delta Archives - Page 2 of 5

Feb 18 2016

Delta Award Space is better than you think – much better

tl;dr – there’s a ton of Delta award space but our community’s bias against Delta is probably preventing us from realizing that. All searches were for FOUR people ONE way.

Whenever I’m poking around the blogosphere, there’s one airline that consistently gets hated on: Delta. Now I definitely agree they don’t make the most customer friendly moves – hiding award charts, hidden devaluations, etc. Still, they get way more flak than I think they deserve, and only get positive press every once in awhile when there is an award fare sale (BTW that sale extends to some business class fares as well if you’re interested).

Well, I was looking into a long weekend in Europe for my wife and myself this fall, and guess who consistently had the best award space? Delta Delta Delta. I don’t see AA or UA releasing that kind of space.

But before we get to the fall, let’s take a look at this summer. I wrote a few months ago about how Delta had a ton of award space to Europe for Summer 2016 that we used to book tickets to London. Over the past couple of weeks, I decided to take a look and see what’s changed since then, so I did a search for four seats (that’s right, four, for those families out there!) to see what turned up.

Here’s Boston to London in July in coach – it looks as good as it did when I checked in August 2015:

Economy award space for four BOS-LHR

Hmm. Well, that’s probably a fluke because it’s coach, what about in business class?

That’s FOUR seats. Four saver award seats per flight – both economy and business. Now some of those business class days are on Virgin Atlantic, but still. People love writing WIDE OPEN in their headlines – those two screen shots are wide open if you ask me. This is no fluke, take a look at the calendar for October:

These screenshots are getting boring, so you’ll have to trust me: the return award space is just as good. Okay fine, one screenshot:

How about Detroit to London in coach for four in July?

Business class?

Return in business?

Let’s try JFK-CDG:

How about JFK-CDG in the fall?

In business?

OK, so that one isn’t as good, but remember I’m searching for four people.

So I did one final test, LAX-LHR. If there was saver level space in business class I was going to be truly amazed. Unfortunately, Delta’s generous award space had finally met its mark:

Still, the award space is decent in coach:

And remember, if you really want to go in business, you can always find your way to one of those East Coast cities and go from there. Routes worth looking are anything from Boston, anything TO Amsterdam/London – I found good space on most of those routes through the end of the schedule (minus the obvious stuff like Christmas).

Why this matters

OK, so I have my hand fulls at home so don’t have the time to screenshot for days. But this award space is a big deal if you ask me. It means that the demise of Delta awards has been majorly overstated in the blogosphere. I cannot remember finding that much award space on either UA or AA. And remember, UA already devalued and AA is about to devalue – so it’s not like Delta’s prices are that expensive relatively anymore. People keep calling them Skypesos – but I just don’t see it. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!

Also, the ability to find four award seats is clutch for families. And Delta mile earning isn’t going to be affected by the Chase 5/24 crackdown.

Even if you don’t have Delta miles, there are other ways to book this space. One idea that I saw the other day on View from the Wing was using 80,000 Korean Air miles to fly roundtrip in business class. The fuel surcharges and fees are not a joke: I called and it was ~$1000 in business class (just look for “YR” when using ITA Matrix), but its an option. You could think of it as buying a $1000 coach ticket and using 80,000 miles to upgrade to business (it’s not for everyone). Heck, even Alaska still pairs with Delta sort of still! All of that saver award space (30K coach 62.5K business each way) should be bookable with partners.

Final Thoughts

People keep hating on Delta, but I just don’t get it. I don’t care how customer unfriendly you are – if you open up award space for my family to take a trip to Europe in the middle of the summer, I’m going to forgive a lot of your missteps. So next time you’re looking to go to Europe – poke around on the Delta website. You won’t believe what happens next!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aug 19 2015

Delta Skymiles are not Useless

Delta gets a bad rap, and rightfully so. Delta miles are difficult to use, they switched to a revenue based system first, etc. etc. yada yada yada. Despite all that, I’ve been bullish on Delta miles and stockpiling for the past year or so with the specific goal in mind of getting three business class seats to Europe for summer 2016. This post is living proof that all is not lost with the Delta program, no matter how bad things have seemed. And I’m not even talking about the award sale that’s been going on (which is pretty great too!). Delta Skymiles are not useless!

