Hi, folks--

My brother just announced his engagement over Christmas and I want to gift him and his fiancee 35,000 miles from my NWA account. I don't necessarily want to deposit the miles into his account, as that would cost me $350 (and I'm not sure if I can deposit more than 25,000 at one time anyway), so I will opt for arranging to get a ticket for him.

Their wedding is scheduled for early March 2007, which means if they want to get their first choice for destinations and dates they should have their plans in place to use the miles at the end of April 2006, using the 330 day window. Right?

First question: At this point, should I encourage them to use the miles to book a ticket on Continental metal? NWA might go under by the time of their honeymoon, and as I understand it, they cannot purchase trip insurance on an airline currently in bankruptcy.

Second question: if they wanted a destination that Continental doesn't fly to for 35,000 miles, is it advisable to perhaps use those miles to a domestic gateway city and then buy outright a ticket to an international destination? Say, to get themselves to NYC or San Francisco for a flight to Europe or the Pacific, respectively?

Money is tight for them, so whether or not a FF ticket is a good value for the miles is an irrelevant argument for them. So, even if they use the miles to get a domestic ticket worth only $300, that would mean $300 more they could spend on a hotel, or a show, or in my brother's case, beer. They fly out of CWA, Central Wisconsin Airport, but could easily get to Minneapolis or less easily to Chicago.

Are there any factors I'm not considering? Thanks in advance.

You are correct in your feeling that you'll want to book a ticket from your WorldPerks account and not gift MILES, which is not cost-effective at all.

First, I'm sure you probably realize that 35K won't get TWO people anywhere on standard award tickets; only one person would be able to fly on that amount. If the FF gods happened to be smiling, you could take one person as far as Hawaii -- but that is not an easy ticket to book in March. This creates a second complication, which is that trying to match a paid ticket to an award ticket can result in paying more for the paid ticket because of timing issues.

It's good to settle on a destination early, but all standard award seats aren't necessarily loaded into the system 330 days out. My suggestion would be to choose several that would be good because flexibility is always an asset with these things.

I would NOT recommend using award tickets to fly to a domestic gateway, in most cases. The reason is that often, there is not enough difference in the fares to justify the expenditure of the miles and it complicates the itinerary. (I know CWA very well and I've taken dozens of trips to Europe, Asia and South America originating there. You might be able to make a case for Asia and the Pacific from a west coast hub, I would concede -- but not as easily when you're planning 330 days out.)

I would not recommend avoiding Northwest because of the bankruptcy issue, either. While you can book a Continental codeshare out of CWA, it will be a Northwest affiliate that you will be taking for the first leg regardless, so you'll be depending on the Northwest system to get started. Going to Minneapolis or Chicago involves time, hassle and expenses for gas, parking, etc. People need weigh these things.

Lastly, I can appreciate the fact that the "fair fare value" of FF miles might be an irrelevant argument for THEM under the circumstances, but what about YOU?

I'd discourage you from putting your brother in the awkward position of needing to use the gifted miles for his honeymoon (given that he would still have to buy a 2nd ticket anyway). FF miles are sometimes very difficult to use, as you must know, plus you put him under the burden of having to plan his whole honeymoon way in advance to accomodate your ticket. Weddings are rarely cheap anyway - one plane ticket may not make a big difference in his trip in the end.

It's a very nice thought, however. If I were you, I would throw out there that you have some miles he could use and in his planning if he comes back to you with a request to use them, he can.

Andrew

Regarding trip insurance part of your question - trip insurance does not generally cover FF award tickets anyway since it covers costs of trip - and there are presumed to be no costs in a "free" ticket.

Another option is to try to use miles to upgrade them to first class. Since wedding is so far in advance, is there available and would you want to get a NWA affiliated credit card. Have no idea about NWA, but several other airlines offer credit cards that offer big mile bonuses for first purchase. You could then get much closer to 50,000 miles neeeded for 2 tickets.

The advice Andrew offers is very good.

Thanks for the thoughts, folks. Yeah, I knew that with only 35,000 miles it would get a ticket for only person. It also started out as a Christmas present to my brother, but he announced his engagement right before I told him, so I quickly made it a joint gift for him and his fiancee.

I've already suggested to him that trying to use the miles for the honeymoon might be a headache, so he's taking that under advisement.

That's good to know about the upgrades. I didn't know that I could use miles from my account to upgrade somebody else if they bought the ticket. Right now I only have enough miles to give each of them a one-way upgrade from select coach fares.

Seeing that I'm donating the miles, it doesn't really matter to me that he get the most value per mile. If I were redeeming the miles for myself, I would be much more concerned. But since they're a gift to my brother, they're miles well spent no matter how he ends up using them.

This will probably end up being a moot point, because if I know my brother, he and his fiancee will not be able to decide on a destination for their honeymoon by April 06, which means I won't be able to use the 330 booking period for March 07, which means he'll just be on his own to use the miles some other way...