February 12, 2011
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.
Posted by Troy under Award redemption, Delta |
February 9, 2011
We all know that Delta award pricing are fully computerized, computer will automatically calculate number of miles required based on origin, destination and routing. How about other airlines?
Based on my experience, American Airline is another airline using similar system. Last year, I tried to book award PVG-NRT-PPT, which was the most direct routing and it’s published routing. However the AA system calculated as 2 awards Asia 2-Asia 1+Asia 1+South Pacific. I guess it’s because I routed via higher zone. Then, I tried PVG-HKG-AKL-PPT, this time it calculated as Asia 2-South Pacific, then within South Pacific.
After some disscusion on FT, I tried PVG-HKG-SYD-AKL-PPT, this time was told only 1 award Asia 2-South Pacific.
I also tried above trip by adding PPT-IPC, now it counted as 2 award again.Every time, I was trying to argue with agent, rate desk, supervisor, all they told was “sorry, computer does the job, we only put flight together”
Just yesterday, I saw a post on FT, someone redeemed LAX-PPT-AKL on TN with no stopovers, the computer counted as two awards again. So Delta is not the only one, AA does the same except much better domestic award availability than Delta.
How about US, UA and CO?
Again, based on my experience, their system doesn’t calculate amount of miles automatically based on city or routing. There should be a place for agent to put in region, then computer calculating required miles based the agents’ input. That’s why we all heard many crazy routing when using US or CO miles, even UA.
update: Gary confirmed that CO is fully computerized, I am surprised to see they did not program the routing restrictions. 
Posted by Troy under American Airlines, Award redemption, Continental Airline, Delta, Star Alliance, United Airlines, US airways |
February 7, 2011
We all heard about *net blocking when using UA miles for some of their partners, Delta does a similar thing to Korean Airline, but unlike *Net, which will have less blocking toward the end of each month, Delta just never releases more than one KE business class seat per each trans Pacific flight. In very rare occasion, you may get lucky finding the second seat( after you grab the first one long time ago)when getting very very very close to departure date, but this should never be counted for.
The reason is simple, KE is too generous on premium cabin award seat, it’s not Delta doesn’t want to pay KE, it’s delta doesn’t want too many people using low award business class to Asia. Korean airline flies to LAX(4), SFO, SEA,YVR, DFW,JFK(2),ATL(2), IAD, ORD and YYZ, the networks are too strong and more than enough for anyone in USA to connect via one of above gateway to Asia with low award miles.
Now, let me explain Blackout date.see below for real KE/CI/MU blackout by region , but Delta just blackout all. recently, they “enhanced” their system again, before you can still issue the ticket as long as it’s not real blackout to the region and agent forget to check, but now, their system is programed not able to issue the ticket as long as there is blackout date.(I just tried TODAY)
You may wonder AF and KLM has decent award space on trans Atlantic, why didn’t Delta just block them? The reason is simple, they can not because they are join venture.