A bit of quick background – I’ve always been keenly aware that Boston is a great place to live if you have Delta miles. BOS-AMS and BOS-LHR are routes that often have business class availability. While BOS-AMS tends to have more availability, BOS-LHR makes up for this with the fact that there are two frequencies: one Delta operated flight and one Virgin Atlantic operated flight. Virgin Atlantic has been historically pretty decent about award space.

My goal had always been to get a family of four to Europe in business class for summer 2016. Planning wise, I made a few changes – I’ve decided to be a little less adventurous with a 3.5 and 1 year old in tow next year. What that meant is finding flights that are more convenient, and paying more for them if necessary.

Bottom line: 62.5K per person might not sound amazing for a 7 hour TATL flight in business class, but that’s what we’re booking. On top of that, we’re leaning towards visiting Scotland (haven’t booked a return yet), which means we’ll eat the UK departure tax. Still, shorter flights with two kids and being able to converse in our native tongue is probably gonna win out over “maximizing” our miles and money on this trip. And if Disney World is a total bust I’ll even eat the cancellation fees if I need to.

I ended up booking 3 business class seats on Delta’s direct flight. I really wanted to fly Virgin Atlantic, but ultimately decided on Delta because

Booking infant in arms tickets with Delta partners can sometimes get annoying (I’ll deal with that when plans firm up more), and
The Virgin Atlantic flight leaves at 9:50 PM so I think leaving at 7:10 PM will be better for the kids.

Of course, that might totally backfire if the kids are overstimulated and don’t sleep on the plane, which is a distinct possibility but a gamble that I’ll take.

So here’s what I’ve noticed. There are at least four seats in business class on a bunch of flights from Boston to LHR/AMS. I’ve attached a bunch of screenshots below in case you don’t believe me. I even did two searches out of JFK – not as good, but still pretty good. There are still four seats on the flight that I booked three seats on, which means there were at least 7. I guess typing that out loud makes me wonder if it’s some sort of glitch, but you know what, Delta doesn’t have an award chart so who knows. Regardless, if you’re on the east coast thinking of traveling to Europe next summer in business – Delta might not be the worst currency to have. At least at this 11 month out kind of moment. Oh and economy has a ton of space too, if that suits your needs better.

P.S. – I got tired of screenshotting, but DTW looked pretty good too and I even found five days in July with seats to London from LAX.

Hey, Amsterdam for four looks pretty good too

There's even space from JFK — There’s even space from JFK

And if you search for only two people - even better — And if you search for only two people – even better

Jul 13 2015

Baggage Charges for Infants and Toddlers – A Guide

Earlier today while Matt was gearing up for a trip with his family he wrote the following tweet:

Have to start researching bag charges to Mexico with a lap infant… No status and some cards- any other posts to look at first?
— Saverocity (@Saverocity) July 12, 2015

Nobody seemed to reply to him (or I don’t know how to use my Twitter properly, which is probable) and he got my curious, so I decided to look up baggage fees for infants and children.

When we were only dealing with one infant we managed to still travel light – two roller carry ons plus caddy/carseat combination were enough. It was a bit cumbersome at the airport but doable.

When our infant became a toddler, we ended up getting a car seat bag – in all our travels we were able to check the car seat bag for free (and stuff it with diapers and other stuff). At that point we still could have gotten away with two carry on rollers (plus gate checked stroller), though we never had to pay bag fees for one reason or another so we started checking bags.

Either way, I was curious whether checking car seats for free is a standard thing for all US based airlines or whether we had just gotten lucky. I decided to write it in the form of a guide of baggage charges for infants and toddlers – what can you expect to pay/not pay for when flying US based airlines with children and infants. And remember you can use a car seat bag like the one we bought as a de facto checked bag for a couple items in addition to the car seat itself. Feel free to let me know if you’ve experienced otherwise in the comments!

This stupid car seat bag is ugly and bulky but can be very useful

Alaska Airlines

Infant policy here, carry on policy here.

Carry on Baggage – Diaper bags DO count against the regular carry on allowance. So if you are bringing a lap infant that’s one less carry on for yourself. A FAA approved car seat/infant restraint seat can be brought on for free if your child is going to occupy it on the plane. Strollers can be carried on subject to space availability (space guaranteed only with purchase of a ticket for an infant.

