Got our FF tix thanks to you all!

Old Jan 10th, 2012, 02:11 PM
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Got our FF tix thanks to you all!

Back in November or so I asked about getting business class Delta tickets to Italy for fewer miles than were quoted at the time. We really wanted to use the miles to fly KLM through AMS and on to Italy.

You gave me some advice about how to look at KLM's website to see what they had before calling Delta, and insisting on th rep finding flights we could see. Our first attempt just before Christmas was a disaster, with a rep who must have been incompetent. But fortunately we did not buy that intinerary, which was supposedly going to cost us around 225K miles!

We waited until today, and got a rep who really knew his stuff, and he got us bus tickets from SFO-AMS-FCO Oct 1 and FCO-AMS Oct 20 and AMS-LAX-SFO on Oct 25. Only the LAX-SFO leg is not in bus. GREAT!!! And the mileage cost? 100K!

Thanks, everyone, for the clues that made this work!!
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Old Jan 10th, 2012, 04:28 PM
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Super!! Congrats to you.
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Old Jan 10th, 2012, 05:13 PM
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Congrats! Last time I called two or three times before I got a good Delta rep. I've learned to hang up quickly ("Oh, there's someone at the door!") when I realize I'm talking to one of the less-than-stellar agents.

Have a great trip--and enjoy the ride!
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Old Jan 10th, 2012, 05:51 PM
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I have to say I did learn a lesson from that bad rep. Everything he said was counter to what I had expected, but I hadn''t had enough experience with booking flights with miles. Now I know I should follow Leely2's example and just hang up.
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Old Jan 10th, 2012, 06:34 PM
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that is awweosme!
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Old Jan 12th, 2012, 06:11 PM
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Fantastic!

Charnees, I have 303k delta miles and can't get a ticket for < 260k miles for one!

So, Any advice about getting to Rome late this year or next year?

(We ended up buying Biz tix from Lufthansa on a special.)
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Old Jan 12th, 2012, 06:29 PM
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Remember that Delta took over Northwest and alot of the Northwest agents still don't know all of the ins and outs of Delta's skymiles program!
Glad that you got your tickets-will look for you in Piazza Navona in Rome. I will be holding a red wine glass
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Old Jan 12th, 2012, 07:40 PM
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annw, there is tons of info on flyertalk about this. There's a definitive mega-thread. Better make some coffee and settle in for a while:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...ss-awards.html

You might want to start at the end and read backward. I could never make the method on the original post work for me, but I've been looking for semi-complicated awards.

FWIW, I've had my best luck searching using my Flying Blue account, writing down my exact itinerary once I see the flights I need/want, and then approaching Delta. I have had to call because I was looking for European and Africa flights, and you can't book Kenya Airways online with Delta. But just for Europe you technically should be able to make your award reservation on delta.com.

You can do it! Persistence!
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Old Jan 13th, 2012, 04:53 PM
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Leely can you look for flights from the USA to South America using the Flying Blue account? I couldn't get it to work for me.
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Old Jan 13th, 2012, 05:08 PM
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Femi, I tried doing LAX-Rio just to see and it did not work. Which SkyTeam partners fly to S.A.? Which countries? The issue might be routes: AF and KL probably just fly CDG & AMS to S.A., right? So you could be stuck with Delta. Where does Aeromexico fly? I wonder if you could cobble something together out of LAX with them.

Are you going to the Pantanal?

The kvs tool might be worth trying out for a couple of months for your purposes. It will show Delta award availability and at what mileage level. (I haven't used it, so I can't say "Oh, definitely worth it!")
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Old Jan 13th, 2012, 05:11 PM
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Oh, I see AeroMexico only flies North and Central America. If someone here cannot help, definitely search flyertalk. I have never tried to get an award anywhere other than Europe or East Africa so my knowledge, such as it is, is extremely limited.
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Old Jan 14th, 2012, 02:47 PM
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Thanks for checking. I got the same results, just wanted to make sure it wasn't me. Makes sense that if I'm using Flying Blue the route would need to include an AF/KLM hub i.e. I would need to travel via Europe.

Yes, this is for the Pantanal
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Old Jan 14th, 2012, 07:36 PM
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Annw, I did what leely2 did. Got a flying blue number from KLM, looked up their award ticket availability for SFO - AMS for the trans-Atlantic legs of the flight, and then called Delta. I had the KLM site on my computer screen while we talked to Delta. The rep we got the second time was an old hand, and he tried several different approaches to pin down the flights available to Delta flyers. Not just for the big segments, but also the connecting ones (AMS-FCO on Alitalia and return, then flying KLM into LA on the return and taking Delta back to SFO). We even got a four-day layover in Amsterdam as part of the package, which pleased us a lot.

p.s., if you get a rep named Jerome, hang up and try again!
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Old Jan 16th, 2012, 06:42 AM
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Wow, fantastic. Thanks for the tips, too! So happy for you!
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