Wednesday, January 2, 2013
The last part of her flight from HKG that I still dont understand was that when her boarding pass wa
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First, some context. United, American, and British Airways (among other programs) offer one-way awards for half the cost of a roundtrip. Alaska Airlines and Aeroplan offer one-way awards for half roundtrip cost only on their own flights venice italy 4 star hotels and not on partners. US Airways and Delta do not.allow one-ways at all for a discount, they charge venice italy 4 star hotels the full roundtrip award even if you only fly one-way.
Different programs have different features, and this in and of itself isn t an indictment venice italy 4 star hotels of the program. But I do find it to be a real drawback, since I can t combine Delta miles one-way with American or United miles the other in a reasonable way. Still, US Airways doesn t have one-ways at a discount and I find Dividend Miles to be an excellent venice italy 4 star hotels program.
Rather than just complaining I try to pass along tips, sometimes they may be obvious and other times should be obvious but in the confusing world of frequent flyer rules can be hidden in plain sight. But in any case we can make the most of the programs and rules as they re given.
If you asked Delta for a one-way award and need last seat availability, they re going to charge you 60,0000 venice italy 4 star hotels miles for that seat. Because you get a high level award, and even though there s no return flight in the reservation you get charged high pricing both ways .
In contrast, American venice italy 4 star hotels charges 12,500 miles for a one-way domestic coach saver award, and charges 25,000 miles for last seat availability if there s a seat for sale in coach and you want it for points, it costs no more than 25,000 miles.
To take another extreme example, business class on Delta to South Asia at the saver level runs 60,000 miles each way, meaning 120,000 miles roundtrip. High availability can run 350,000 miles roundtrip. So if you wanted a high level one-way award it would cost you 350,000 miles.
Award mileage venice italy 4 star hotels shown is each-way based on a required round-trip or multi-leg Award Ticket purchase. Customers can combine Economy, First, Business and BusinessElite® cabins and dates at various mileage levels
You aren t going to save miles booking a one-way ticket. If you re flying an airline that Delta adds fuel surcharges to there can be an additional cost to have a return (and there may be additional venice italy 4 star hotels airport taxes as well). But you can save miles, and you might even wind up using the return at some point.
But if you paired that high level outbound with a saver level return, they would price it as 30,000 miles for the outbound (high) and 12,500 miles for the saver return. Just find a flight any flight that has saver space in the future and you can get the one-way outbound you want for 42,500 miles instead of 60,000.
The lesson here is especially when you have to pay more than the minimum miles for a saver award, find saver award return since Delta is going to average the roundtrip price of the outbound and return so you can lower your cost.
A one-way high award for domestic first class is 50,000 miles each way. If you booked Detroit-Los Angeles in First Class and needed last seat availability, just one way, Delta would charge 100,000 miles.
But if you added Los Angeles Detroit (or Los Angeles Atlanta as a for instance since open jaws are allowed) in coach, at the saver level, for any future flight where it s available even though you won t use it then you get to combine the two prices.
That s 50,000 miles for your outbound and 12,500 miles for your return the award now costs 62,500 miles instead of 100,000. And it s even closer to what American would charge for the same thing (50,000).
If you needed medium availability for business class to Northern Asia it s 110,000 venice italy 4 star hotels miles each way based on roundtrip purchase venice italy 4 star hotels or 220,000 miles roundtrip so 220,000 miles if you request just a one-way.
Now your one-way award last seat availability in business class costs 190,000 miles instead of 340,000 miles. That s hardly a value , but it s a savings of 150,000 miles. And believe it or not there are people booking these 300,000+ mile awards!
I haven t tested how stringent Delta is in enforcing this requirement. But assuming that they are, the example I offered would work but change Tokyo to Bangkok and it would no longer venice italy 4 star hotels work, because the unflown Bangkok Honolulu open segment is longer than Honolulu venice italy 4 star hotels New York.
This may be useful when you re stuck . You need a last minute ticket, the mileage cost is exorbitant, but you don t have other miles available or in sufficient quantity for the award. Your back is up against the wall and you re realistically consider paying out of this world award prices.
Nothing in this post is about getting superior value from Delta. It s about reducing the mileage venice italy 4 star hotels you re gouged as a result of their three-tiered pricing and lack of one-ways awards at half the cost of roundtrip.
The one thing to be mindful of is checking the impact on taxes and fees on the dummy return. They will go up for the additional flights even though you are not flying. Avoid London dummy flights at all cost due to their high tax.
Of course, you could try to match up the dummy return with a ticket you might actually use in the future, right? so, if you were going to LA a month later, could you book your return flight home LA-NY at 20K miles and actually use it?
Heard about this awhile back and kept it in the back of my mind. (Very) long story short, I had to fly my daughter home from HKG last summer. Her return flights were cancelled venice italy 4 star hotels so I looked to see if I could get her home on DL. Of course, I could get her home in Y for 160K (High). That was alot of Skypesos, so tried a few things and was able to get it down to 110K. Her return was easy- HKG DTW ROC. I wanted venice italy 4 star hotels her to end in BUF but no award seats-short drive anyway.
The second half of this RT award is BUF JFK DUB in Y in March for her to visit a friend. Even if she doesnt use it, it saved me 50K Skypesos. Not sure what rule allowed this routing but it seems that one can cross both oceans on a single award. BTW, I booked this award 24 hrs before departure.
The last part of her flight from HKG that I still dont understand was that when her boarding pass was scanned at the gate, it gave out a loud beep and the gate agent gave her a new boarding pass for a seat in business and told her to enjoy her seat and her flight. venice italy 4 star hotels When she got home she told me that she will never fly again in the back of the plane ..
@Kathy (Will Run for Miles) yes that would be even better And for a change fee (assuming your status doesn t get you out of such) you can even change the return provided you do so more than 72 hours before travel
Also keep I m mind that you can get a true one way on a delta flight by booking on air France. Of course, this is of no help if you only have delta miles, but great if you have membership rewards that can be transferred to air France.
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