Thanks for your info on purchasing
 

If you want to cancel an award flight be sure to do it more than 72 hrs before the scheduled flight and you get your miles back along with your $5.60 for OW or $11.20 for RT award tickets. Am able to do SMF LAX for 11,000 SM for RT or 5,500 OW if you book flights a month in advance. 12,500 ATL LAX OW is a very good fare. I often use SM for trips in US and with $ saved do MR to get MQM. Mike, thanks for sharing! Enjoy your MR! Blessings!

One thing we've been doing more lately as an alternative to award tickets for positioning flights is PWM. For example, the predominant rt DL fare for SMF-LAX right now is $151-$161. The cost is a little higher - 15K miles vs. 11K, but you earn 1000 MQMs for the positioning flights.

ATL-LAX is running about $257 rt, so 25K miles + $7.00 - the same cost in miles, cheaper cash component and you will earn ~3900 MQMs vs. zero for an award ticket.

Anyway, food for thought :).

Thanks for your ideas and suggestions
 

Great suggestion, I have found the SM very useful on 4-$500 fares when I can get same for 25,000 SM and the other advantage for some people who keep changing their mind is they can be cancelled up to 72 hrs before dep but will have to give serious thought to PWM 15,000 + $7 and a 1000 MQM some serious consideration. At present I still like a 72 hr MR for 24-25,000 MQM at <3 cpm for ~$700 if you can do it when those fares are available as the are sometimes in Sep and Oct. Keep the comments coming that's how we learn.
Happy Travels! Blessings!

This is my situation exactly.... my company could very well dispatch me to LA.. so i'm there the day of my flight already.. the award ticket gives me the option to cancel the "There" ticket and redeposit.. 6 days before as soon as i am dispatched.

Definitely agree that the flexibility of an award ticket has a lot of advantages. And when fares are running well above 1cent per comparable award ticket mile, it is often the better economic decision. Even then, though, I will grab an award ticket and convert to a PWM ticket later if prices come down.

I don't have the luxury of someone else paying for my travel, much less paying for me to go to the exact positioning city I need. That's wonderful if you can get it, and another good reason for award tickets as mlavelle3 points out.

My point in this thread is that, in 100% of the cases where we book some variant of this mileage run, it is a non-refundable ticket. When I book the MR, I am committed and flexibility isn't relevant anymore.

So an award ticket for the positioning flights is only valuable (for me) when the cost in miles for a PWM ticket - after taking into consideration the value of the MQMs earned - is noticeably higher than a comparable award ticket. Otherwise, I have the opportunity to turn a 25K MR into 30-32K MQMs by earning on the commute - and without spending any more cash to do it.

been away from this thread for a bit, but looks like I will just miss ya both ways Csfing. Leaving in a couple weeks (17-18-19 Sep SFO ATL DTW NRT SIN, 21 Sep SIN NRT DTW ATL SFO) Have scored UD via GUC on the return leg, but looks not looking good at all for the outbound on Sunday, 18 Sep. :~( Wishin' now I was a day or so later. As of this evening only 10 seats available upfront, 4 weeks ago there was something like 38 or 40 available. Seems like every day Delta sells another seat on this Sunday departure out of DTW. Looking at other weeks, they all have more availability. Well, just have to wait and see and go with the flow. At least I will be on the upper deck on way back. good luck all on your MR trips.

Choosing your seats
 

Another suggestion, as it gets close to the date of your flight see how many rows are empty especially a few hours before, if you can get an aisle seat as in C and A and B are empty it may be easier to sleep or you can try the other side of the plane or take the middle seat in the center section and put things in the aisle seats. It often works but not always and there are many variables and things that can happen but the most important factor is how many empty seats on that flight. I wish you success if you try to implement these suggestions as we have used them with varying degrees of success. Anyway we will look for you Sep 28 SIN NRT JFK LAX.

