Anyone else figured out how to tackle this or am I just out of luck?
I can find SEA-JFK-SEA nonstop for 50K, which is expensive but fine.
I can also find PDX-SEA and SEA-PDX for low which I should be able to add onto this itinerary as follows, for no additional miles:
PDX-SEA(7 day stopover)-JFK-SEA-PDX
But no, it prices out at 75k miles online. So I called in and it priced at 75K for them too. So I asked for them to explain why that is, because I see nothing in the award rules that makes this "additive" result occur. They came back after a while and explained, the AS segments are in one fare class "low award" and the DL segments are another "med/high" so the fare rules count them as two awards. So I asked them what would this price out as:
SEA-SLC-SEA (7 day stopover)-JFK-SEA-SLC-PDX
The response? 50k miles. Idiotic, more miles for an itinerary that contains 3 segments and has low award segments than a 6 segment itinerary that contains either all med/hi segments or a mix of med/hi and one low (but on DL metal). I cannot get them to explain where in the award rules these two completely conflicting outcomes are supported.
Basically ended the call when I got a "computer says no" response and don't want to waste time calling again. At least I can do the PDX-SEA segments with Avios for 4.5k if nothing else works, but has anyone else figured a way to get around this? Or are these in fact the (illogical) rules?
I can find SEA-JFK-SEA nonstop for 50K, which is expensive but fine.
I can also find PDX-SEA and SEA-PDX for low which I should be able to add onto this itinerary as follows, for no additional miles:
PDX-SEA(7 day stopover)-JFK-SEA-PDX
But no, it prices out at 75k miles online. So I called in and it priced at 75K for them too. So I asked for them to explain why that is, because I see nothing in the award rules that makes this "additive" result occur. They came back after a while and explained, the AS segments are in one fare class "low award" and the DL segments are another "med/high" so the fare rules count them as two awards. So I asked them what would this price out as:
SEA-SLC-SEA (7 day stopover)-JFK-SEA-SLC-PDX
The response? 50k miles. Idiotic, more miles for an itinerary that contains 3 segments and has low award segments than a 6 segment itinerary that contains either all med/hi segments or a mix of med/hi and one low (but on DL metal). I cannot get them to explain where in the award rules these two completely conflicting outcomes are supported.
Basically ended the call when I got a "computer says no" response and don't want to waste time calling again. At least I can do the PDX-SEA segments with Avios for 4.5k if nothing else works, but has anyone else figured a way to get around this? Or are these in fact the (illogical) rules?