Hi all! I've searched to no avail on this so hoping someone can help.

Unfortunately my frequent flier miles are spread across two airlines (Delta and American), and I know I don't have enough to cover both my husband and myself for a June 2019 trip to Italy. I've never used a travel agent before since I love doing the planning myself, but I am completely overwhelmed by how to figure out the best options for us given the FF miles I do have AND then finding best airfares and city options we have to fly in and out of as we're quite flexible on those.

Is this something an agent would be willing to help with? I already have places to stay booked and will do tours on our own, so won't need anything else....

Suggestions welcomed!! Thank you!

If you mean you want a travel agent only to find you FF reward seats - never heard of that, but I am sure for a price you could find someone to do it. Not sure it's necessary, though.
Do you have sufficient miles in each account to cover both of you on one leg of the trip? You can just book your outbound on one airline and your return on another - quite simple, really. Or if you have enough only for one traveler, look for the best available fare and book a reward ticket for the same flight. You can call the airline for help with this, but doing so may incur a fee.
If you already have accommodations booked then you pretty much know which city you need to fly into/ out of, no?

Let's take this apart just a little.

In general, a regular travel agent will be unable to help you; not only are they (as a rule) completely unfamiliar with anything but the most basic airline bookings (since airlines don't pay commissions to TAs, there's no benefit in learning) but they won't be able to do anything more on the award flight front than you are. There ARE travel consultants who will find flights using miles, but for a fee.(I use to be one of these myself.) But really, your wishes - a summer trip to Europe - are simple enough that you can do this yourself easily, with just a little bit of self-education.

Okay, now to some specifics. We need just a bit more information from you. First, how many miles do you have in each (Delta and American) program, and - importantly - are they in the same person's name? If you each have separate accounts, with X miles in AA and Y miles on Delta, rather than just two mileage accounts - yours in AA and his in Delta, for example - then it will be harder, because neither AA and Delta have an easy means of merging multiple accounts into one. (You can do this, but the fees can be high.)

Second, where do you live and where do you want to go? The good news is that it takes the same number of miles to fly from, say, New York to London as it does to fly from Los Angeles to Athens, so picking your destination in Europe doesn't need to be a complicated issue; your miles will allow connections both in North America and in Europe - say to a European partner like British Airways (AA miles) or KLM or Air France (Delta.) Same thing goes in reverse. Ironically, however, it can sometimes be the case that it's the North American domestic legs (home to an international gateway) that can be the problem, particularly if you live in a small town or if you happen to be in a high-demand area for domestic tourism. I live in Seattle for example, and getting award seats into and out of my airport from the east coast or Midwest during the Alaska cruise season can be harder than getting seats from Seattle to London.

Third, what cabin do you want to ride in? Both airlines or their partners have coach, premium economy, business and first class options, depending on the particular carrier and destination. Obviously the nicer the chairs, the more the miles, and availability can become an issue, particularly with business class, as the airlines tend to hold on to those seats in the hope someone will shell out big bucks for them.

Fourth, how flexible are your dates? When using FF miles you can make it a lot harder if your dates are fixed than if you're able to move around the calendar a little. People trying to do rifle-shot planning in order to meet a cruise, for example, have a much harder time trying to score award seats on the precise times.

If you can answer these questions more help can be forthcoming. You'll need to look at both the Delta and American websites to see how many miles are needed for each level of award, and remember that most awards these days are for one-way travel. You will see varying redemption levels as both Delta and American have gone to "demand-based" redemption levels, so that higher-demand periods need more miles.

A last comment is just a dollars-and-sense (ha ha) item. Most of us who play this game assign an arbitrary cash value to our miles. The airlines consider them as a form of currency, so why shouldn't we? In my case I generally don't use miles if the comparable cost of a purchased ticket makes my miles worth less than 2c each. For example, for a trip that needs 40,000 miles but which I could buy for under $800, I'll usually go with the cash purchase and save the miles for a trip where I get more value out of them, for example a business class trip to Asia that would need 100,000 miles but would cost $3000+ if purchased.

I raise this issue because of late summer airfares from the US to western Europe have been quite inexpensive compared to other years, mainly because of increased competition over the Atlantic from lower-cost carriers. For example, for next June, a round trip in economy from New York to Rome using Lufthansa costs $530. If you were using, say, American miles (which would require you to use AA or one of its partners like BA) AA would charge you 60,000 miles plus something for taxes and fees. So just on the airfare basis alone (not counting the out-of-pocket cash for the taxes/fees) you'd have an equivalent value of under 1c per mile. In my view (and in the view of every FFer I know) they'd say that's a terrible deal. Now you might disagree, and that's fine, but it's a rule of thumb you could use to decide. Remember, too, that the purchased flights will let you pinpoint specific days, while the award flights might not.

Hope this helps a little. Come back with more information.

Wow! I'm slow to get back here but such great information, thank you!

I setup an airfare alert and am starting to lean towards not using miles and just paying for them, since as you said, it's seemingly inexpensive compared to what I'd originally been expecting.

Our miles are split - both in my and my husband's account on Delta, and all on mine for AA - so it's just hard knowing there's no easy way to combine the Delta together.

Our dates are pretty inflexible since we're going when we drop our daughters off at camp and want to maximize that time they're gone yet not be cutting it too close on the return trip before picking them up. So we're pretty set on our days, but are willing to fly into any city that makes sense math-wise if airfare + train time is still cheaper than us flying into Naples, which is the most logical choice for our destination for the week.

It sounds like I just need to hunker down and do all the research and watch airfare alerts and be ready to jump on something. Using our FF miles is going to be more hassle than it's probably worth. Gone are the days of me being able to choose my preferred airline/mileage program for work so I'm scattered all over the place!

Thanks again for the help, this got my head back on straight!!

I think you're doing the right thing under the circumstances.

One approach to consider going forward: If you earn miles with an airline-specific credit card recognize that you're not going to be able to use those miles on any airline except the issuing one and its partners. If you're NOT using a credit card tied to a loyalty program, but you'd like to maximize your mileage earning potential, then consider a credit card that allows you to transfer miles or points to multiple airline FF programs.

Case in point, the Marriott/SPG program. With Marriott/SPG-branded credit cards (Visa or Amex) you earn 2 award points per dollar spent using the card, or multiples of that (4x, 6x etc.) if the purchases are for travel or hotel-related things (even gas for your car in some cases.) You'll also get a big signup bonus. However, the real benefit of these programs is they allow transfer of your points to numerous airline FF programs, usually at a 3:1 transfer ratio, e.g. 30,000 Marriott/SPG points = 10,000 miles in, say, United's FF program. (That sounds like a lousy deal compared to $1 = 1 mile for specific airline credit cards, but remember you're earning at least twice that.)

So if you find yourselves wanting to fly someplace, but one airline's FF seats are unavailable, or maybe neither the airline or one of its partners doesn't fly there, you can check with numerous other airlines, and when you see some available seats, do a quick transfer of your hotel credit card points to that airline's FF program and redeem those miles for the seats. The transfer can be very quick, sometimes instantaneously, and some airlines will allow you to "hold" the reservation for 24 or 48 hours (some longer) while you scramble to get the transfer done.

The point being you can have a "pot" of miles that can be used strategically instead of being tied to one particular program. It might be worth looking at your spending and travel plans and seeing if it's worth the (usually) $95 per year credit card fee.

Bear in mind that often American routes you through London and it can cost nearly as much in added taxes as a ticket you pay for yourself... So avoid AA award seats connecting via London.