scrb

Well in the past, I just call the Partners desk and work through dates, 331 days out.

Was hoping that delta.com would have progressed enough but I'm not seeing anything there. Of course it could be that I'm looking for dates with no availability.

They're only showing DL flights connecting on the east coast (ideally, I'd fly the AF SFO-CDG flight).

And what's screwy is that on the calendar page, they show Skysaver availability for various dates and then on the next page, the flights listed are all SkyChoice.

At Flyertalk, people have suggested using nwa.com or Continental.com but I only see some KLM flights on those sites.

Anyone else have better luck finding awards availability for AF online or do they just call in and pay the various fees?

Patty

The DL award calendar is <i>very</i>screwy. I never use the calendar. However, delta.com will show AF flights <b>if</b> there's availability.

nwa.com used to show AF award availability but I haven't seen it in recent searches.

You can see AF award availability with a subscription to expertflyer.com or kvstool.com. EF has a 5 day free trial, not sure about KVS.

Paulchili

Patty,
Not to hi-jack the thread, but I have the same question for AA/OW.
I tried Expertflyer and found it useless when it comes to OW award seats (good only for AA domestic). Would KVS be better for OW award seats with CX,JL,QF, etc(or any other site)?
Thanks.

Fodorite018

We just got tickets using miles via Continental for Paris this summer. We are flying on AF from SEA, but will be on CO on the way home. For two tickets, our out of pocket cost was a mere $169, which was great. CO was very easy to deal with and the availability was easy to see.

scrb

Can you book directly on expertflyer?

How much is expertflyer?

Problem with delta.com is that every search I've done comes up with only SkyChoice, even if I choose SkySaver dates.

250k miles for every flight, which is ridiculous.

travelgourmet

The advice you got from FlyerTalk is the right advice. If you can't find what you need via a combination of nwa.com (use nwa.com/jp, rather than the normal nwa.com), continental.com, and ExpertFlyer, then I think the seat is simply not available.

<i>Can you book directly on expertflyer?</i>

No. You use it as a tool to find the availability. I usually call to book the ticket and just eat the booking fee. If it is worth using the miles, then it is worth spending the $25 to book the ticket.

How much is expertflyer?

This will tell you all you need to know about costs.

http://www.expertflyer.com/rates.jsp

FWIW, I use ExpertFlyer and find it invaluable in booking rewards. Between ExpertFlyer and NWA.com, I have managed to book 8 long-haul business class tickets, within the past 12 months, all at the saver level.

Patty

Paulchili,
I don't have a KVS subscription but according to their website you can search &quot;OneWorld Award Availability via [Amadeus: Awards/OneWorld]
Award availability checker for QF/BA/AA/AY/IB/MA/LA + EI/FJ&quot; with the Platinum version. Maybe someone who has KVS can chime in on how well this works?

scrb,
As mentioned, you can't book on EF but you can try to replicate what you've found on EF on delta.com. Try searching by schedule choosing the date an departure time (morning, afternoon, etc) of the flight you found. This should work for simple itineraries if you want to save yourself $25 per ticket and get a 2 day award hold (phone reservations require immediate ticketing now) but for complex itineraries, you'll probably need to call.

travelgourmet,
Do you find that there's any difference between the results on res.nwa.com vs asiares.nwa.com anymore? At one point they used to be, but the results look the same to me now. Out of habit, I still use asiares.nwa.com though.

Paulchili

Patty,
Thank you. Since Expertflyer does not work for me, I will try KVS closer to the time of my need.

travelgourmet

Patty:

As for whether the Japan site is better, I don't know. I've never seen a need to switch back, but I have read a few reports on FlyerTalk that it is still the preferred method.

Patty

<i> I have read a few reports on FlyerTalk that it is still the preferred method</i>

I think that's a holdover from when the JP and US sites had different award search functionality.

Patty

OK after some more experimenting, I do see a difference in availability between the US and JP sites. In particular I noticed that on some dates more KL intra-Europe flights show up as Perksaver on the JP site than on the US site. On other dates there's no difference at all so it's subtle. I went to delta.com and searched the same dates/times and the availability on delta.com seems to match the US site (i.e. I was able to pull up all KL flights which showed up as Perksaver on nwa.com but not the ones that only showed up as Perksaver on nwa.com/jp). Coincidence? I don't know, and I haven't called DL to see what's available by phone on the same dates. However, over the years I've noticed that once in a while I'll find a KL flight available on the JP site only to have DL agents tell me they don't see it (in those instances I usually call multiple times and try different agents). Anyway I'm wondering if this slight difference between the two sites is the key to what DL agents can/can't book