Blackout date for Korean Air
| Routes |
Origin |
Destination |
Year 2011 |
Year 2012 |
|
Korea Domestic
|
Korea Domestic |
1.1 ~ 1.2
2.1 ~ 2.7
2.26 ~ 3.1
5.5 ~ 5.10
6.4 ~ 6.6
7.16 ~ 8.28
9.10 ~ 9.14
10.1 ~ 10.3
12.30 ~ 12.31 |
1.1 ~ 1.2
1.20 ~ 1.25
3.1 ~ 3.4
5.4 ~ 5.6
5.26 ~ 5.28
7.20 ~ 8.26
9.28 ~ 10.3
12.22 ~ 12.25
12.29 ~ 12.31 |
|
Int’l Except Americas
|
Korea, Asia, Europe, Middleeast, Oceania
|
Korea, Asia, Europe, Middleeast, Oceania
|
1.1 ~ 1.9
2.1 ~ 2.7
7.16 ~ 8.15
9.10 ~ 9.14
12.24 ~ 12.31 |
1.1 ~ 1.8
1.20 ~ 1.25
7.14 ~ 8.15
9.28 ~ 10.3
12.22 ~ 12.31 |
| Americas |
Korea, Asia, Europe, Middleeast, Oceania (Note 1)
|
North America, South America (Note 1)
|
|
North America, South America (Note 2)
|
Korea, Asia, Oceania, North America, South America (Note 2)
|
5.20 ~ 7.3
12.9 ~ 12.25 |
5.18 ~ 7.1
12.7 ~ 12.28 |
|
Blackout for China Eastern
|
BLACKOUT DATES FOR CHINA EASTERN AIRLINES FLIGHTS
|
|
Routes
|
the Year of 2010
|
the Year of 2011
|
Wholly Within
China Mainland |
06FEB~13FEB,19FEB~28FEB,
26SEP~02OCT,06OCT~08OCT |
25JAN～2FEB，7FEB～16FEB，26SEP～2OCT，6OCT～8OCT |
| Hong Kong/Macao |
From China |
—
|
—
|
| To China |
—
|
—
|
| Tai Wan |
From China |
03FEB~13FEB,27APR~01MAY,
17SEP~19SEP,28SEP~01OCT |
—
|
| To China |
16FEB~26FEB, 04MAY~08MAY, 23SEP~25SEP,04OCT~06OCT |
—
|
| Japan |
From China |
—
|
1FEB～3FEB，1OCT～3OCT |
| To China |
—
|
1JAN～2JAN，29APR～3MAY |
| Korea |
From China |
—
|
1FEB～2FEB，13SEP～15SEP，29SEP～30SEP |
| To China |
—
|
3FEB～10FEB，10SEP～11SEP，7OCT～8OCT |
| Southeast Asia |
From China |
—
|
1FEB～4FEB，29SEP～2OCT |
| To China |
—
|
6FEB～10FEB，4OCT～7OCT |
Blackout for China Air
| Area |
Period |
 |
From Asia
to North America |
JUN. 25 to AUG. 31 |
a week before the Chinese Lunar New Year to the fourth day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. |
|
| DEC. 20 to JAN. 4 |
|
From North America
to Asia |
JUN. 1 to JUL. 31 |
a week before the Chinese Lunar New Year to the fourth day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. |
|
| DEC. 10 to JAN. 4 |
|
| Between Asia and Europe |
JUL. 1 to AUG. 20 |
a week before the Chinese Lunar New Year to the fourth day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. |
|
DEC. 11 to DEC. 27
(Depart from AMS only) |
|
Between Asia
and Australia /New Zealand |
JUN. 25 to AUG. 15 |
a week before the Chinese Lunar New Year to the fourth day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. |
Posted by Troy under Award redemption, Delta, Skyteam |
February 6, 2011
I called today to modify one ticket by just adding a short delta segment, the agent informed me I am due for additional $87 dollar in taxes. Ok, I am not native English speaker, but my listening skill is not that bad! I asked again and she confirmed $87!!
All flights are AF and DL,there is no way to get $87 in additional taxes just for one extra domestic segment. I asked her the new taxes amount, she told me $217 and I asked her again what was the original taxes amount, she told me $184. Then I asked what is the diff? She told $87!!
Come on, You don’t need to tell me the exact amount I owe, but you should at least have some common sense 217-184 is by way less than $87!!!!
Posted by Troy under Delta |
February 5, 2011
Gary mentioned handbook for using Us airways miles to book Staralliance awards, in which he talked about pretty much everything you need to know about booking an award. I am going to talk about Delta miles. I think I have booked Delta miles more than anyone including family of 4 in business to Italy in summer, so I can say I am quite familiar with their partners and system. I have to say, it’s indeed the most complicated system ever built, they have so many partners with so many booking codes and procedures, some need “long sell”, some can be booked instantly,
Some Partners can be search using Delta.com DL, AS,AF, KLM, HA
some partners can be searched using KVS tool: All except Air Tahiti and Korean Airline or expert flyers for Air Tahiti
Some partners have to use long sell by agent to do the search, MH Business, China Airline, Kingfisher.