Checked Baggage – Strollers and car seats can be checked without charge when traveling with a child/infant. All other standard fees apply.

Car Seats and Strollers – See above.

Allegiant Air

Find their policy here.

Carry on Baggage – Each fare paying passenger may travel with a diaper bag at no charge. Diaper bag does not count against carry on allowance

Checked Baggage – There is no charge for checking or gate checking both a car seat and a stroller for children and infants

Car Seats and Strollers – See checked baggage policy above.

American Airlines

Not the greatest website. Information on children and infants here, general baggage allowance info here. Also notable that they group children and pets together…okay then.

Carry on Baggage – You are allowed to bring an umbrella stroller, approved safety seat, and diaper bag on in addition to the regular carry on allowance. My guess is in practice they’ll make you gate check some of that stuff (I’ve never successfully gotten a stroller into an AA cabin).

Checked Baggage – It doesn’t look like you get anything above the standard adult allowance which means it technically costs money to check baggage in for your infant or child (unless traveling internationally on flights that allow free checked bags for adults). However since you’re allowed to bring a car seat on as carry on, my guess is they’ll let you check that at the counter as well.

Car Seats and Strollers – See carry on policy above.

Delta Airlines

Find their policy here.

Carry on Baggage – It’s unclear whether a lap child gets a carry on baggage allowance, but I think so, since the website says “In addition to the one bag carry-on allowance, you may bring a booster seat, other infant seat or bassinet onto the plane as an additional free item (subject to carry-on size restrictions).” This has been my experience in practice as well. I read this as lap infants get one bag to carry on, ticketed children get the regular allowance adults get of course.

Checked Baggage – For unticketed infants, none. For ticketed international lap children 1 checked bag up to 20 lbs with a maximum outside dimension of 45 inches, for all other ticketed children the standard adult baggage allowance applies.

Car Seats and Strollers – You can check both a car seat and a stroller for free anywhere between curbside and the gate. They are not counted against the standard baggage allowance.

Frontier Airlines

Another airline that groups family and pets! Policy here. Baggage policy here.

Carry on Baggage – A diaper bag can be brought on board for free.

Checked Baggage – No charge for checked strollers or car seats.

Car Seats and Strollers – Stroller must be gate checked.

Hawaiian Airlines

Infant policy here.

Carry on Baggage – If a seat is not purchased, no carry on or checked baggage allowances apply (read: the diaper bag will cost you a bag, theoretically). However you may bring a child restraint seat on board if there is an empty seat available for the infant AND the car seat bears the following two required labels:

This restraint system conforms to all applicable federal motor vehicle safety conditions.
This restraint is certified for use in motor vehicles and aircraft. (in red lettering) (NOTE: Labels that indicate U.S. or Foreign Government approval or show the seat was manufactured under the standards of the United Nations are also valid.)

If there is no space available you can gate check the car seat.

Checked Baggage – Strollers and car seats can be checked free of charge (including at the gate).

Car Seats and Strollers – See above.

Jetblue Airlines

Policies here.

Carry on Baggage – Infant car seats are considered a special item – each customer can carry one on board the aircraft. Each infant is allowed a diaper bag.

Checked Baggage – Lap infants receive no checked baggage allowance. For ticketed infants/children, standard allowances and fees apply.

Car Seats and Strollers – Car seats and strollers can be checked free of charge at the gate or at the counter.

Southwest Airlines

Infant policy here.

Carry on Baggage – A child restraint device for a ticked child is not considered against your allowance. No mention of a diaper bag.

Checked Baggage – Child restraint device and stroller can be checked for free in addition to regular free baggage allowance (two bags per ticketed customer). I assume that means paid tickets.

Car Seats and Strollers – See above.

United Airlines

Find their policy here.

Carry on Baggage – In addition to the regular carry on allowance, you may bring on a diaper bag and government-approved car seat

Checked Baggage – “The standard checked baggage allowance applies to children with purchased tickets, including infants traveling internationally on 10 percent of an adult fare.” The takeaway here is if you pay for an adult checked bag, you pay for a kids’ checked bag on United.

