Take that, Delta! Two can play this game…
I’m in the middle of planning (or attempting to plan!) a Spring break trip for my family, and I’ve been experiencing a few challenges. Because I have waited until the last minute (in award booking terms), availability is dicey, to say the least, and it’s been tricky making everything come together.
One piece of the puzzle that has been especially frustrating is the mystery of the disappearing award space on Delta. Yesterday, I actually found two round trip award seats for the dates we wanted. At 45K miles round trip, the price was right, because Josh had 86,476 Skymiles in his account, which was close enough.
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I quickly transferred 4K miles from Amex Membership Rewards to cover the difference, but by the time they showed up in his account (15 minutes later), the cost of the seats had risen to 55K miles round trip…and it wasn’t even the same flight!
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Argh! Maddening!
Luckily, a couple of readers suggested a fix, which is to clear your browser cache and cookies. I did this, and immediately saw the 45K price again.
Very tricky, Delta.
I’m glad to know about this tip. I’m definitely going to use it the next time I’m booking award travel. As for our Spring break trip, I didn’t bite the bullet and book yet, because another, similar, issue popped up with our hotel booking.
I’m starting to get the feeling that this trip is just not in the cards…or maybe we need to go somewhere else.
I need inspiration! Have you planned a Spring break trip for you or your family? Where are you going?
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A little bit evil IMHO.. That doesn’t make anyone loyal!
clayd333 – I know! In fact, it makes me want to stay far, far away from Delta in the future!
Congrats on your discovery that Delta is using its computer system to game customers. What they are doing is a little bit more than a little bit evil IMHO.
AlohaDaveKennedy – I’m a big fan of yours on Flyertalk!
No more evil than CC churners gaming the system. Not so much fun when the shoe is on the other foot, is it?
went thru this last night……what is so infuriating is that the flights may have seats, but its a higher price seat–UGH:(
NLKM – What bothered me the most is that now I feel like I can’t trust the website!
Glad the trick worked.
Geoff – Yes, thanks for suggesting it. Very smart.
Shouldn’t you blame Alaska? They were the one with the 45,000 mile award and its gone now.
We’ve all complained about the shortcomings, bugs and things that don’t work on Delta’s website; here’s a chance to compliment them. Their tracking/cookies work flawlessly. Even with thousands of users on their site all making absurd demands for tickets and routings, they managed to remember (for 15 minutes!) that you were trying to claim a reward for a reasonable amount to miles — something they need to nip in the bud. I’m guessing, you weren’t even signed on for those 15 minutes! Congrats on slipping into the shadows and evading their watchful eye!
Enjoy – HA! Love it.
I think this is very unfair price discrimination.
mcdullhk88 – Agree that it seems super shady. I’m just glad I learned this tip!
I found the same issue with Hertz when booking cars as well. Price kept going up as I was playing around the different options and dates, went to a different browser and poof it went back down.
farulg – interesting and lesson learned!
Well, I certainly agree with you that Delta is not the easiest nor the most transparent carrier to find and book award travel on. However, I’m going to take a moment to say, “you should know better” than starting to book spring break travel from CA to Mexico in December. I booked my family’s late March SoCal trip back in early October before availability got really thin.
John – You are SO right!
And by the way, I love saying that to people myself (“I told you so” and “You should know better”). So I accept your statement 😉
Two things-
1. You have the most creative names for your posts! Love it! 😀
2. Imagine my love hate relationship with Delta being based in ATL. ugh….
Diego – Thank you!! And yes, I can only imagine your annoyance!