Lesfilles

and affiliates?

Award chart on Air France shows redemption @ 50k points round trip. I got exactly 50k points from Delta. Do I need to call Delta personally and get all the flight numbers ready?

Also is there any way to avoid the hefty fuel surcharge.

I am flying Boston to Venice (July 3rd)

then Rome to Boston (July 13) +2 days (flexible)

Thanks a lot

Lesfilles

dshargorodsky

Unfortunately, there are no direct flights that you can redeem Skymiles on. There is also no way to avoid the fuel surcharges as they are passed on to Delta from Air France. You would have to call DL and give them your dates and they will give you all your available options. Also BOS-VCE/FCO-BOS will not be considered a roundtrip. The only flights available for award reservations are via Paris.

6rugrats

It doesn't matter what you see available on the Air France webpage; you want to use your DL miles. You need to see what's available on DL's webpage.

There are no flights available for your dates/cities using your DL miles for less than 75,000 miles, and you have only 50,000.

zitozac

Won't you need 60K points. Regardless of the carrier, if your points are Delta Skymiles, you will have to go off Delta's chart, which is 60K for US-Europe low coach, right?

roknroll

You'll have a lot more success in the Delta forum. Alitalia is also a SkyTeam member so you might be able to find better options on that airline. Since you are using Delta miles, you will need to observe Delta's award chart (not AF) which required 60k miles for round trip in economy to Europe. Air France, KLM, and Delta flights will all show up when searching on Delta's website, however you will need to call to check Alitalia availability.

If you can't find availability from Boston to Venice, then see if you can find it from other east coast departure points like IAD, JFK, EWR, LGA, etc and see if you can find a low mileage (25k) economy ticket between BOS and the other city. If you can find a low mileage award from the departure city to Europe, and also a low mileage award from Boston to the departure city, then they will combine together as a single low mileage USA-Europe award.

Josephmay

False: Also BOS-VCE/FCO-BOS will not be considered a roundtrip.
Why Not? Seems to be a pretty standard open Jaw Itinerary and would price as a round trip without problems. I put those dates in and they priced fine as a roundtrip. If you want more info your timing is perfect -- Go to ThePointsGuy.com. He just posted today a Video on Delta Open Jaws and StopOvers on award tickets.

True- but doesn't matter:The only flights available for award reservations are via Paris.
An Award ticket does not have to be direct to be priced as a round trip award.
You are allowed open Jaws and a Stopover on award Redemptions.

dshargorodsky

For it to be considered a roundtrip, shouldn't there be a VCE-FCO leg? Also, I never said that it has to be a direct flight for it to price as a roundtrip award. I meant that there are no direct flights available on the OP's dates unless he goes via Paris.

Josephmay

On the dates you chose it'll cost you 75000 DELTA Miles plus 75 dollars or so in fees for a economy redemption.
30K low award on one leg plus a 45k Medium award on the other.
DELTA doesn't charge fuel charges -- the $75 is for taxes and fees.

AirFrance Charges Huge Fuel charges on their award FlyingBlue redemptions. But that doesn't matter to you. You are redeeming DELTA SKYMILES for A DELTA AWARD even though you are flying on Partner Airlines.

Josephmay

No There is absolutely no need for a VCE-FCO Leg. It is a pretty standard open Jaw award. You are allowed to fly into one city and fly out of another on an award ticket. For example. NYC - Paris, Madrid -NYC is a perfectly fine round trip award with an an open Jaw.

Josephmay

Absolutely correct! Assuming that there are low awards available each way.

Josephmay

It doesn't matter what you see available on the Air France webpage; Absolutely Correct with one slight correction. Air France's website shows more info on available Sky Team awards than Delta's website does. So if you see award space on Air France's site but don't see any on Delta's website, you will generally be able to book those flights by calling Delta directly.

roknroll

You should have no problem redeeming this, as I see plenty of AF BOS-CDG availability as well as AZ CDG-FCO-VCE availability. Usually getting the transatlantic portion is the tough part, and going intra-europe is easy.

I'd recommend just calling Delta with your dates. Have them check Air France for the transatlantic portion to CDG. Then use Alitalia to get from CDG to VCE (via FCO) and then on the return FCO to CDG. On the return, you could probably get a direct flight on Alitalia FCO-BOS.

Seeing as there is availability on multiple partners with multiple routing options, you should have no problem getting this to book in at low level of 60k miles. All partners (i.e. KLM, AF, AZ, etc) will always book at low level.

MSPeconomist

NO, DL award tickets allow open jaws and stopovers. OP can do the open jaw or, if available, the domestic Italy segment could be added so that the ticket has a stopover.

MSPeconomist

In principle, if you can't find the routing for example BOS-JFK-CDG in low, you shouldn't be able to find a domestic award ticket BOS-JFK in low either. If JFK-CDG is available in low, the solution is to purchase BOS-JFK if necessary. However, this gives you a separate PNR so lots of time should be allowed. You can link the PNRs but not join them. Doing the domestic connection on DL would seem to give you more protection than buying the ticket on another carrier.

Note also that trying to do it as you suggest would then cost 25,000 + 60,000 = 85,000 miles > 75,000 miles for medium/low combination TATL.

birdseye

I have been having trouble seeing Air France/KLM availability at all on the Delta website. It used to be easy to find--yet the last couple days I haven't found any. I can go to the Flying Blue website and see available flights at the lowest point level, then go back to the Delta website and search for the same thing and I get an error message that no flights are available.