Guest travelerjim Posted April 24, 2012 Posted April 24, 2012 My Delta Airlines flying friends might enjoy this newly posted YouTube: Do u fly Delta Air? Ever tried to book a FREE Award ticket on-line? Ck this out, does Delta care to fix problem? NO! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyr1XvMNtr0 Booking award tickets on one of the world's largest airlines should be a walk in the park, right? They have the most planes, the best technology, and a slick website. And because "loyalty is a two way street", their reward program is intended to reward you. What could go wrong? So true! It does take a lot of patience, good luck and experience to bag the free business class award ticket or coach ticket at the LOW award miles of 80,000 miles coach roundtrip USA to BKK; or 120,000 miles for Business Class. tj Quote
Guest thaiworthy Posted April 24, 2012 Posted April 24, 2012 Thanks for the chuckle, Jim. But realistically speaking, it's not so hard if you're flexible and can book ahead. I booked my economy ticket for October back on Jan. 22 and got it for 80,000 miles. The early bird always has, and usually does get the worm! After all, it stands to reason that there will always be more high prices than low ones. Who wants to pay the higher price? The video is a parody, and although I've experienced similar scenarios, it has been nothing like that. I wonder why the user in this example tried to book a one-way ticket? Had he tried roundtrip, he might have had better results. One-way is often just as expensive as round-trip. I think the booking system may be optimized more in favor of round-trip than one-way. He obviously found a snag in the system and exploited it to make the video and prove his point. That's not to say booking award tickets is easy, but you are competing against hundreds of other users who are trying to do the same thing you are. Persistence pays. Quote
kokopelli Posted April 24, 2012 Posted April 24, 2012 Booking an award ticket can be maddening. As Thaiworthy said, book well in advance at least 8 months. I did recently get a Business Class (NYC -BKK) seat for 120,000 miles but had to book 8 + months in advance. This causes problems for the return flight since that can only be booked no more then 11 months in advance. So the window of time in Thailand is less than 3 months. Quote
Guest fountainhall Posted April 24, 2012 Posted April 24, 2012 It's not so hard if you're flexible and can book ahead That may be the case on Delta. It certainly is not on British Airways, alas. When I made my trip to South America, I knew it would only work if I could get BA flights to Buenos Aires via London. Each trip required 2 overnight flights. Since I was then a Gold Card Elite flyer, I alerted the Executive Club rep two weeks before the air miles tickets were released (i.e. 52 weeks in advance). To be fair, she was a huge help. She got me to Argentina and back to London. But for the entire month of November, there was not one mileage ticket released on the London/BKK route. None! The only way they could get me back to Asia was to Hong Kong. But on the day the tickets were released, mileage flights to Hong Kong were only available on 3 days that month! I suspect BA withhold a lot of tickets earmarked for mileage redemption, particularly business class, until they have a better idea of demand for paid bookings. So, booking far ahead may not actually pay dividends. Quote
Bob Posted April 24, 2012 Posted April 24, 2012 I quit flying Northwest (now part of Delta) about 2005 when it became almost impossible to use miles to upgrade your ticket. Before then, it was fairly routine but, for whatever reason, they then decided to make it damn near impossible. I always purchased my tickets at least 3-6 months ahead of time and, when I couldn't find a date that allowed an upgrade, I finally called a reservation agent and explained my problem. He wasn't much help and insisted that I give him a given date. I was pissed so gave him 20-30 different dates, keeping him on the phone for a long time. No upgrades on any of the flights, he said, although we were talking about flights 5-6 months in the future. Finally, I told him that their upgrade program was a fraud and I asked if there was any flight within the next 10 years that I could get an upgrade. When he said he couldn't tell me that and I had to pick another date and he would check, I hung up on the bastard. Since then, I've flown EVA. I've used EVA miles with EVA a couple of times and they seem to run the program how it ought to run....if you have the miles, you get an available seat (i.e., they don't seem to limit the number of "upgradeable" seats on an airplane). Quote
Guest fountainhall Posted April 25, 2012 Posted April 25, 2012 I've given up using miles to upgrade. The price you now have to pay for an upgradeable economy fare has increased so much in just 3 or 4 years (way more than double in some cases) that it no longer makes sense on a dollar-for-dollar basis, at least on the airlines I fly. Quote
TotallyOz Posted April 25, 2012 Posted April 25, 2012 FH, it was cheaper for me on my next flight to book business seats on Korean Air than it was to get economy seats that I can upgrade using my minds. In my mind, that just tells me that Delta sucks! All airlines are making it more and more difficult to use the miles. That is sad as I loved doing that. I have a trip to India soon and again, cheaper to buy business seats than to get upgradeable ones! Quote
Guest fountainhall Posted April 25, 2012 Posted April 25, 2012 I also find it sad. I recall four years ago getting economy tickets to Vancouver and then some months later to New York which I easily upgraded with miles. When Cathay Pacific then added a third daily flight to JFK just before my flights, they offered double mileage on the route. So for my business class seat I effectively got half the miles I had used back! Those were the days! Quote
MrBill Posted May 1, 2012 Posted May 1, 2012 My Delta Airlines flying friends might enjoy this newly posted YouTube: Do u fly Delta Air? Ever tried to book a FREE Award ticket on-line? Ck this out, does Delta care to fix problem? NO! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyr1XvMNtr0 Booking award tickets on one of the world's largest airlines should be a walk in the park, right? They have the most planes, the best technology, and a slick website. And because "loyalty is a two way street", their reward program is intended to reward you. What could go wrong? So true! It does take a lot of patience, good luck and experience to bag the free business class award ticket or coach ticket at the LOW award miles of 80,000 miles coach roundtrip USA to BKK; or 120,000 miles for Business Class. tj On Delta, it's not just booking award tickets that gets frustrating. Hit the Low Fare Finder and you would expect that Delta would show you the lowest fare possible, but that's not always true. Whenever I book on Delta I check them out then check out Kayak, Cheapoair and other wbesites and I often find lower fares than on Delta's site. And when I then go back to Delta's site and search by schedule rather than lowest fare, I find the same lower fares as on other sites. And booking early doesn't ensure lower fares for rewards or purchase on Delta. I booked a trip from Detroit to New Orleans in Feb for travel at end of May. My first reward "price" was 75K miles for business class and 50k for economy. Like in the video, I kept hitting search again. Business went up to 150K in a matter of minutes and then I got the same flights for 42K business, less than the miles needed for coach! No comment from Delta when I pointed this out to them Quote
Guest fountainhall Posted May 1, 2012 Posted May 1, 2012 I wonder if any individual working for a US airline ever really knows what the mileage award levels actually are at any one time. I remember reading somewhere on this forum that the yield management systems operated by airlines are now so sophisticated that 'prices' often change in seconds simply according to the number of clicks on the fare of any particular route. I assume the same may be true for mileage award tickets. As far as I know, the system is different with most European and Asian legacy carriers where the miles required for any sector are clearly specified and rarely will change - other than in an occasional auction. Low fares, though, are a different matter. Checking around a variety of sites and agents seems the only way to be reasonably sure of getting the lowest. But it is only the lowest at that moment in time. I have noticed some airline sites have a "guaranteed" lowest fare. Find a cheaper one for the same flight and they will refund the difference. Has anyone ever managed to get an airline to do this? Quote
