tips on using frequent flier miles?
 

Hi All,

I'm getting ready to book a flight for my safari to Tanzania in June 2009. I'm hoping to use the frequent flier miles I have on Delta to fly from Orlando to JRO. My travel partner is hoping to use her Northwest miles to fly from Baltimore to JRO.

We want to be as flexible as possible in order to increase the chances of actually being able to use our miles, but we would like to arrive and leave on the same day. This seems really complicated, though. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!

Barbra

Seats are available 331 days out, so count it up and be ready to book. Your last segment will be on Skyteam partner KLM from AMS to JRO; those will be the hardest seats to get. The issue I've run into is that, if I wait until it's 331 days from my return flight to the US, then the seats for the flights to JRO are gone. There are other Fodorites that know the FF system better than me, but I seem to recall that someone suggested booking a ticket with the flights to JRO with the dates you need, then book a close-in return date. Once the date arrives that you can book your "real" return date, call and change your return date on the ticket you've already booked. I've not tried that, but I think it may be an option. You and your friend will probably be on separate flights to and from Amsterdam, but that shouldn't be a problem. If you just can't get seats to JRO, you could try Nairobi (NBO). From there, you can take a quick, 50 minute flight to JRO, although you may have to stay overnight in Nairobi, depending on the flight schedules.

You can use the NW website to check availability on the KL flights as well as other Skyteam carriers. KL is your only option into JRO but you can take KL via AMS or KQ (Kenya Airways) via AMS or LHR into NBO if you can't find availability into JRO. I've found KQ availability to be pretty good.

Are you trying for coach or business?

With DL, you can reserve the outbound 331 days in advance, keeping in mind that the Europe-Africa flight will be one day ahead of the US-Europe flight. This doesn't mean that award availability will have necessarily been loaded by that date. If at first you don't succeed, keep checking. You can monitor the NW site and when you find availability on the AMS-JRO flight, work backwards to get the transatlantic and domestic legs you need. You'll need to call DL to book the award as KL isn't bookable online with Skymiles. DL will no longer hold award reservations by phone so if your return flights aren't within the 331 day window yet, you can ticket your outbound as a one way and add the return later. I believe a $100 fee is now charged when adding the return (used to be waived). Double check with the agent to make sure that's still the way to do it.

I'm not familiar with NW redemption procedures or how long they'll hold award reservations but the same flights that are available to DL Skymiles members should be available to NW Worldperks members assuming we're not talking about elite award inventory. If you can hold a NW award, I'd do that and then call DL to see if get on the same flight.

Good luck!

I just remembered NW Worldperks members can actually reserve awards 352 days in advance so those with NW miles get a 3 week head start.

And there are at least 2 award seats in both coach and business for the KL AMS-JRO segment on Jun 1, 2 and 3. Looks like Jun 4 hasn't been loaded yet and that's as far as you can check on the NW website.

So your options are go ahead and book one ticket using NW miles and hope you can get the same flight via DL 3 weeks later or book them at the same time subject to whatever availability there is at that time. Coach is a little easier to get than business. Looking at the week of May 10, 2009, at least 2 coach seats are available everyday on the KL AMS-JRO flight but only 2 days have at least 2 seats in business.

Patty's right about the $100 fee. They won't waive it any more. The other thing you could try (and I think Patty is the one who suggested this to me originally) is that even if you don't get the outbound flight you want, grab one at least. Then, when you pay the $100 fee to add the return flight, if seats become available on the outbound you want, you can change it, all for the same $100 fee. I chose an outbound destination, got the flights I asked for. Then, a few weeks later I called for my return flights. The return I wanted was not available, but an outbound a week later was available,so I switched the outbound and booked the return. Total change fee was $100 even though I technically changed several flights, because I did it all at one time.

Whew! I don't know if I'm less confused at all, but I'm thankful for the help!

If we book two one way tickets, does that take the same amount of miles as a round trip?

We're going coach, btw.

Thanks!

I tried the same thing last year for my trip - I leave on Saturday. I called and checked the website EVERY day and finally gave up after almost 3 months on trying to get anywhere from the States to Tanzania. So we used our Delta FF miles from AMS to JRO and then DAR back to AMS with KLM (book thru Delta). And we paid for the TPA to AMS portion. We are taking a couple of days to explore AMS and give our legs a break.

<i>If we book two one way tickets, does that take the same amount of miles as a round trip?</i>

For DL, the full roundtrip miles will be deducted at the time you book your outbound. Let the agent know that you'll be calling back to add the return. When you add the return, your ticket will be reissued. Ultimately, you want to end up with one roundtrip award and not two one ways (because a one way costs the same amount of miles as a roundtrip).

For NW, I don't know what the procedure is. You may want to search the NW forum at Flyertalk.com to see what's the best way to book an award when your return date isn't within their 352 day window.

Good luck!