counting numerous ATL-SLC tickets (which tend to be pricey) for skiing purposes (including this year's ski-do in SLC).
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Old Oct 18, 2005, 5:59 pm
  #15  
 
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Award Ticket Success - Post It Here

Dec 2005 ATL - LAS Friday LAS-SLC-ATL Monday
Skysaver - firstclass on the weekend I wanted and the times I wanted
booked yesterday


Mar 2006 ATL - LAX - HNL Thursday HNL - LAX - HNL Thursday
Skysaver - coach had to book thursday before I wanted to go and leave but did get skysaver
booked 08/2005
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