Place of Travel Deals, Frequent Flyer/Guest Programs
Please remember, this 50% bonus is still active until May 31st, but it’s just for 1st time only. If you are unsure, you can try to register, it will tell you.
If you don’t qualify for above offer, you can register this one, up to 40% until June 30th, you will earn 25% for transfer less than 99999 miles, or 40% if more than 100,000
Hat tip ATL787
I live quite far away from PVG airport, so left home 5:40 in the morning in order to catch 8:40 Delta flight to NRT. This one thing I don’t like Shanghai airports, both airports are big enough to fit any aircraft, but nearly all international(except to GMP, HND and very few HKG) leaves from PVG.From my home to PVG is exactly 1 hour without any traffic, that’s only happen in the morning or late evening, most time, It will take longer than that.
Arrived PVG at 6:40, Delta check in counter was empty, It’s a non busy season and non busy day. The agent was knowledgeable enough to check our bag all the way to PPT without any problem. After passing immigration, we head to lounge. Delta used a contracted lounge shared with many other airlines, most time, these kind of lounge would be small, so did this one, but at least it had hot food.
I went to the gate before boarding process started and waited in the SKYPRIORTY line. As always, there was an employee check everyone boarding pass to see if they were in the right lane. After showing her my boarding pass, she told me” Sir, please go to another lane” I kindly asked her to look again, then she asked whether I had membership card with me. My BP showed “Sky Priority/Platinum/Elite Plus with seat 9K”People in china had tradition of cutting lanes, ignore signs and announcements, so airline employees in China like to pay some “extra attention” to Asian faces holding a dark red passport, especially on western carriers. It happened to me many many many times. This time, I was not first one in lane, but first Asian face in lane, did not see she asked people in front of me to move.
Delta has a hardest to use frequent flyer program on earth, but I still need to say they really care China Market. At least, they know to hire many China based FA who speaks proper Chinese, so does UA and CO. American Airline is a different story, it’s been several years since they started China market, but I still couldn’t understand those FA’s Chinese most time. Most time, I am the only Asian in C cabin for PEK-ORD. Back to the topic, the flight from PVG-NRT was short, we quickly fell in sleep after breakfast consider we only had 4 hours sleep yesterday.
Air Tahiti is located in diff terminal than Delta, we had to pass security, then waited for the bus for 30 minutes, then took the train, finally arrived transfer desk to get our boarding pass. I checked TN website the night before, it showed they uses AF lounge in NRT airport, so I asked information desk where the AF lounge was, they told me it’s in another terminal and had no idea where the TN lounge was. This TN flight have codeshare with Japan Airline, I then went to Sakura lounge, wrong again!!! It was Qantas lounge.
Boarding started on time, our seat was 2A and 2B. I read review earlier about TN business class, it was old, small, you can get out if seat in front of you fully reclines. 2A,B was bulkhead, so at least no one in front of us. According to many reviews I read, Air Tahiti Nui was no longer the TN few years ago. I can only say service was ok and food was below ok! IFE system is like United old 777 system, one program per channel.I really missed the day when people could still redeem AA miles for their First class seat, at least you get a recliner that can recline nearly flat. French never had decent premium cabin product, Air France didn’t, so I won’t expect TN to get decent product anytime sooner.
Our flight landed in PPT early in the morning, so we can connect to BOB in the same day. Air Tahiti inter-island flight check in was next to arrival and their baggage policy was counted by weight rather than pieces. We had two bags 25.6 and 13.8, they used calculator to make sure we did not exceed 40kg(2 people). There was ATM and money change machine available at airport, but I suggest everyone use debit card because the lane for money change machine were very very long+you won’t get good rate at machine unless you use Euro.
Air Tahiti check in area
lane for cash change machine
waiting area for inter island flight, don’t even have restroom
Our flight from PPT-BOB still have 2 stops at Moorea and Huahine, after another 1:45 mins flying, we finally landed in BOB airport. From early spring Shanghai to winter Japan to sunny Tahiti exactly 24 hours.
I first heard Tahiti, French Polynesia from this article, which also made me aware of mileage program. Many people went there for a special occasion, so did we. It’s our fifth year anniversary and we did not go anywhere(excluding Hong Kong) for vacation last year, so Tahiti, here we come.
Back in Sep, I mentioned how I redeemed Delta miles from China to Tahiti, but later, I modified the trip to PVG-NRT-PPT(destination)-AKL(stopover)-ICN-KIX(open jaw)-PVG, in this ticket, PVG-NRT//KIX-PVG was under separate awards. total 150K miles per person. I could be more creative with second ticket too, but we did not have too much time to spend on the road. Many people may already realize that AA miles from Asia 2 to South Pacific was 70K R/T, but routing can not be via Japan. Later I figured out how to get to PPT from PVG with 70K , but I decided to not to fly that route, which required overnight in one of connecting cities and in PPT too. There was also an option on Air New Zealand, but getting 2 business award seat from AKL-PPT was mission impossible. when I searched for entire next 330+ days, there were only 2 days had 2 seats. Anyway, 150K miles get me to see 3 cities, I am more than happy with value, consider getting Delta miles is by far easier than AA miles.
