You may remember my post back on May 4th titled Did I Really Just Book 2 Low Delta Business Tix to Europe for Summer Travel? YES!… well in that post I was simply happy to find my parents two low level business class tickets to Europe on the exact dates that they had requested. Granted, the flight to Madrid was perfect, but the direct return from Barcelona was unavailable. Instead, I booked them on a Dublin flight the same day with a planned connection..no big deal. As tends to happen with Delta, there were at least five different time changes to each flight, though none of them more than a few minutes. Nonetheless, the online itinerary continuously noted the changes and had a statement that flights changes might be possible due to the new times. Well, I called Delta yesterday and asked to switch to the direct BCN flight. I was told it was available, but only at the high award level. I mentioned that the website noted that a free change might be possible and wondered if the agent might be able to “see what happens”. She was willing to try and responded with “WOW the computer let me do it, your parents are both now in business on the direct flight and will receive a .50 refund per person.” SUCCESS! Now, this has happened to me before , you just need the perfect combination – an agent willing to try and the system accepting the change! Doesn’t get better than that – direct flights to their exact cities on their exact dates at the low award level during prime summer travel!
SkyPesos have been really useful for me this year…with a little effort and flexibility . In addition to the two tickets above, I recently returned from my First Virgin-Atlantic Upper Class Business Flight Booked with SkyMiles, secured two seats on partner Virgin Australia in Business to Sydney and Melbourne during Australia’s high-season (post coming soon), and utilized the China Southern partnership to leverage A380 flights from LAX-CAN and onto select points in Southeast Asia.
Original Itinerary
New Itinerary
Interested in using your miles for a flight but can’t find availability? Consider using Juicy Miles for award booking assistance.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
6 comments
Nice!
Way to go my favorite booking Guru… Now everyone you book for will want this 😉
.
You may be on to something new here. We know schedule change is cumulative but maybe there is a computer line if say 3 or 4 or 5 changes, even small, triggers this free change. Need more reader input.
.
Thanks Adam!
Have experienced similar success.
Just booked 4 Business Class at the low award level for Sumer 2014.
Had to grab leg # 1 as soon as it opened a few weeks ago, knowing I’d get hit with 150.00 change fee when the return opened, but I got what I wanted as my return opened recently and it was all worth it.
Skypesos on an AF A380. LAX-CDG-NCE
Using ExpertFlyer I still see Low Level seats avail on the A380 CDG-LAX on JUL 2nd. Either JUL 2 or 3 there was 4 seats avail…
Hi, you wrote on an earlier post ”several of the Delta agents saw no availability when searching for business class awards on LAX-CAN, I had to instruct them to manually request the space” I just had this problem with delta trying to book korean airways, it was available but delta was saying it wasnt could i instruct them to manually request the space?
Also can delta book korean first class or only business.
Thanks
@andrew – DL can only book business on all partners, no first class unfortunately. If they aren’t seeing the Korean award space and you think it exists (where are you checking?), hang up and call back!
I recently had success with this. I had a flight MUC-AMS-DTW-MSP in biz. The AMS-DTW had a schedule change of 15 minutes. I called and asked the agent if they would try to put me on the direct flight AMS-MSP that left at about the same time. The AMS-MSP was pricing at the high level. She made the change in about 2 minutes with no issues. Saved me about 4 hours and a stop in Detroit! Made my day.