Airlines

Has anyone figured out how to get regular 50,000 mile award flights on Delta or its partners for USA / Argentina? I just checked online and could not find a single one in the next 12 months! Do they even exist? Only 100,000 mile awards (skychoice) were available - that's 100k for a friggin economy seat.

[QUOTE=Moore]Has anyone figured out how to get regular 50,000 mile award flights on Delta or its partners for USA / Argentina? I just checked online and could not find a single one in the next 12 months! Do they even exist? Only 100,000 mile awards (skychoice) were available - that's 100k for a friggin economy seat.[/QUOTE]You won't see them further out (as you might at first expect) Actually, check in the next 1-3 days. That's when they're available. Which means, you'll probably have to mix and match, Skysaver outbound and Skychoice on return trip. Or, take a 1 way Skysaver and play the same game when you're ready to return.

Tough to plan on apt rental reservations this way, little easier if you're staying in a hotel.

[QUOTE=Moore]Has anyone figured out how to get regular 50,000 mile award flights on Delta or its partners for USA / Argentina? I just checked online and could not find a single one in the next 12 months! Do they even exist? Only 100,000 mile awards (skychoice) were available - that's 100k for a friggin economy seat.[/QUOTE]I would call up Delta and have them check their partner awards. Often they may not have their own awards available, but might have Continental, Copa or Aeromexico via an DL agent. (I'm not sure what exact partners Delta has. I'm a NW member, and can us 4 different partners, but even airlines in the same alliance can vary a little.

You might end up paying the phone booking fee, but still much better than wasting another 50k miles! If you have any American Airline miles, you can get pretty easy awards in the off season for 40k miles.

For instance, using my NW account, I can find 50k flights from the west coast to EZE in September. Mostly CO flights, but some with a DL leg in them too.

[QUOTE=Monger514]You won't see them further out.[/QUOTE]If DL only has awards 1-3 days out from a flight, then they're surely a frequent flyer program to avoid. I book about 10 reward flights a year (I only use 5 of them, I cancel the other 5) and book out 11 months sometimes. I thought CO was stingy in handing out awards, but I find it hard to believe that DL is so bad.

Most airlines allow you to book 330-350 days out. Find out what your airline does, and try to snag the seats as they come available. If you're booking in a busy time, book at the first chance you can get, and if your city isn't coming up at a reasonable rate, check other major cities close to you.

I don't know about Delta, but you can only get international award seats on American's partners by calling; the internet site lets you look but it's misleading. I wasted lots of valuable time in trying to score seats to Australia before finding this out. I don't know the partners for Delta but it's worth a shot.

I cashed in awards for 50,000 in May, booked almost 30 days in advance, on Delta. Not sure why you would have a problem. I know Monger had the same problem when looking for business class tickets trying to get rewards, but I've not had a problme except for a few blacked out days, not months, for SkySaver.

Just to clarify....

Delta has plenty of award seats going out for a full year. It's just the cheaper awards (Skysaver) that tend to only be available at the last minute. This is especially true for business class, but it's pretty much the case for coach, too, you just might see one a week or so out, from time to time, so not terribly much better. So, being adventurous pays off, I suppose.

Delta does have a nice feature on their website where you can look at a calendar one month at a time and see what awards are available every day of the month.

Live in the United States.

Does anyone have ideas for calling the 1-800 customer service number. Perpetually on hold.

[QUOTE=Hlover]Live in the United States.

Does anyone have ideas for calling the 1-800 customer service number. Perpetually on hold.[/QUOTE]IF you can't get thru to AA USA, call AA customer service in one of the other countries that doesn't have a toll free number, like Australia at +61-2-9234-9000 or New Zealand at +64-9-379-3675. It should only cost a few bucks for a 5 or 10 minute call to make/change reservations. I've done this when outside Argentina and local office was closed for the day. They all have access to the same system.

You often can't call toll free numbers like AA Argentina's 0810-222-VOLAR (86527) unless you're in country.

I don't know the details, but just saw this posted. Works as a one way down, I believe. Not sure if it works from other cities yet, or FROM BA yet.

This is about 30% of the normal first class fare!

So far, it doesn't seem to work from other cities, or in the reverse direction. Normal fares seem to be in the $5000-$5500 range.

[blue]Hi JC,

"Mexicana Business Class"

Is that the cabin where they don't permit livestock?

Thanks,

Jackson[/blue]

[QUOTE=Jackson][blue]Hi JC,

"Mexicana Business Class"

Is that the cabin where they don't permit livestock?

Thanks,

Jackson[/blue][/QUOTE]There's only one way to find out!

[QUOTE=Jaimito Cartero]There's only one way to find out![/QUOTE]Mexicana business class is pretty decent.

You guys will be surprised!

I've done it a few times Mia- Mex and its superior to American, but thats not saying too much.

And you can credit to AA, or LH. Biz class gives a 25% bonus to AA programs, plus whatever elite mileage you may have.

Looks like it's working from Chicago too. About $1295 with taxes.