Just few days after we left Shanghai, Japan had earthquake, despite Osaka was not affected, our family asked us to change the trip by calling me everyday. Eventually, I changed the ticket today by going back to China from New Zealand directly.
Now it’s hotel part. Actually, it was quite easy to decide because the only chain with reasonable redemption rate is Hilton. Initially, I redeemed 4 nights for hilton bora Bora using Amex AXON7 award for 145,000 points, but later the hotel was on the point stretcher list, so I changed to 5 nights for total 150K. Then for Hilton Moorea, I redeemed 6 nights VIP award for total 225,000 points with one more extra night at 50,000 points since I didn”t want to spent a day in Tahiti. we were going there for “once in a lifetime” experience, so a basic room was not enough for us, I did some research for pre paid upgrade to Overwater Bugalow with hotels, it turned out the lowest price for low season, diamond member was 10000 xpf(appox 110 USD) tax included for Bora Bora. I contacted amelie.albertin at hilton-borabora.pf, Assistant Front Desk Manager for that price. Due to inflation, the price had gone up to 11,000 xpf per night to Deluxe over water bungalow, I took the offer. The reason I mentioned Diamond because that price was based on upgrade from the next category above redemption room for diamond.
For Moorea, I also sent them emails, but respond was slow, eventually, they replied me with a price of 20000 XPF per night+tax, paid 5, get 1 free. I countered back with a better price, but never received a respond. When I checked in at hotel, I did get a much better price, I will talk about it later.
For New Zealand, it was easy decision too. Since it’s just a short side trip, I picked Hilton Lake Taupo. Last month, I mentioned how I mistakenly booked the wrong date, but the hotel did me a favor.
Finally, it came to inter Island flight, I initially searched PPT-BOB-MOZ-PPT, then it came out 540 per person on expedia.com, but the flight with better time from BOB-MOZ actually connecting via PPT, so I changed my search to PPT-BOB R/T then PPT-MOZ R/T, the price came out $480 total, so basically, I sit on the exact same plane with lower price if I break the search into 2 R/T . I redeemed my last 100K Thank you points for these flights. Due to schedule change for my return MOZ-PPT flight, I had to cancel the round trip for this segment and bought a one way, return by ferry.
The trip was wonderful and trip will come up soon!!!!
The reason I am saying is, there are possibility where you confirmed on certain segments but the actual ticket left those segments. Sounds strange right?
I booked a complicated award trip for someone involves DL,MU,MH and VN from East coast to Asia. The ticket was issued back in early Feb. Today, I got a email from him saying the MH segment was not even on the email confirmation he received. I was shocked and checked Delta.com, yes! if was there under reservation, but It was NOT there under ticket number!!!
I picked the phone to call Delta right the way, the first few agents and supervisor refused to admit the mistake, what they were saying to me was I added MH segments after ticket was issued!!!(they can see the record of change) Because segments were never been calculated, they now require additional 70K for those two segments.
Eventually, I found one re issue desk agent who was willing to admit mistake. she could see the ticket was issued AFTER MH segments were added, and reissued everything without collecting a fee or additional miles.
How to check tickets and segments? After ticket issued, next to the ticket number, there is a “detail” you can click on, match every segments to the reservation, then you will be fine!
Delta just released non US travel award chart, but at same time, increased Trans Pacific and Africa redemption to North America
From North Asia to North America, Economy is 70K, up from 60K, business redemption stays the same
From South Asia to North America, Economy is 80K, up from 60K, business stays the same
From Southern Africa to North America, Economy is 100K, business is 140K, up from 80K and 120K respectively
That’s not all, even worse, I thought Delta would fix some pricing error, but in the end, they did not fix a damn thing!
Few months ago, I mentioned from PEK-MNL is 40K in business one way, 80K for R/T because they price them as 2 separate flights. Later, they “fixed” the error, both one way to R/T to MNL from PEK/PVG is 80K in business, so they just price them as 2 R/Ts. Today, they released the new chart with Japan; Korea, Republic of; Korea, Democratic People’s Republic of; China; Hong Kong SAR; Taiwan, Province of; Micronesia; Philippines are part of North Asia, but how many miles for PEK-MNL in business class now? 115,000!!!!!!
what that mean? that means Delta only increased the redemption level, but did not fix or adjust any routing/ city pair pricing.
