We are trying to fly to Jerusalem in October using our combined NW/Delta miles. I was shocked to hear it would be 160,000 miles. Starting in Chicago was 125,000. We've gone to Europe using FF miles in the past . I realize Israel is further but this is more than double what it took to go to Spain in 2008! Am I being naive or did Delta create a whole new system /tiers?

DL did create new tiers and this is a very competitive route. If you post dates and your starting city, some folks might be able to help you out.

We are trying to buy tickets for a trip(May) into Lisbon and out of Paris and were told it would require 90,000 sky miles which we do not have. Fifteen months ago we made a trip to Budapest and flew out of London on 60,000 miles. I think Delta will be difficult to deal with on using miles from now on. I live in Atlanta so Delta is the airline we use the most. Can't remember the last time we had a non-stop flight to Europe but we are okay with this when it does not involve ridiculously long layovers.

Between absorbing all the Northwest fliers and, because of the economy, the reduction of numbers of flight Delta seems to be allowing a lot fewer award seats. The key is to be flexible in dates, city pairs, and to keep trying as seats can be released at any time.

Yeah, What the heck has Delta done!!!!!! Last spring I flew LAX to Paris CDG 50,000 miles required. Now it is 90,000. This is ridiculous.

From your responses it seems I am not the only one who sees a marked increase in FF mile requirements. I used to know how to get around some of this--like flying from a larger airport and paying cash for that leg and changing flight dates and times to lower miles but nothing seems to be working here. I may have to give up! Boo Hoo. I'm definitely cancelling my American Express card that Delta encouraged us to get so we could accrue more miles with them. It doesn't seem they value their customers!

We made reservations the middle of January and were able to get our trip for 25,000 miles - I looked today and our flights are up to 32,500. They still had a couple offered at the lower amount, but not nice times. For once planning ahead paid off.

Continental also left Skyteam so that eliminated quite a few ff seats as they seemed to have availablility when Delta didn't.

ccolor--where are you going for that low amount of FF miles? We have plenty of flexibility and tried different days and can move up or back a week but it seems impossible to deal with Delta. We are, for the first time in ten years, looking at a consolidater and just banking Sky Miles for some future trip. Actually USAir (which is my least favorite AL) has the best deal going from Atl to Phil and then direct to Lisbon for $846 rt. Flying back from CDG direct to Atl on a jumbo jet so this looks decent.

nini: Not an international flight (which may be the answer) - Columbus, Ohio to New Orleans. It used to be a piece of cake to get that flight with low miles but the times they are a changin'. I consider myself lucky this year!

I talked to a good customer rep at Delta and she says that I should wait awhile and MAYBE more FF seats will open up since we aren't leaving until October. Airlines wait to see if flights are filling to determine whether to add FF seats. I knew most of this but thought I'd add to the discussion I started to see if anyone else has insight. Is it better to wait a few months or not? I'm one of these people who likes to get my reservations for air and apartment done early so I can relax and just read about the place. However, budget is a big issue for us. If we can use our FF miles it would be really helpful.

In addition to the "price" of flights going up I also noticed that my converted miles from NWA have an expiration date. I'm pretty sure they didn't have one with NWA, unless that was a newer policy I hadn't noticed.

Hate to tell you this tru, but NW did have an expriation date. Not sure when they started it, but it's also possible they just didn't clearly show it! (Had that happen on another airline site... they don't TELL you when they expire, but they do! Makes it less likely you will do something to keep them active if you don't know)

Must of been something that happened over the past couple of years because in 2007 I took a trip with miles I had been saving up for over 6 years (none of which I lost). Now the miles that were converted all expire in 2 years. Make sure you all check your expiration dates - I'm curious to know if everyone's converted miles expire on 1/31/12.