How Soon to Book Frequent Flier Seats
 

We have a one free trip to France next year and will be using that and buying a second ticket. We have heard that Delta (and other airlines) severely limits the number of frequent flier seats available on any one flight.<BR><BR>Is this true?<BR><BR>How far ahead should we book the tickets?<BR><BR>Thanks for any help.

Everybody severely limits FF award seats to Europe, not just Delta.<BR><BR>Book just as soon as you can commit to dates.

Hi ,<BR><BR>weekends and holiday periods will tend to be the busiest with suumer worse than spring to many destinations.<BR><BR>I think most airlines open booking from 365 days prior to your flight ( some have 330 days- check with your airline).<BR><BR>I agree with MM, the earlier the better and check the change/cancellation conditions.

we're flying to Cayman in May on FF miles and I put seats on hold back in November. AA will hold them for 30 days and if you still haven't made up your mind, you can keep extending the 30 days. Each time you extend, check to see if seats have opened up that you want - I kept extending ours because we have two friends that are paying for their tickets and we wanted to travel with them. The third time was a charm because I was finally told FF seats had opened up so we are now flying together - and not only that, turns out AA started a sale and now its only costing us 25000 a piece in miles, instead of 30000. Maybe Delta has the same policy regarding holding?

My husband and I were booking to business class tickets from Atlanta to Athens we tried 329 days in advance (330 is the earliest you can) and they were sold out they were able to accomadate on their partner Air France I was shocked that they no seats it was for travel in late August

As early as you know where you want to go. With the airlines trying everything they can to get people back in the air, more miles are out there than ever. <BR><BR>We are booked in Business Class to Europe in Late May. I booked this in January and it was basically the last 2 seats the carrier had for the summer to London and out of Frankfurt. <BR><BR>Good Luck...

Trying to find frequent flyer seats to Europe especially in the summer often seems like a giant shell game. It's tough but not impossible.<BR><BR>You should be flexible. You should try for a range of dates.<BR><BR>You should try less obvious routings. If you live on the west coast you might try a US connection or go to London then connect to France.<BR><BR>Good luck

Thanks to everyone for your responses. We will book as soon as we can.