Update: Just noticed, For within China travel, delta changed to Distance based award，it’s km based
| 1Within Northern Asia: | Economy Class | First Class or BusinessElite | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low | Medium | High | Low | Medium | High | |
| Japan to/from Korea | 7,500 | 20,000 | 30,000 | 15,000 | 30,000 | 40,000 |
| Within Korea | 5,000 | 7,500 | - | 6,000 | 9,000 | - |
| Within China (Short Haul)* |
6,000 | - | - | 7,500 | - | - |
| Within China (Med Haul)** |
15,000 | - | - | 17,500 | - | - |
| Within China (Long Haul)*** |
30,000 | - | - | 45,000 | - | - |
| Miles shown are each way based on round-trip purchase. | ||||||
| *Short haul is 1-800 km. | ||||||
| **Med haul is 800-3,000 km | ||||||
| ***Long haul is 3,000-5,000 km | ||||||
I had a conversation regarding the new change effect to Delta Intra Asia award change, here is the information I got from agents
1 Effective immedetently, Asia zone and award level will be changed including
North Asia to North Asia,25K in economy, 45K in business
North Asia to South Asia, 45K in Economy, 70K in Business
South Asia to South Asia, 45K in Economy, 70K in business
25% increase for within North Asia Economy, 125% increase for North/South to South Asia Economy, 75% for North to South Asia business
North Asia includes: China, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Taipei
All else goes into South Asia
2 There maybe change for Trans Pacific flights.
As of now, no one knows what changes will be, or whether they will have a diff award chart for US to North Asia/South Asia, according to the memo, the change will be not be completed until Feb 22nd.
3 Change in for travel related to Africa
According to the memo, Africa award will be changed too, but no detail was mentioned in the memo. I guess they will separate Africa into 2 zones, North and Central/South Africa
There is no miles requirement mentioned in the memo, well, Delta never has miles requirement mentioned other than to or from US anywhere.
Just not too long ago, I mentioned, for people live in Asia, Delta is not a bad program compared to programs in Asia or even UA(lack of bonus), but I will take back what I just said. The award level increases too big and they still charge fuel.
They made everyone aware when they get rid off Mileage expiration date, I was thinking they may figure out a way to increase award level, otherwise, too much liability sit there. well, the increases was sooner than I thought!
I just saw the comment left by readers and don’t have time to check detail yet, it looks like they break the zone btw North Asia and South Asia and increase the award level by nearly 100%
Damn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
give me some time, I will have full detail, I just back to States have many things to deal.
I think Delta just try to in lane with UA and AA, mid tier Elite member have access to lounge when traveling international.
Certainly a good change for Gold member, but for people live in China, this is a useless change because China Southern doesn’t give lounge access to Skyteam Elite plus member for China domestic travel and Delta Asia Gold already have free sky club membership.
Well, I think it’s a useless benefit for frequent Delta Flyer, even if you are not frequent flyer, those miles can be extended with 1 activity in every 2 years.
Few months ago, I talked about using “schedule change” to make your itinerary better for Delta awards, it has been working exceptional well lately. What I am trying to say is if your flight is far way, grab whatever is there to construct award in low level, then wait for schedule change.
1 Last month, I issued a ticket from NRT-ATL via JFK for Oct, but one of passenger was on wheelchair, so they really wanted direct flight, but ATL-NRT cost 350,000 miles in business class, so I grabbed connecting flight. Then schedule change occurred, I really had no idea what the change was, just want to give a try. The agent changed them NRT-ATL direct flight right the way after verifying schedule changes(I still don’t know how long was the change)
2 I issued a ticket from MSP-EWR-AMS(stopover)-ARN, return ARN-AMS-DTW-RDU, with low business award miles and DTW-RDU is economy. Today, I saw the schedule change on MSP-EWR and return DTW-RDU, again, I did not know what change was. Called Delta, they verify the changes and rebook ticket from MSP-AMS-MSP direct in business class!!
3 The third one was not working so well, the agent refused to change the flight because the “schedule change” was too small, about 10 mins, fairly enough. I am not too worry because one domestic flight is only few minutes away from minimum connection time and I am pretty sure there will be more schedule change coming up with the trip is 5 months away.
Remember, if your trip is far away, grab whatever you have first!
I talked some redemption chart for Non US travel in my previous post, I just found out few more and post here now.
Europe to Middle East 40K in Econ/60K in business
Europe to Central Asia/India 70K in Economy/80K in business
Asia to Mexico and Caribbean is same as Asia to US
Asia to Northern South America, 100K in Economy, 150K in Business
Asia to Southern South America, 120K in Economy, 160K in business
Asia to India, 40K economy, 80K business
Again, above are just standard miles btw regions, since there is no such chart exists, Delta can tell whatever amount they want.
