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Kayak vs. airline direct, re: schedules


leopardprint
By leopardprint,
in

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I have used Kayak.com for years as a starting point when booking flights. I usually look at schedule/price there, and then book directly from the airline’s site once I’ve chosen one. I typically fly Delta as I have their CC and get free baggage and miles.

 

I am planning a round trip, CRW-LHR, departing June 14. On Kayak, filtered for only Delta, I am given several options, including a 4:54 pm departure to Atlanta, then on to Heathrow on redeye DL 10, arriving at 12:20 pm. Ideally this is the best outbound for me.

 

On Delta’s site directly, I am not given flight DL 10 as an option. Any thoughts as to why this would be?

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You also could try fiddling with the departure times, or selecting Schedule rather than Price.  You can do these things if you first  select More Search Options.

 

When using the basic search, with Price selected, only a short list of the less expensive options is shown.  

 

Romelle

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No matter what I do, I am not seeing it! Filtering for 1-stop and only ATL only gives me two results, and selecting Schedule (rather than Price) gives me about 10 results, but not including DL 10. This is extremely annoying!!! LOL.

 

Kayak will take me to book directly on Delta, but not let me use the "Pay With Miles" option, as I have a few miles to get a bit of a discount, but not enough to cover the entire ticket.

 

Wow, this is nuts. I don't get it.

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It was way down in the list (20th?), but there.

 

4:54PM    11:05AM Sun 15 Jun
Economy (U)from
Upgrade Eligibility
$1,832.30
Select
total price
Pay with Miles eligible
Equipped with Economy Comfort
2 tickets left at this price
NOT AVAILABLE
DL 54821
DL 84
1 stop
ATL3hr 18m
13hr 11m
Operated by: 1 ExpressJet DBA Delta Connection

 

Do you have any status with Delta(Silver, Gold,Plat, etc.)?  That might be the difference.  I logged off and then came back on without signing in.  I'm currently Plat, and I suspect thereuare has some status.   When I came back on not telling them my DL number and the rest of the sign-on stuff, the flight you want didn't show.

 

You might consider calling them.  If you are Gold or higher they won't charge you for ticketing.  Even with silver, maybe just give up and pay for the ticketing?  Your call.

 

But I do understand the frustration.

 

Note the little messages - "2 tickets left at this price" and "Pay with Miles eligible".

 

Good luck.

 

Romelle

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Medallion status -- unfortunately, no. :(  Just a gold Skymiles CC, which makes me a peon. lol.

 

I did a separate search yesterday for *only* pay-with-miles eligible flights, and this did not appear -- however, I think that had more to do with it showing only RT flights that were eligible -- all of which have two layovers during the return flight. So, that's a no-go -- I'd rather pay more than deal with a 24+ hour travel day. OY VEY.

 

I have never flown internationally and this is turning into a bit of a PITA, to be honest. I had priced the trip including both my pay with miles discount, AND not knowing about a 3% foreign currency fee that my bank has been charging on everything I'm booking in advance. Sigh. (Not on the flights for the 3%... just whining in general.)

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WOO!!! I finally see it. No idea what I changed.

 

However... (Why is there always a "however"? lol)

 

I didn't realize that the minimum for using Pay With Miles was 10,000 *per passenger.* I thought it was just increments of 10,000 for $100 per increment off the total fare. So, since 2 of us are going, I need a minimum of 20,000 to save the $200- and guess what I'm sitting at? 19,250 after tomorrow's accrual.

 

LOLOL. This is just so sad.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ended up booking tix on Sunday for $1803 pp, after seeing that the price for travel exactly one week before we are going had sharply increased as of that morning. I figured my week would increase next. Now the price has, of course, dropped to $1728. Don't know why I looked today; I know better!!! Could have saved $150, which really sucks.

 

Honestly, there is nothing more frustrating than the airline waiting game and pricing schedule (or lack thereof!!). I consider myself pretty savvy when it comes to traveling and I still have trouble with plane tix. Then again, it didn't help that we just decided to go on this trip like 2-3 weeks ago... I could have been monitoring this for months and probably gotten a much better price several months out. Sigh.

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