V Australia can be seen by Delta booking agent or you have V OZ acct
Jet Airways can be checked by calling American Airline.
Stopovers/open jaw: you can have one stopover AND one open jaw, the stopovers can be anywhere, you can even have one stopover+one open jaw for travel within a single region. Some routing I have done, PVG-ICN-KIX-ICN//(stopover, co terminal)GIM-SHA-WNZ(open jaw), all within Asia. NRT-PPT(stopover)-AKL(destination)-ICN(layover)-KIX, can you tell me PPT or AKL, where one is stopover which one is Destination? Since everything is auto priced by computer, so the agent won’t argue with you on routing
Routing restrictions: Some routing have restrictions than another, but Delta permits US-Oceania via Asia. You can also do “mini around the world” US-India via Atlantic, return from Singapore to US via Pacific. As I said, everything are computerized, so it doesn’t matter how you route. Delta does enforce MPM rule on some routes, this primarily for travel within Asia, especially from China to south east Asia city via NRT, some destinations will be priced as 2 awards if route via NRT for intra Asia
Segments:Max is 8, strictly enforced. Also you can not have more than 2 domestic connections within US for intercontinental travel.
Fee:Delta charges you $20 ticketing fee per person unless you are Gold or above, but I have talked about how to get away with is. Delta also charges International Origination fee for travel from certain regions and fuel surcharge for certain carriers, I have mentioned here and here
Hold: There are two primarily ways to hold the award, one is book whatever segments is available online, then call to add other partners. sometimes, agent will tell you they can not hold the reservation anymore once they add segments, “hang up and call again” and tell them don’t touch the reservation. You will find an agent is willing to hold the ticket for you even after the modification, but they may shorten the holding period. As long as they are willing to hold, you can issue the ticket online to avoid the fee.
Another way to hold ticket is you don’t have enough miles, even if you are 1 miles short. This way, you can still hold the ticket online, then after modification by the agent, they will leave the reservation on hold because obviously you don’t have enough miles.
The hold is 2 to 7 days depends on where you are traveling FROM, award from Asia or India are 7 days.
Change or Cancel: Unless you are Platinum or Diamond, any change after ticketing will result in $150 change fee unless there is significant schedule change(miss connected, illegal connection, change more than 1 hour).
How many miles will my award cost? change Delta doesn’t publish the award charge for travel btw regions other than North America, so I can only tell you some of them based on my knowledge
Intra Asia, 20000 Econ/40K business
From Asia to Oceania via ICN or NRT, 150K business, otherwise, 120K business
From Asia to Europe 80K econ, 120K business
Asia to Africa, 120K econ, 180K business
Europe to Africa, 100K Business
Europe to Central Asia/India, 80K business
Within Africa, 80K business
Award blocking and IT glitch: Delta has award blocking for KE cross Pacific flight in business class, regardless how many actual award seats released by KE, delta only sees 1. Delta also use uniform blackout date for MU, CI and KE. what that means is, these carriers blackout dates are by region or route, but delta just blackout all redemption on these partners whenever there is a blackout date. For more about blackout date, please see here
There are also many IT glitch, the biggest one for US travel is, JFK-LAX via PHX, the award will be counted 2 separate one, even if both segments are low inventory and you don’t stay over 4 hours?
How long will my call take? Not too long, because I know what to look for when I called, in experienced agent can finish whatever my request is in 10 minutes.
Got questions? Ask!
Posted by Troy under Delta, Skyteam |
January 29, 2011
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)
Posted by Troy under Delta |
January 28, 2011
I know there will be a JW open in Maldives in Oct 2010, but never paid attetion. Today, a friend mentioned this hotel to me again because it pre set as a Cat 5 hotel, which requires only 100,000 points for 5 nights, or if you have lots of Marriott points, you can do travel package, which requires 270,000 points for 120,000 miles +7 nights at this property. If you are doing travel package, US airways and Delta are best option because 120K miles can get you 1 business seat to Central Asia(including Maldives or Sri Lanka) consider business class on SQ from SIN is extremely hard to be found, fly all the way to Sri Lanka, then buy a cheap economy fare to Male is the best option.