Car Seats and Strollers – United accepts one stroller and one car seat free of charge for each child. In my experience we’ve been able to check these anywhere from the curb to the gate.

Final Thoughts

The bottom line is, if you have to pay for a checked bag for an adult you probably have to pay it for you infant/toddler/child/adolescent. If you feel you need a little bit of extra space, I think the car seat bag is the way to go. Also, it’s not mentioned in any of the policies explicitly, but you never need to worry about gate checking a caddy/car seat combination. Hopefully this list helps you as you plan for your travel with your young ones!

The caddy and car seat is the way to go for infants in my opinion

Apr 26 2015

Using Flexibility to Find Premium Award Space to Australia and New Zealand Part 2 (Skyteam)

I wrote last week about how, if you’re flexible enough, you can use United miles to get to Oceania in premium cabins. Today I’m going to write about how you can do something similar with Delta miles, though I should remind you that Kenny from Miles4More has already written extensively about the most direct routes to Australia on miles.

Like with United, the key to finding premium cabin award space is taking roundabout routings, namely, through Korea.

Getting to Australia Using Delta Miles

Aside from the highly preferable Virgin Australia option, you can route through Korea to get to Oceania using Delta miles as well – with no fuel surcharges so the prices are good. Now that Delta has vastly improved its award search engine, you can pretty much find flights you want in business class to Australia or New Zealand (as long as you’re willing to route through Korea).

The costs of these flights are 80,000 miles in business class each way plus taxes and fees – the same as United. I had more trouble finding return itineraries than outbounds. There seem to be options with China Southern as well.

Korean Air flies from Seoul to Sydney, Brisbane, and Auckland, here are some sample itineraries through ICN (all searches for two people):

You can basically try to get to those three cities in Oceania through ICN on Korean Air from any airport they fly from. They fly to ICN from ATL, ORD, DFW, IAH, LAS, LAX, JFK, SFO, SEA, YYZ, YVR, and IAD. I did quick searches from these airports and found premium cabin space from ORD, LAX, JFK and IAD, but there was economy space from all those other airports. It’s worth searching from all of those airports if you want to fly business to Oceania!

One other thing to note – Delta has some weird blackout rules for Korean Air dates that more or less coincide with Korean Air’s peak travel times. The peak times for 2015 and 2016 can be found here.

Screenshot of Korean Air peak times you need to be aware of

It’s worth taking a look at this Flyertalk thread to see people’s different experiences regarding peak times (the short version is it seems like if a flight is during a peak period you can see it on delta.com but cannot book it).If you’re trying to book for those dates, you won’t be able to book on Delta – though you have another option.

Getting to Australia Using Korean Air Miles

You can book any of the Korean Air space that you find on Delta using Korean Air miles (obviously). The upside of this is Korean Air is an Ultimate Rewards transfer partner, the downside is it levies fuel surcharges. But it can be helpful in a pinch or if you need to fly during peak periods (which are more expensive on Korean though).

The cost to route from North America to Australia on Korean Air is 97,500 miles each way during off peak time AND , so it’s more expensive as well.

While the booking process for partner awards on Korean Air is super cumbersome, to book Korean metal it’s pretty straightforward. The biggest issue is that you can’t search award space on koreanair.com unless you have enough miles to book the award – do not under any circumstances transfer from Ultimate Rewards until you know the space is there. To get around this, search on delta.com (like above) or use Expertflyer (paid subscription).

If you find space, you could transfer miles over from Ultimate Rewards and then book. In my experience, the lag time is around two days (though I’ve seen them go through in as little as one). This makes me a little paranoid – I’m always afraid the space will disappear (though Korean is admittedly generous). If you’re willing to do a little extra work, there’s a way around this.

Call into Korean and tell them you want to book a bonus ticket (their term for award ticket). Feed them your flights and then tell them you need to transfer miles over and want to put them on hold. The last time I did this, they put the flights on hold for a month!

So that’s how long you have to transfer your miles over and book (or make up your mind). As long as all flights are on Korean Air you can just complete your booking online and not deal with the faxing nonsense necessary for partner awards.

Korean Air is pretty generous, I saw two or three business class seats on a bunch of days using delta.com. I think they might open up even more seats to their own members if you’re booking through Korean Air.

