Delta "low" award miles

OK, be gentle- :) Does Delta ever have "low" award miles available domestic? (non Hawaii)

I have some, I would like to give a trip to my sister and family. I'm looking at next year, over several dates- Syr to MCO/MIA/FLL etc Over the past month or so, none have been available.

I don't use miles for myself, and there have just been stockpiling. :) But, would like to get the best value, since I don't earn them flying. I am NOT interested in any first class upgrades etc. just cheap economy seats. :)

Yes, they are available. Are they available at popular times on popular routes - NO. Like revenue seats, they are dynamically allocated based on demand algorithms. You will find them on flights where there is low revenue demand.

Also, low level awards may also pop up as you get close to departure date. Not good for travel to a cruise, but good for last minute type of travel.

So, if you are looking at high demand times to Florida (February & March) and to a cruise port on a cruise day, I would rein in your expectations.

One other tip....if you are looking for more than one seat, you may find that there's no low inventory. On some routes, DL will only assign one low seat at a time....sometimes having more later, sometimes not. You may need to break up a couple/group into different dates, flights and/or routings.

Best advise....play around with the various search tools (DL website, AF website, EF, KVS) and get a feel for how inventory works for the markets you are interested in.

It has been my personal experience that Delta has fewer saver award seats available than any other airline. It is extremely frustrating trying to use Delta miles!

More thoughts...do NOT try booking/searching for the entire itinerary in one "block". DL's computer system may or may not give you the best results when you have multiple possible connections. (My own guess is about 25% of the time is yes, with it dropping to near zero for complex routings).

Search for each segment separately, then piece them together when you find "low" availability. When looking for a one-way segment, remember that DL prices one-ways the same as a round trip, so you would want to find a 25,000 mile price for each segment. Don't be fooled by the award chart that gives you the impression that each direction should price to 12,500.

One more tip.....sometimes there just aren't low level coach award seats, but you can find low first class awards. I've seen it where the first class pricing was less than coach.

Have I been gentle?? :)

More thoughts...do NOT try booking/searching for the entire itinerary in one "block". DL's computer system may or may not give you the best results when you have multiple possible connections. (My own guess is about 25% of the time is yes, with it dropping to near zero for complex routings).

 

Search for each segment separately, then piece them together when you find "low" availability. When looking for a one-way segment, remember that DL prices one-ways the same as a round trip, so you would want to find a 25,000 mile price for each segment. Don't be fooled by the award chart that gives you the impression that each direction should price to 12,500.

 

One more tip.....sometimes there just aren't low level coach award seats, but you can find low first class awards. I've seen it where the first class pricing was less than coach.

 

Have I been gentle?? :)

Thanks- I may not have been clear, I was looking at any, one, of those Florida cities.

I fly nonrev, so am in the mode, always at late scrambling and having multiple routes in my head. :)

We just got two free r/t tickets from PBI - MSY without any problem at all.

In fact I called and asked them about some miles that I was short for buying one of the tickets and they gave them to me 1,500 of them ahead of time so I could use them. That was American Express. Some tickets were points that others but we got two of the tickets for 25,000 each and it was quite easy. Of course we are not talking about flying to Europe but it worked for us. I just got the gold master card from American Express and will get 30,000 miles within the next 3 months and plan on using them in November.

There is no blackout dates at all and it is very convenient to do on line.

Happy flying and sailing.;);)

Thanks- I may not have been clear, I was looking at any, one, of those Florida cities.

 

I fly nonrev, so am in the mode, always at late scrambling and having multiple routes in my head. :)

And yes, you were clear that you were looking for SYR to any of those possibilities, not all on one trip.

From SYR, you may have to look at routing through any of LGA, JFK, DTW, ATL and/or CVG. You may also need to look at leaving from Rochester, Elmira, Ithaca, Binghamton or Albany.

Wish I had the magic wand to make it easy, but this should give you some leg up on those just using the basic DL searching.

There is no blackout dates at all

A couple of caveats to this characterization.

DL reserves the right to blackout certain flights at special times. Super Bowl, Cannes Film Festival and Daytona 500 are a couple that I know have happened.

Although DL implies no blackouts, they have been known to implement defacto blackouts by not loading any low or medium award seats, thus forcing high level (which can be three times as costly). Also, loading only one or two award seats, at any level, on a flight can have the effect of a blackout.

SkyMiles redemptions on partner airlines are subject to blackout dates. The most notorious and pervasive is for Korean Airlines flights, where over a third of the year is blacked out out for SkyMiles award redemption.

We ha d no problems at all booking our flights with delta using our off miles.

We ha d no problems at all booking our flights with delta using our off miles.

And what is your point? The OP asked if Delta ever has low mileage FF tickets. They were told yes, but that it can be difficult to find them. The fact that you had no problem does not mean the OP won't have a problem.

What?

I am just stating what happened with my DH and I. Have a nice day.

Makes one almost miss S. Schultz.

Who's that???

Makes one almost miss S. Schultz.

Yep!

Yep!

Gotta go with you on this one.