One reason I still don’t say Delta is completely useless
I know Delta is not best program and it’s not easy to use sometimes, but for me, since I live in China, it’s actually a great program because Delta partners with China Eastern, China Southern, Korean Air, Malaysia Airline, China Airline and Vietnam airline, also Kenya Airway has HKG-BKK, KLM has SIN-DPS and of course Delta self. the three tier award system doesn’t work for award on partners. I know KE/CI have blackout date, I know there are several pricing errors exist such as
1 flight from China to SIN, BKK will be priced as 40K for economy, 80K for business if route via NRT
2 Any flight segment out of REP will be priced as a separate award, to avoid that, use open jaw to leave from other airport
3 Flight from Shanghai to ROR(Palau) will be priced as 40K, but from PEK is correct 20K R/T
4 Flight to MNL will be priced as 2 one ways, so 40K R/T for economy.
5 China domestic flight on China Southern is priced by segment, so for each connection, additional 10K will be charged
6 No first award on China Eastern 2 cabin AC
I don’t know when or if ever Delta will fix those errors, but still a great deal for 20K economy or 40K Business R/T with open jaw+ stopover for award within Asia. In general, I can live with that. For people live in Asia, it’s really a great program, there is no better program than Delta for Asian countries.
I just completed 4 tickets together in Coach for my family PVG-ICN-KIX(destination)-ICN(stopover)//GMP-SHA-WNZ(open jaw)
Ed said,
Troy, You wrote “20K economy or 40K Business R/T with open jaw+ stopover for award within Asia. In general, I can live with that.”
What part of Asia does this mean? Can i fly between Hong Kong, Singapore, and some other SE location (or mainland Chia)? Seems too good to be true…
Gary said,
“there is no better program than Delta for Asian countries.”
I’d argue that United is better.
* One-way awards or roundtrips with stopover
* Partners with Air China, ANA, Asiana, Singapore, Thai and United has its own intra-Asia flights
* No fuel surcharges or international origination surcharges
Troy said,
@ed, North to Mongolia, East to Palau, West to Turkmenistan, South to Indonesia.
however, there are pricing errors here and there, but in general , should be no problem.
Troy said,
@Gary, I agree with what u said, however, accumulating United miles are much more harder than Delta miles, you don’t earn Elite bonus on those partners and United rarely, if not never, give promotion to Asia member and their passive earning in Asia is harder than Delta too.
Also, call center is another big issue. I did mention Delta China(located in Singapore) call center got 20+ new agents, if you get a new agent and has no clue, hang up and call again to hope for an experienced agent. Delta agents don’t care where and how you fly, whatever auto price ask you, you pay for it. United Call center in China is very very very very strict on routing. As long as routing exceed 5% of MPM, they won’t ticket for you. there is no hang up and call again to work around because just few people. For people who are not fluent in English, call center is a key too.
Alan said,
Not only PVG to ROR, same as HKG to ROR and CAN to ROR.
However, SIN to ROR is price correctly.
can u explain about CZ tag on flight? i read in flyertea that someone got PVG – xxx – PEK – NRT – SPN – NRT – PVG.
are the domestic segment operated by MU so that it is price at 20K?
Thank you so much!
Troy said,
@Alan, domestic leg by China Southern, since connecting international, segment charge doesn’t apply
Alan said,
I would argue that CO is better than both DL and UA (for now.)
it has the benefits for strong *A network, open-jaw + stopover…
no bug in the system, and flexible routing rule.
one example, i have booked 3 tickets.
XNN – PEK – HKG (stopover for 7 months) – NRT (overnight) – GUM(overnight) – island hopper to MAJ (final destination) – GUM – NGO (23 hours) – ICN (exactly 24 hours) – PEK – SZX. all for 20K miles
10 sectors and 13 airports. i highly doubt if DL would price something like this properly. business for 30K (but it was hard for me to find 3 tickets together).
but i think deals like this will be gone and i am trying to learn using DL miles more efficiently.
Troy said,
@Alan， CO only has 11 month left, so I did not talk about, otherwise, better than UA and DL
Intra-Asia Award: How many miles? Stopovers? - Page 2 - FlyerTalk Forums said,
[...] as I mentioned in first page, it's just a pricing error. For selected pricing glitch, you can read http://boardingarea.com/blogs/tmtrav…etely-useless/ There just too many pricing glitch, I am just too lazy to list them all __________________ [...]
Mia said,
You said you live in china. Which program do you find it work best for you from out of China? We recently moved to china and will have to decide which program to concentrate on now that we will be in china for a while.
I have both *alliance with oz/ua and the oneworld with aa. Thoughts?
Troy said,
@Mia, Due to the change for Delta program, United airline is the best program now
Barry said,
I live in LA, want to get to ROR. If I can’t get there on miles more directly, I’m happy to revisit Hong Kong. If I understand it correctly, I can fly from Hong Kong to ROR, but on which airline?
I may be able to do another award to Hong Kong, and have a great itinerary.
Thanks in advance.
Troy said,
@Barry, to go to ROR from LA, you can use delta miles on China Air LAX-TPE-ROR directly. From Hong Kong is the samething, HKG-TPE-ROR is the most direct route
Alan said,
isnt the TPE-ROR still a charter flight? I called delta for seats on TPE-ROR last year. i was told their system cant see anything.
Troy said,
@Alan, I did not check, I just saw CI has the route published on their in flight mag
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