Airline Credit Card Help
 

Currently have Delta AE and Citibank AA. Having problems getting tickets on Delta, generally tickets are available if you use double the miles.
Live in NJ, and travel to Europe and Asia, what would be a better option for accumulating miles and getting desired tickets?

It's getting harder & harder to get award tickets regardless of which airline affinity CC you have or which FF program you belong to. There are only a limited number (usually only 2 or 4) of award seats available on any given flight so you have to remain flexible in your travel dates and try to book as early as possible. Many people book their award flights as soon as the seats become available (330 days prior to scheduled departure). You might want to consider getting a "travel" CC like Capital One that lets you accumulate points that are used to purchase a ticket on any airline at any time. It will giveyou more opportunities but you'll usually need more "points" to get the ticket than you would if using "miles".

There have been lots of recents posts about this very subject. Use the search feature to find them.

Especially if you reach elite level membership (acquired through flying, not buying) AA's program is still more generous than most for mileage accumulation.

I have a citibank AA card and have had no troulbe getting FF seats, both to the Caribbean and to Europe. I find
AA's FF availability to be better than DL's.

If you don't spend a lot of money on a credit card, consider getting a cash back VISA from your bank and buy your own airline ticket. This way you can travel when you want to travel.

Last year I used 50,000 miles and got a flight to Europe with Delta during the summer. I told them on the phone I was willing to fly into any airport and out of any airport in Europe. I was on hold for two hours but they got me into Rome and out of Berlin on Continental.

I just got a British Airways credit card and had no problems getting a flight to Europe for summer. Every day was available for reward travel except Saturday. However, with fees and fuel costs, the price was still $230.00!

Recently we tried to get FF bus seats to Athens. Delta was impossible. USAir got us seats easily on Lufthansa out of JFK without double points. ((F))

Do I have magic fairy dust on me? I must, because we have gotten the tickets we've requested two summers in a row. Last summer we used Delta FF miles for open-jaw first class from Knoxville to Paris and Rome to Knoxville (wife and myself), and this summer wife, daughter and I are using Delta FF for open-jaw first class (actually Business Elite) from Knoxville to Venice and Barcelona to Knoxville. And we were pretty picky about dates (we were willing to go over 2-3 days earlier than absolutely necessary, not that any of us complained.

It does take patience - both on the travelers' parts and on the part of the reservationist. And sometimes you have to call more than once/talk to more than one reservationist - but it can be done.

KC

Sorry - meant to add that in both cases we started trying to book our flights approximately 8 months prior to travel - but we've never remembered to do it 11 months in advance.

KC