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Author
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Topic: summer blackout on DL award tickets on AF and KLM
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Carolinian
TUG MemberPosts: 5842
From: North Carolina
Registered: Dec 2000
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posted 05-08-2005 20:10
    
There has been a blackout imposed for using Delta SkyMiles for award tickets on Air France and KLM between June 1, 2005 and August 31, 2005. It is unknown if this will apply again in 2006.SkyMiles can still be used on CSA Czech Airlines and Alitalia with no summer blackouts, but any remaining inventory there is likely to be gobbled up fast. It used to be that Delta had a great network to Europe, but it now depends on partners to get you to a lot of places, and when there is a blackout imposed for using those partners in the summer it seriously impacts the usefulness of DL SkyMiles to Europe. Fortunately, for this summer, I got our tickets for Budapest 330 days out, and since we are already ticketed, we will not be impacted this year. With 400K SkyMiles to burn, this is a real bummer, especially since I prefer to fly trans-Atlantic on European carriers that still have a simblance of real service, and often Delta does not even fly all the way to my destinations. Hopefully, this will be like the Lufthansa limitations at UA, and just go away after a while. It also raises a concern that the same blackout may be imposed at NW and CO, which also partner with AF and KLM (although the Lufthansa restrictions at UA never did apply to their other partner on this side of the pond, US). The route network that NW flies with its own metal to Europe is even more limited than DL, and that is my second biggest cache of miles. I guess with NW, we will still have Malev, in addition to CSA and Alitalia. IP: Logged |
Carolinian
TUG MemberPosts: 5842
From: North Carolina
Registered: Dec 2000
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posted 05-09-2005 19:40
From what I can find out, this blackout only applies to using Delta SkyMiles on AF and KLM. For other Skyteam carriers, like NW, CO, and CSA Czech, as well as AF and KLM frequent flyers, these seats are still availible.This is really crappy of DL and makes their airline the joke of SkyTeam. It clearly comes from DL and not AF/KLM. Delta used to have a great network in Europe. Cities I have flown to in the past on DL metal that they no longer fly to themselves include Vienna, Lyon, Prague, Budapest, Bucahrest,
Copenhagen, Hamburg, Warsaw, Lisbon, Helsinki, and Stockholm.
Now, on a paid ticket, you have to take a connecting partner flight to these cities, but for an ff ticket you cannot use the main partners so you probably can't get there. I just wish I had comped my status over to NW earlier than I did. For those trying to use SkyMiles to get to some of these other cities, I would suggest doing something creative, like finding a DL flight to Madrid, then CSA Czech Madrid to Prague, and CSA Czech again to Budapest. I suspect that the trans-Atlantic flights on CSA and Alitalia are already booked out, or will be soon as more people learn of the blackout. IP: Logged | |
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