@Mitch I positively referenced Ben s post for the point I took him to be making, when I read it Expe

Recent Comments vacation packages to las vegas Kalboz on Using Hotel Points for Suites and Upgraded Rooms Have you even verified any of this before posting it? on Buying Money With Money for the Miles: Go Beyond Bluebird s $5000 a Month Limit, and How to Play Even Without Vanilla Reloads Robert Hanson on Bits n Pieces for January 2, 2013 Andrew C on Using Hotel Points for Suites and Upgraded Rooms Robert Hanson on Bits n Pieces for January 2, 2013 Archives Select Month January vacation packages to las vegas 2013
In mid-September Air France transatlantic business vacation packages to las vegas class award space mostly evaporated . And what did exist wasn t bookable with Delta Skymiles, even though those Delta is a Skyteam partner of Air France.
I initially tried to parse who was responsible, something that s a big deal because historically Air France business class availability has been really good and Delta has had access to whatever Air France made available to its own members. It became a great outlet for burning Skymiles, which are in most cases tougher to use and worth less than miles with US Airways, United, and American.
And also because what little inventory was showing up was at least in anecdotal searches still accessible by another Air France partner, Alaska Airlines. (Delta always seemed to be able to book Air France awards post June 2013 when this happened vacation packages to las vegas in September, and nothing prior to that, but I was still getting Alaska hits in the interim.)
Lucky does a nice job laying out where things stand today : Air France business class award space does exist for Delta Skymiles members but it is not at all the same as what s offered to Air France s own Flying Blue members. In fact it s barely even a subset.
But it doesn t appear to be a Delta-specific issue , like Delta not wanting vacation packages to las vegas to pay for the seats or some kind of dispute between Delta and Air France over payment. Because Air France partner Alaska Airlines seems to have the same issue , Air France will show 9 business class award seats to their own members and no business class award seats will be bookable vacation packages to las vegas with Alaska miles.
You can still grab the seats with Flying Blue miles, which you can get through instant transfers from American Express Membership Rewards or by transferring in from other programs like Starwood Preferred vacation packages to las vegas Guest (and you ll pay fuel surcharges when redeeming vacation packages to las vegas those miles for flights on Air France, and getting what is in my opinion an uncomfortable business class seat).
vacation packages to las vegas But the new normal seems to be that partner access to Air France business class awards is much limited. And that it isn t a restriction on only the ability of Delta Skymiles members to grab those seats. vacation packages to las vegas So presumably this isn t Delta s fault but rather a policy change on the part of Air France.
And in my view the severe limitation of partners redeeming award seats on your own flights (into award seats that you re otherwise making available) is something that undermines the idea of the Skyteam alliance in a very real way.
I think it is an Air France issue/problem or just lack of respect with other programs. I mentioned at OneMileAtaTime that this is also happening with GOL Linhas Aereas here in Brazil. Their frequent flyer program Smiles is a partner of Air France-KLM and since couple of weeks ago AF award space simply vanished from Smiles website. Even though vacation packages to las vegas I m able to see it whether from ExpertFlyer or from Air France vacation packages to las vegas s website, it doesn t seem to be released to partners anymore. Strange!
I have been hoarding my Amex for transfers to Delta and then to use on AF to EU as that was wide open last year from IAD in the past on the A380; but now I will just transfer to aeroplan and then to US or ANA or any other.
The examples that lucky gives do actually show up on the Delta web site for me, with the same availability from AF and EF. I don t doubt that there is still something going on, but the flights listed aren t it.
I strongly agree with what Matt said. Cedric: it is almost impossible to use miles on Delta metal at the low level. Thank god so many of Delta s partners have availability, although all of this just goes to show how dismal Skyteam is as an alliance.
Having recently blown the bulk of my SkyMiles for r/t J class tix to JNB, I don t have a large number of SM left, just a tad more than 60K. I don t want to waste the miles on a domestic ticket, yet I want to empty my DL account vacation packages to las vegas while the SM still have value. DL does have excellent availability to Lima, so if anyone is looking for an interesting vacation packages to las vegas destination vacation packages to las vegas for a moderate number of miles, a trip to Macchu Pichu might be in order.
Too bad Gary didn t bother to look at the comments on Ben s post, where any number of us have shown that the seats that show in EF can actually be found on delta.com. It s bad enough when the blogosphere is just reposts of things that are true, but now we re reposting vacation packages to las vegas misinformation with almost no new information added.
