pjammin123

I booked 2 Biz Class ticket to Europe and it was put on hold for 48 hours. I immediately transferred 25k Starwood points to Delta for each ticket (50 total) with confirmation #. The points have not been posted to Skymiles account yet. The reservation was suppose to self destruct last night and I called and begged for an extension. I was able to get a 24 hour extension and the representative basically said "That's it". Each of the f.f. accounts has 65k miles in it....25k short of what is needed to ticket.

I checked today and miles still haven't been posted to account. To make it all worse, there are no more of the 90,000 Biz award seats left. What can I do? I've contacted Starwood and they said there is nothing I can do to expidite the process. Although I have a confirmation email/# from Starwood, Delta doesn't seem interested in hearing about it. I have no elite status with Delta.

Are there ways to buy Delta miles? Can I have a friend deposit 50k f.f. miles to hold both of the reservations? I am desperate for ways to save this reservation and appreciate any suggestions. It will self-destruct tonight if not ticketed. I'm desperate! Thank you!

AAFrequentFlyer

Whatever you do, it's not going to happen today.

You can purchase up to 30K miles per account at (I believe) something like $30 per 1000, but it takes up to 72 hours for the miles to post.

https://delta.mpmvp.com/buy.asp?

You can have your friend transfer up to 30K miles per account at the cost of .01 per mile plus a $25 fee, but again, the transfered miles may take up to 7 days to post.

http://www.delta.com/skymiles/use_mi...fers/index.jsp


The only possible solution I see is if you have a friend with enough miles in the bank to book the awards for you and you would just owe her/him the miles in the future (as in booking an award for her/him whenever they needed it).

Good luck!

Patty

My Starwood to Delta transfer took 3-4 days as I recall. Unfortunately, that's one of the downsides of the new 2 day award hold when previously there was plenty of time to wait for Starwood to transfer the miles.

Before you spend any money to purchase or have your friend transfer Delta miles into your account, call and ask if a purchase/transfer confirmation number is sufficient to ticket your reservation since the purchased/transferred miles won't likely be in your account by tonight. I was able to ticket an award reservation with just the transfer confirmation number before the actual miles were deposited into my account.

Have you been speaking with agents at partner awards? I usually find that they're pretty creative and understanding about resolving issues. I'd try one more time to see if they'll accept the Starwood confirmation and leave your account with a temporary negative balance.

Good luck!

pjammin123

Thank you both for your replies. I am happy to report that I continued to call Delta several times UNTIL I got a very nice rep who was understanding of my situation and frustration. She was able to extend my reservation for 48 hours so I have until the 28th and will PRAY that the miles are in my account by then. This whole ordeal has been exhausting. I'm use to being able to put something on hold for 2 weeks so never ran across this problem before. I wasn't going to transfer points to Delta before finding out if there were available seats or not because then I couldn't get the miles back again to look into other airline options.

Thanks again! I sure hope it all works out.

Patty

Glad you were able to get another extension. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you! The 2 day award hold went into effect Feb this year.

pjammin123

Patty, when you said

" I was able to ticket an award reservation with just the transfer confirmation number before the actual miles were deposited into my account."

I'm curious...was this done via the phone or in person? I have printed confirmations like you did. It could be worth a try if all else fails.

Patty

I did this by phone and I was referring to a mileage transfer from one Skymiles to another Skymiles account. They just needed to verify that the transfer was in progress.

I don't know if they'll allow you to do the same with a Starwood to Skymiles transfer but I thought it couldn't hurt to ask one more time. Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised by what they'll do. Hope it all works out.

BTW do you have an Amex Membership Rewards account?

Patty

Sorry, I realized my earlier post is confusing. I started talking about a Starwood to Delta transfer, but the second paragraph is actually advice in case you decide to purchase miles through Delta or transfer miles from your friend's Skymiles account.

pjammin123

Yes, I depleted the AmEx MR account and still needed 25k miles per ticket so this is why I transferred the Starwood points. MR points posted immediately! It's the Starwood points that are taking sooooooo long.

Patty

Well then, in the very <b>worst</b> case scenario, you can buy additional points from MR and transfer them to Delta. Don't buy miles from Delta as they cost more. As you know, the MR process is nearly instantaneous. But I don't know if it's worth it to you or not to spend $625 x 2 buying those points in case all else fails.

pjammin123

Patty (or others), sorry to continue picking your brain but I did have another thought since the miles still haven't posted.

Since my husband and I have seperate confirmation #'s, I could purchase AmEx MR points and convert to Delta miles for myself so I could become ticketed. At that point, I could plead that they not cancel my husband's reservation since I am already ticketed. This would save $$ purchasing miles for BOTH of us. Would they cancel a spouse's reservation when obviously we're traveling together?

Any thoughts on this?

pjammin123

BTW, please feel free to email me if you have other ideas and want to contact me privately.
[email protected]

Patty

Gosh, I don't know what they'd do in that situation. I'd plead for another extension of both and if that doesn't work, just one. I'm out of ideas for now but will keep thinking about it. Please keep us updated.

Patty

Some ideas so you don't have to buy as many points...

You know that if you have any pending MR points and they're from a statement you've already paid, those points can be accelerated and made available for your use, right? They just have to verify payment was received. I don't know if making an online payment today would post in time.

If you have the Gold Rewards Plus card, you can borrow 10,000 MR points per year. But only if you have that particular card. As far as I know, even the Platinum card doesn't have this benefit.

Patty

Have you checked again recently to see if additional award seats are available between your origin and destination? If you can make a new reservation, that would buy you additional time in case Delta won't extend your hold again.

You can check all transatlantic flights on Delta, Air France, KLM, Alitalia, Czech, Aeroflot (if any segment is on Continental or Northwest, the mileage requirement is bumped up to 100,000). I find that once you an available transatlantic segment, it's easy to work backwards and get the domestic and intra-Europe connections you need.

pjammin123

Wonderful news! The miles posted 1/2 hour ago and I just got everything set with Delta (well, except our return flight which isn't open for booking yet). I'm thrilled! This has been one exhausting week that I wouldn't wish on anyone. Thanks again so much for your help!!

Patty

Wonderful news, indeed! Congrats and good luck with your return.