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Booking award ticket on KLM using delta miles

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Booking award ticket on KLM using delta miles

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Old Jan 10, 2012, 10:24 am
  #1  
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Booking award ticket on KLM using delta miles

I have a bunch of delta miles and trying to book an award ticket from ORD --> DEL --> ORD. The serving alliance airline is either Air France or KLM. When I go to search on delta it doesn't show me any options. When I try to do the same search (award booking) on klm.com it shows be a bunch of options. Shouldn't the award availability be the same on both?

Any better way to use delta miles for booking klm or air france flights?

amitgu is offline  
Old Jan 10, 2012, 10:44 am
  #2  
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Delta's flexible date search - the calendar - searches Delta-operated flights only. If you search by specific dates, AF and KL options should be displayed.

If you want KL or AF metal specifically, and you're starting from an AF/KL gateway at ORD, the Flying Blue award search engine is the easiest way to find Delta SkyMiles-redeemable dates. Look for Classic awards in coach or business, not premium economy or First. Punch those dates and flights in delta.com to redeem. Or just call Delta and ask for AF/KL flight options.
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Old Jan 10, 2012, 10:58 am
  #3  
 
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1. set up a FB account on KLM.
2. search for award seats in KLM or AF for the dates you need.
3. Call Delta with those dates and flight numbers and book the award travel.
4. You may also want to take a look at other gateways from the US (JFK, DTW, etc) to India (DEL or BOM or BLR) airports that DL, KLM, or AF fly to.
This widens your search.
dd1612 is offline  
Old Jan 10, 2012, 11:27 am
  #4  
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Have a FB account and did the search there and tried searching the same dates on delta. In some case it shows no flights and in some case it shows flights with huge layover (the flights with small layover as on FB are not visible).

Is calling up delta and booking the only option?
amitgu is offline  
Old Jan 10, 2012, 11:31 am
  #5  
 
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Originally Posted by amitgu
Have a FB account and did the search there and tried searching the same dates on delta. In some case it shows no flights and in some case it shows flights with huge layover (the flights with small layover as on FB are not visible).

Is calling up delta and booking the only option?
That's how I do it! Flying to Nairobi on KLM next week. I book AF the same way.
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Old Jan 10, 2012, 6:13 pm
  #6  
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Originally Posted by amitgu
Have a FB account and did the search there and tried searching the same dates on delta. In some case it shows no flights and in some case it shows flights with huge layover (the flights with small layover as on FB are not visible).

Is calling up delta and booking the only option?
Yes but using FB and klm.com is the way to go to search, until DL brings back better partner searching ability on dl.dumb.
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Old Jan 10, 2012, 6:46 pm
  #7  
 
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Originally Posted by amitgu

Is calling up delta and booking the only option?
Yes. When booking SkyTeam partners, Delta's idea of "online" means that you're on a telephone line.

To their credit, Delta management is considering investing in the interwebs - research indicates provisional consumer acceptance of this emerging technology.
Sabai is offline  
Old Jan 10, 2012, 6:54 pm
  #8  
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As others have said, once you have found good flights in the classic award inventory, for coach or WBC/Affaires, call DL with the specific flights and dates you want. You can try to ask that any phone booking fee, probably $30 for nonelites, be waived because you were unable to make the booking on delta.dumb, but even if you must pay the fee, it would be worth it.
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Old Jan 13, 2013, 10:40 am
  #9  
 
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Hi there - spent a good amount of time searching for this but couldn't find a clear answer, am hoping I'm posting in the right thread.

Can someone clarify how married segments affects KLM bookings with SkyMiles? I've found a lot of mention to AF, and to be honest, putting itineraries together with AF seems to be a lot easier when it comes to avoiding married segments showing O0 versus the individual legs showing O availability. However, on KLM, is the right strategy to find the individual flights with O availability, and then call Delta to string them together? Or must the entire trip show as O-available?

Hope this makes sense, and thanks for any help!
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Old Jan 14, 2013, 1:09 am
  #10  
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Originally Posted by pbohannon
Hi there - spent a good amount of time searching for this but couldn't find a clear answer, am hoping I'm posting in the right thread.

Can someone clarify how married segments affects KLM bookings with SkyMiles? I've found a lot of mention to AF, and to be honest, putting itineraries together with AF seems to be a lot easier when it comes to avoiding married segments showing O0 versus the individual legs showing O availability. However, on KLM, is the right strategy to find the individual flights with O availability, and then call Delta to string them together? Or must the entire trip show as O-available?

Hope this makes sense, and thanks for any help!
I don't think there are any married segments for partner SM bookings.
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Old Jan 14, 2013, 1:20 am
  #11  
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Originally Posted by mnredfox
I don't think there are any married segments for partner SM bookings.
With PMNW, there was some married segment logic when trying to use miles to upgrade, for example TATL on NW and intraEU on KLM. I don't know whether this has continued.
MSPeconomist is offline  
Old Apr 5, 2013, 2:56 pm
  #12  
 
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I called Delta to book a KLM flight using my skymiles and the customer service agent told me I couldn't book a flight unless I could find it on the Delta website

Is she just an idiot or has the policy changed?
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Old Apr 5, 2013, 2:58 pm
  #13  
 
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Originally Posted by thetobster12345
I called Delta to book a KLM flight using my skymiles and the customer service agent told me I couldn't book a flight unless I could find it on the Delta website

Is she just an idiot or has the policy changed?
It's nearly impossible to book a KL flight that won't show on DL.dumb. Heck, there are a lot of KL flights that show on DL.dumb that can't be ticketed as awards.
mtkeller is offline  
Old Apr 5, 2013, 3:11 pm
  #14  
 
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Originally Posted by mtkeller
It's nearly impossible to book a KL flight that won't show on DL.dumb. Heck, there are a lot of KL flights that show on DL.dumb that can't be ticketed as awards.
gotcha. one other question if you find a flight on KLM's website and try to book it on Delta, do they charge you the KLM # of miles? Or do they still charge you the inflated Delta rate (ie: i found a flight that's 50k round trip on KLM but Delta is asking me for 120k)
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Old Apr 5, 2013, 3:17 pm
  #15  
 
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Originally Posted by thetobster12345
gotcha. one other question if you find a flight on KLM's website and try to book it on Delta, do they charge you the KLM # of miles? Or do they still charge you the inflated Delta rate (ie: i found a flight that's 50k round trip on KLM but Delta is asking me for 120k)
Using SMs? The Delta rate applies.
Sabai is offline  


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