@Mitch @Matt the specific example that ben uses isn t the issue. the phenomenon that ben describes is correct. i wasn t relying on ben s post to learn this, it s something that i discovered and face every day through my award booking service.
Given DL has a TATL revenue-sharing JV with AF-KL, what does DL have to lose by AF-KL getting more fuel surcharge type of revenue on award tickets on routes where there is revenue-sharing? I doubt that DL management is unhappy that SkyMiles members have lost out on decent award availability on DL s primary TATL flying partner company AF-KL.
@Gary The phenomenon Ben describes is NOT correct. Ben writes And ExpertFlyer confirms that, as they also show two business class award seats on that flight, so it's worth noting that they're vacation packages to las vegas pulling availability from Air France Flying Blue and not Delta SkyMiles. However, I have yet to see an instance where ExpertFlyer shows Air France inventory that cannot be booked vacation packages to las vegas through SkyMiles. Yes, the FlyingBlue engine is now showing vacation packages to las vegas enhanced availability to FlyingBlue members. It seems that every alliance has at least one if not several carriers that do that, and I don t have a problem with that. If anything, Delta brought this on themselves by forcing SkyMiles members to use partners for almost all award travel at low/saver prices.
In the case of your CDG-IAD example, ExpertFlyer shows no O inventory on that flight, so I m still waiting for an example of an Air France flight that has O inventory showing in ExpertFlyer but that isn t available to partners. If you want to look into something (or complain vacation packages to las vegas about weird problems), look at some of the recent issues with KLM inventory that shows available on delta.com but that is always Just sold out when you try to book. Calling doesn t even help, as KLM returns sell denied when the phone agents try to book it.
My point was never about Expertflyer. vacation packages to las vegas It s that there used to be massive amounts of partner award space on Air France. What Air France offered to their own members was available to Delta members and to Alaska members. And that s no longer the case.
If that was your point, you weaken it in two ways: by (positively) referencing Ben s post which does focus on his mistaken impression that seats visible on ExpertFlyer are not available to Delta and by writing You used to be able to search Expertflyer for the space, or go to the Air France website to find award space, and then grab those flights with Delta miles. Yes, you can t use the Air France site any more for accurate vacation packages to las vegas inventory, but ExpertFlyer still works.
Gary, I m not sure that trying to change the topic is particularly fruitful here. You endorsed what Lucky posted, plus explicitly mentioned Expertflyer. As Mitch mentions, these go a long way towards weakening your point.
@Matt I guess since more than one person is reading me this way it s possible it s how I was coming off, but not my intention. I wasn t making any claim about Expert Flyer inventory matching or not matching the Air France space that Delta can access. The point of my post is that Delta Skymiles vacation packages to las vegas members and Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan members no longer have access to the same business class award space that Flying Blue members have. I was pretty explicit about that.
@Mitch I positively referenced Ben s post for the point I took him to be making, when I read it Expertflyer was what he was using as an example but it was beside the point, I didn t literally check his examples because the important point is completely sold and something I have experienced dozens of times recently vacation packages to las vegas in my award booking practice.
Gary, I hate to keep digging this up, but to be honest the fact that you have experienced problems dozens vacation packages to las vegas of times recently (thousands of dollars of award bookings?) yet still post a fundamentally incorrect statement of what does and does not work to find AF award space bookable on Delta is a bit disturbing. Equally so is Ben completely missing the boat on this with his booking service (and recent statements that he was using Skymiles a lot TATL).
Quite simply, vacation packages to las vegas if anyone should know what the situation is, it s you. If you re booking dozens of TATL awards where flying AF using Skymiles is at least under consideration, I would think it would be your responsibility vacation packages to las vegas to know how to search for the space, if nothing else for your clients sake.
View from the Wing is a project of Miles and Points Consulting, LLC. Some links to credit card and other products on this website will earn an affiliate commission, vacation packages to las vegas and this website has a financial relationship with several credit card issuing banks. All content unless otherwise noted or quoted vacation packages to las vegas is the author's own, and not provided or commissioned by any other entity. Opinions have not been reviewed, approved, endorsed, or likely even edited for typos and grammatical errors by any other entity. Occasionally a travel or other product provider may offer a complimentary item, most often that is the source of giveaways, but the author of this blog may also occasionally benefit from the blog's popularity and your travel experiences may differ This site is for entertainment purpose only. The