Anybody booked a reward on Delta or VS?

[kaelo]

Hi guys,

I've never used my VA points for anything other than VA metal, but I'm plotting a trip to the USA and Europe in March and decided to try and burn some miles on partner flights.

Using KVS I'm checking for flights from numerous US ports (SFO/LAX/NYC/IAD/ORD/ATL) to LHR/FRA/AMS/CDG and can't for the life of me find any Business availabilty on anything.

There are HEAPS of what delta call "High" or "Peak" awards, but no standard ones for a TATL flght in the first 15 days of March.

I know I'm leaving it a little late, just wondering if anybody had had much luck booking DL/VS flights and how far out you had to do it?

Cheers,

 

[Eggsbenedict]

Haven't had any luck with Delta, I was looking for some flights for Christmas in the US/Canada this year. I ended up transfering VA points to KF and booking Air Canada. LAX to Ottawa in J = 27,000 VA points and $60 in Tax's. A very quick search shows "Standard" awards avaliabile for lots of days with Singapore JFK - FRA = 91,800 VA points. There may well be "Saver" on some days. If you interested in looking at some Star Alliance flights I am happy to do some search's for dates and ports.

 

[vantage03]

I booked through the call centre on VS very easily and there seemed to be lots of availability.
This was back when they were doing SYD-HKG though...
Delta seems to have coughpy availability especially TATL.

 

[kaelo]

Hey guys,

Just as a follow up I ended up finding good VS award availability and discovered that EY award availability often doesn't show up on the VA website. KVS was the key and found heaps of award availability for MEL-FRA. This morning I booked the following;

MEL-AUH-FRA in J for 120,000 odd points and $54 TAX
LHR-IAD in J for 57,000 points and $600 TAX
LAX-BNE-MEL for 94,000 points and $70 tax.

Basically a J RTW airfare for 270,000 odd points and $900 in tax.

Not to bad if you ask me. I never booked a DONE or *A RTW with points so don't know how it compares, but in this case I'm happy with how it worked out.

 

[Mark3000]

Great work kaelo!
Did you get an idea of how many seats they had. Do you think that would have been possible for a family of 4?

 

[Pele]

Gday

Yes i booked a return GUM- KIX J flight for March with Delta through the Velocity rewards website a few weeks back. I was surprised how many days had availability. It wasnt particularly good value but i didnt want to buy a ticket. What was annoying is that when i checked the one way sectors for the flight they came up with points plus tax totals but when i checked the return itinerary it came to a different points plus tax total(ie not the sum of the two one ways). I tried to book it on the Velocity website but it kept failing on the payment page. I ended up having to ring the Velocity number and they did it over the phone and they waived the telephone booking fee. She said they I wasnt the first to have troubles booking partner awards online. And to top it off the taxes total over the phone was different to the previous two quotes i had!

The other thing that sucks is that there was only one J class flight available (which i bought) but i need two. I have checked the seat map for my flights and of the 24 J seats available each way there are two seats blocked out(i am guessing for the crew/co pilots) and my booked award seat then 21 vacant seats. I have almost given up hope of any further awards seats being released for that flight(unless someone can tell me otherwise????) and am about ready to pay full price for another seat. Does any carrier ever release more awards seats in the week or two before the flight departs if there are loads available? I am worried that if i hold out for an award ticket that the cost of the revenue ticket will skyrocket as the departure date approaches.

Pele.

 

[kaelo]

Great work kaelo!
Did you get an idea of how many seats they had. Do you think that would have been possible for a family of 4?

Hi Mark,

The EY and VS fights I looked at all showed 2 award seats available. I was suprised how much EY award availability there was actually. VS also had award seats available every day for TATL - although a the premium cabins were more limited.