Questions and Answers

Pretty new to the miles game so be nice. Fiancee and I each have a SkyMiles stash and I’m doing some preliminary research into a future trip to Asia and wondering if I’ve got this right.

Want to get from MSP->DPS in business class, though I’m happy to book a positioning flight to LAX if that’s easier. Searching LAX->DPS, a few options come up at 80,000 miles, but nothing from China Airlines, which I’d really like to fly.

Searching by segment, flights are available from LAX->TPE, then TPE->DPS. But with the multi-city tool, it spits out an error that the correct dates are not available. If I push the Bali segment back a day (with a 28+ hour layover, yuck), it prices out at 120,000.

If I call in to Delta, should I be able to put together an itinerary that prices out at 80,000?

Thanks!

If you can find China Airlines space segment by segment definitely try to call in. It might be a little bit of a pain but should be doable as long as they are all saver segments. Delta sometimes has married segment logic on its own metal but I think you should be fine with a partner.

I just booked a DPS-ORD route this way. It wasn’t on the search but all the segments were available. So I called and they put it together. Keep in mind you can have THREE connections on an international flight. Some agents will say only 2, but this is for domestic. So you could go DPS-TPE-LAX-MSP. Of course there has to be space available, but even the LAX-MSP you could get in saver economy while the others are in J (business).

Forget about multi-city. It prices them individually.

I just booked SFO to DPS for my honeymoon. You have to book it as 2 individual legs. The Delta agents i talked too were not able to price it as one trip. It was 80,000 per person for SFO to TPE in Business on the new China Airlines a350. I paid cash for the TPE to DPS leg.

[USER=2736]@Jason Kramer[/USER] that is strange…assuming there was award space on the TPE-DPS leg, they should have been able to get it on the same ticket for the same number of miles.

[USER=2736]@Jason Kramer[/USER] Here is the calendar for August from SFO to DPS. More than half the days are available. The only reason for you to have paid cash for TPE-DPS is not having a saver reward for the date you picked. Where you restricting yourself to a specific travel date?

[ATTACH=full]271[/ATTACH]

I think everyone is correct!

There are issues with China Airlines and Delta sometimes, where for whatever reason those intra-Asia segments just won’t confirm. It’s like the opposite of married segments, as they’re clearly available individually, but randomly can’t be combined.

Back in the day I could get the international reissue desk to piece an award like this together manually, but fewer and fewer agents are willing to bludgeon the computer these days.

[QUOTE=”MarkS, post: 27423, member: 2121″][USER=2736]@Jason Kramer[/USER] Here is the calendar for August from SFO to DPS. More than half the days are available. The only reason for you to have paid cash for TPE-DPS is not having a saver reward for the date you picked. Where you restricting yourself to a specific travel date?

[ATTACH=full]271[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]

Yes we had restricted dates due to our schedule. Also, for 80,000 miles they do not offer the China Airlines option. If i had enough miles it would have been 120,000 miles for SFO – TPE – DPS (booked as 2 legs). I didn’t mind paying for the TPE to DPS leg especially since they switched from an older plane to the new 777-300er!

You’ll have a great flight on the A350, and congrats!

[URL=’http://www.rewardflying.com/report-blog/2017/1/2/china-airlines-a350-900-business-class-regional-tpe-hkg’]www.rewardflying.com/report-blog/2017/1/2/china-airlines-a350-900-business-class-regional-tpe-hkg[/URL]

[QUOTE=”Tiffany, post: 27442, member: 7″]I think everyone is correct!

There are issues with China Airlines and Delta sometimes, where for whatever reason those intra-Asia segments just won’t confirm. It’s like the opposite of married segments, as they’re clearly available individually, but randomly can’t be combined.

Back in the day I could get the international reissue desk to piece an award like this together manually, but fewer and fewer agents are willing to bludgeon the computer these days.[/QUOTE]

Thanks Tiffany! Any tips on convincing an agent to stitch this together for us at the 80k price?

Just lots of asking, unfortunately. That’s the problem with not having award charts — there’s a price we [I]know[/I] it’s supposed to be, but we can’t point to it anywhere.