Happy Travels to all! Please post comments, suggestions and lower prices, if anyone else is traveling these days Sep 19 LAX ATL DTW NRT SIN and Sep 28 SIN NRT JFK LAX let us know and we will try to get together. :) :) Blessings and Safe Travels! :)

Fares Aug 29, 2016 - 2 Great fares Thanksgiving week LAX and SFO Dep
 

SFO Dep SFO ATL NRT SIN NRT ATL SFO 24,634 MQM
$685 ai 2.78 cpm Nov 21-24 Thanksgiving week - best fare, only a few seats left
LAX ATL NRT SIN NRT ATL LAX 24,248 MQM
$680 ai 2.80 cpm Nov 21-24 Thanksgiving week, only a few seats left great price if you need MQM
$713 ai 2.94 cpm Oct 3-6
$722 ai 2.98 cpm Sep 19-22, 26-29, Oct 3-6, 10-13, 17-20
$740 ai 3.05 cpm Oct 31-Nov 3, 14-17
$750 ai 3.09 cpm Nov 7-10
$757 ai 3.12 cpm Oct 24-27

Dates not given higher fares, fares from Kayak.com. The low fares only have a few seats left so get them while they are still available!

Happy Travels! Please post comments and lower fares. Have a super week. As soon as these flights get more passengers the prices go up, get your flights now, don't wait! :) :) ^ :) Blessings to all!

Has anyone been able to find a sub-1K fares for a Fri-Sun run? Unfortunately I am not able to get a midweek trip

Yes, they are around. I have found some Thursday - Sunday trips in the past. Currently November 17 - 20, LAX-ATL-SIN-DTW-LAX is available.

Weekend trips Sep and Oct
 

Fri to Mon LAX ATL NRT SIN NRT ATL LAX 24,248 MQM for ~$760 ai 3.13 cpm more or less mult weekends Sep 16-19, Oct 7-10, 14-17, 21-24 $743 ai 3.06 cpm Nov 11-14 Best Price on Kayak.com. Try it and put in your dates. You can also try Thr-Sun and see what you get, prices much higher ~ $950 and up
Happy Travels! Blessings!

Many thanks Csfing1!

Fare Pricing
 

Sometimes after pricing thru to DL.com after you have put in all your info and credit card info and you have touched the purchase it will say the price is no longer available and gone up and you can continue at higher price or stop. What you do is up to you, if you can live with the price you can buy if not stop. Cookies may be related to the price increase but prices can vary some for same itinerary. Pricing for Dec trip on Kayak was $688 for LAX ATL NRT SIN NRT ATL LAX but when it came to purchasing the price increased $300-$500. Probably if I got the tickets 3-4 weeks ago when I should have I could have gotten them for $688 as I got my Sep 19-28 ticket for $654 for LAX ATL DTW NRT SIN NRT ATL LAX without any trouble other than having to buy my ticket separately from my wife's as price at that time was higher if purchased together. Usually do buying with iPhone, my old iPad is too slow and seldom use a computer. Sometimes call the DM desk and give them the flights and they can get the low price but more often they cannot and DL multi-city doesn't work any more, it used to in the distant past but not now. Final price for Dec trip is still less than leaving from SMF but with positioning flights SMF LAX for 11,000 SM and $11.20/person it is still better than leaving from SMF and I will get about 6000 more MQM for more or less the same fare as our routing gives us about 24,600 MQM vs 17,500 MQM. Those are my comments for today. Am blessed sufficient SM for positioning flights and show the benefits of saving them when in 2014 and earlier a 25,000 MQM trip would give me 56,000 SM. All comments welcomed and any experiences pricing your trips, please share and always post any lower fares. Happy Travels! Make your MR now before the end of the year! Blessings!

Equipment change: the twice-weekly 332 in January has, at least for the moment, gone back to being a 744 daily from DTW-NRT/NRT-DTW. I'd already switched my outbound a day earlier just to hedge my bets, but this means my return flights now include a 744 also, yay :) unless they change it again between now and January, which who knows :(