You can use delta.com to search Delta, Virgin Australia, Air France, KLM, Korean, and now Alitalia space. Korean space isn’t searchable anywhere else. Virgin Australia space isn’t convenient to search elsewhere. Air France and KLM have stopped releasing all their space to Delta, so delta.com is the only place to figure out what space Delta has.
One huge annoyance about searching Korean and Virgin Australia space is that the calendar view doesn’t factor it in, so you have to search day-by-day.
Example: There is space on June 7 from LAX to Sydney at the Low Miles Price on Virgin Australia. (Yes, Delta charges 100k roundtrip for this route in economy. US Airways charges 110k roundtrip for this route in business, with a stop in Asia if you want.) But the Delta flight is at the medium price of 140k roundtrip.
As you can see, the calendar only takes the Delta space into account, listing June 7 as a Medium Price day.
I’ve told you how to trick the united.com calendar. There is no way to trick the Delta.com calendar.
if you want to book on Korean or Virgin Australia, ignore the calendar and search day-by-day. It’s a frustrating solution, but it’s the only solution to make sure you get the Low Miles Price on your awards.
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Is it not possible to search Korean on their own site?
Korean -> Skypass tab -> Award Booking -> View bonus seat award availability. From there it (appears to) give you a high/med/low indicator, and not exact seat numbers available.
Anyone can confirm that I’m looking at a valid search tool for KE award seats on their own site?
Scott?
can you search vietnam airlines on Delta.com
no
Scott,
This is good to know about KE. However, I know that KE has a direct flight from ICN to DFW but I couldn’t seem to be able to get an award seat to show up at all. Do you know if they even release this ?
JR
@Choi, I don’t think so. ICN-DFW is available almost everyday on KE web but nothing shows up on Delta.com.
I’ve also used Qantas to search for Air Lingus space – is there a better way? (Looking to take advantage of the inexpensive Avios option fro BOS-DUB).
Try United’s own website as Air Lingus is a partner with United.
BTW, is there a way to book first class on KE? I only saw business.
SkyMiles can only be used for international business not international first.
I’ve found that when booking DL awards, unless it’s easily doable online, the shortest point from A to B is to know all your options and then have the DL agents check availability for you. DL (along with AA IME) has by far the most competent award agents out there, and they’re relatively quick at searching the flights you give them.
When searching day by day, I have come across disappearing inventory. I would do a search to find a range of available outbound dates. Then do another search to find available return flights. I would then go back to where I found outbound dates and the low level flights would not be there anymore.