Delta also has partner serve to MLE, but you need some creativity. award level is 120K per person in business class
you don’t get free Breakfast as Marriott Elite at resorts, but some Asia resorts do offer free breakfast to Gold or Platinum.
Personally, I think Maldives is not worth a trip all the way from US and I will be surprised to see the hotel stay at Cat 5 for more than 1 year
Posted by Troy under Delta, Marriott, US airways |
January 27, 2011
View from the wing talked about award from US to OZ/NZ, Tahiti and Maldive, I want to add a little bit my own advice.
The easiest program to go to OZ/NZ are CO/US because both programs allow routing via Asia and Thai airways have plenty of seats to these areas.
AA is a little bit limited because of routing on Qantas or Air Tahiti or Air Pacific via Nadi, seats are limited。 however, if you want to pay some extra miles, you can use AA one world redemption, which can be route via Asia, but award are distance based
Delta also permits routing via Asia, have you thought about using China Southern, china Eastern, China Airline, Malaysia airline, also Air Tahiti routing via NRT to PPT, Tahiti? let’s ignore Korean Air because you can not find 2 seats in business class across Pacific at same time, Delta blocks the seat(like *net blocking)
As for Maldive, Male, the easiest way to get there is to Sri Lanka, Colombo, then buy a cheap ticket to Male, Colombo is partner Central Asia for most programs. Personally, I don’t think Male is worth a trip all the way from US.
Posted by Troy under American Airlines, Award redemption, Continental Airline, Delta, General Frequent Flyer Advice, United Airlines, US airways |
January 25, 2011
Delta has so many partners and most of them has different award booking class, which caused Delta award even harder to use. I am giving out a summary of Delta and their partner all award booking class, so it may give you a idea to tell agent which class to look for! If you know the missing one, please add on.
|
Economy |
International Biz |
2 cabin first/Biz |
| Delta |
N |
O |
R |
| Aeroflot |
X |
O |
|
| Aeromexico |
U |
C for all except R to NRT |
|
| Air Europa |
note 1 |
Z(2) |
|
| Air France |
X |
O |
|
| Air Tahiti |
W |
I |
|
| Alaska |
W |
|
A |
| Aitalia |
U |
Z |
|
| Avianca |
Z |
A |
|
| China Southern |
O |
I |
P(3) |
| China Eastern |
I |
D |
A(3) |
| Czech Airline |
E |
Z |
|
| China Airline |
S |
O |
|
| Gol Airline |
I |
X |
|
| Hawaii Airline |
T |
D |
|
| Jet Airways |
X |
D |
|
| Kenya Airways |
W |
see note 4 |
|
| KLM |
W |
O(see note5) |
|
| Korean Air |
U |
D |
|
| Kingfisher |
R |
Z |
|
| Malyasia Air |
T |
I |
|
| Tarom |
X |
Z |
|
| V Australia |
note 6 |
Z |
|
| Vinantem |
U |
J |
|
| 1 if I remember correctly, Air Europa also changed Economy award booking class, but forget code |
| 2 changed from P to Z, many agents don’t know this |
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|
| 3 You can not use Delta miles for 2 cabin MU/CZ domestic first class |
| 4I had feeling this may change to O |
|
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|
|
|
| 5 Award changed to O class from D class, some agents don’t know this |
|
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|
|
| 6 never booked before, so unknow |
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Look at the chart, unlike *A, which has nearly uniform award booking class for all carriers. Of course it will make award so hard to use.
Posted by Troy under Award redemption, Delta |
January 25, 2011
Gary mentioned the two MR to Delta miles offer are stackble, one is 50% bonus for first time only, and 30% bonus for all MR transfer until March 31st.
If you are short miles for a delta business award, you may consider think offer.
Posted by Troy under Delta |