Final Thoughts

Like I said at the top, Virgin Australia is the best way to get to Australia on miles. But if everyone has booked the space thanks to Kenny’s post or if you don’t have Delta/Virgin America miles, there are still other options as long as you’re willing to go the long way around (also be aware some of KE’s business class is still angled so do your research). If you’re using United or Korean Air miles – book a stopover in Korea and hit two continents in one trip! Bottom line – though the quickest way between two points is a line, being willing to go outside the box can yield great results too. Happy booking!

Apr 20 2015

Using Flexibility to Find Premium Award Space to Australia and New Zealand

Kenny has written extensively about how Virgin Australia is a bit of a gold mine for travel to Australia/Oceania using Delta or Virgin America miles. Virgin Australia remains the single best way to get to Australia in a premium cabin, provided you have a way to position to the West Coast (since domestic space can be tough to find on DL).

Virgin Australia is definitely the way to go, but if you can’t find space and you’re willing to tolerate some extra time in business class there are other options to get to Australia/NZ. In fact, you can find space using two alliances! The key to the space? Funnily enough, it’s Korea.

Korean Air (Delta or Ultimate Rewards partner) and Asiana (United partner) both are pretty generous about business class award space, specifically on their A380 JFK-ICN routes. I’ve pointed out Asiana’s JFK-ICN award space before but noticed while working for a client that Korean Air is equally generous. The key here is that both Delta and United will allow you to route through Asia to get to Oceania.

In today’s post, I’ll focus on getting to Australia using Star Alliance on Asiana, and later in the week I’ll discuss using Korean Air and Skyteam.

Getting to Australia Using United Miles

Getting to Australia using United miles on Asiana is pretty straightforward. Sometimes, you can just find it through a straight search. For example, if you search JFK-SYD you can find a flight like the following:

Two seats to Sydney via Seoul using United miles on Asiana

You can go to Auckland as well, usually connecting through Sydney.

The mixed cabin is only an economy leg from SYD-AKL, everything else is business

However, sometimes the itinerary through Korea won’t come up automatically. In that case, search for the award space one segment at a time – ensuring that you are spending less than 24 hours in Seoul (anything greater would be considered a stopover – doable if you are booking a round trip but not on a one way. So yes, if you’re booking a round trip you could spend some time in Korea in one direction!).

After you have found the space, run a multi-city search cherry picking for the flights that you know are there (be sure to be careful about the dates you put in). The multi-city itinerary should price at the same cost as a one way, 80,000 miles plus taxes and fees.

160,000 miles is for two people, so 80,000 each (as it should be)

In a worst case scenario, you can call in to book the ticket. If you are trying to avoid the phone fee, you can book one leg online and then use the 24 hour cancellation/change policy to call in and add the segment that you want.

I searched routes from the United States to ICN and found the following:

– There seems to be decent to good business class space availability (except in December) on the flight from ORD-ICN, but it seems you have to use the multi-city itinerary search to piece it together as below. The tougher leg to find business class space in is ICN-SYD, but there are also options to connect through Bangkok on Thai

Again, the price is 160K due to searching for 2 people

– Space is great between SFO-ICN, though some of those flights are on UA metal (save 10,000 miles get a lesser product)

– Space is equally great between SEA-ICN

– As far as I can tell, JFK, ORD, and SFO all feature lie flat business class seats, while the SEA flight is angled flat

– From ICN, Asiana flies to SYD (flat beds as far as I can tell) and this is what availability looked like in Aug-Nov.

Space from ICN-SYD for Aug-Nov. 11 months out looks pretty good too

11 months out space looks really good, and there is pretty great coach availability as well. From SYD you can catch an Air New Zealand flight to NZ – usually in coach but good enough for the shorter flight.

Final Thoughts

Getting to Australia is tough, but routing through Asia can help you get there in a premium cabin. If you book a round trip, you can even stopover in Seoul if you’d like. United miles are your best Star Alliance bet here due to the lower fuel surcharges, but on Aeroplan it’s also 80,000 miles and $300 in taxes and fees each way. Though space isn’t rampant, it’s a lot better than most direct premium class flights. Also note all my searches were for two seats – you might have better luck if you’re only looking for one. Next time I’ll take a look at the Korean Air space doing the same thing – it’s even a shade better.