I know it's usually advisable to book flights using miles a certain number of days before , ie, 300+ days, but I was wondering if I waited until say January or February to book flights for October if that would be taking a chance of not getting a seat? I still haven't really made up my mind where I am going yet, so I would like to wait a bit. Any advice on that? Also would like to use a combination of miles and $$.

I was told by a BA source that most flights for June are gone by October. How flexible are you? Do you need one specific day. What class of service do you need? Since BA does one way flights (some airlines don't like Delta, Continental, United for international travel) I'm thinking of booking a flight with part cash and part miles so I will be able to do it again if necessary.

Airlines don't release "award"/redemption inventory all at once; it's parceled out according to how their revenue management programs project sales going on particular flights on particular days. A flight in June might not have any award space when you look at it in October, but it will when you look in March. For example, just picking LAX-LHR, I can see a lot of BA availability for both June and July.

In general October is not a peak redemption period, so I don't think you should be too nervous about waiting until after the first of the year. Make up your mind about where you want to go first, then set about finding flights.

Remember that BA miles can be used on any of their partners' flights too - American, Iberia, Finnair, Qantas, Lan...

At this point I am pretty flexible with my dates,although I usually fly on Thursdays - depart and return. I like to have four nights to get over jet lag before I have to go back to work. And I like arriving in Europe on a Friday. I also like October because it is not as crowded and the weather is still usually pretty good.

So, between now and probably Jan/Feb. I will try to decide where to go. Life is tough, ha. Barcelona or Bologna with Paris at the end.

BA charges more miles to Spain than Western Europe like Germany, France, UK. Consider Toulouse, France.

Actually I am now considering using BA miles, but perhaps flying American to Paris and then using Easyjet to either Barcelona or Bologna via Milan. Then I can add a week in Paris onto the end of the trip.