Delta Skymiles to the Caribbean
 

I tried to use Skymiles for a trip I am planning 5 months from now and they were "fresh out" of Skymiles seats.

Is this common? How far out should I start planning? Or are "available" seats so rare that it is pointless?

Very common.
Past 2 years many airlines have cut back the number of seats they'll allow to be used for mileage redemption.
Savvy fliers who are trying to use miles to go to very desirable destinations will often call to secure seats >300 days in advance.
So it depends on where you want to go and how many seats the airline you're using chooses to allow for FF'ers.
Delta cut quite a few flights to the Caribbean last year.

Thanks travleis.

I will do just that. In less than a month, I watched the ticket prices jump almost $200, on particular flights!
:-O

I believe Delta has become horrible in honoring their FF commitments. I tried in mid-January for a first class (heretofore easier to obtain than coach) ticket for a flight around the fourth of November. I was told there was none available until mis-December. I looked at their view seat option for November departures. The vast majority, and in some cases, all seats were unsold. Evidently, Delta prefers to fly with some vacant seats, rather than make their most loyal customers happy. Since I was able to use Amex points, I found another carrier. I plan to try to redeem my Delta points for March '05. If I am unable to do so, I will cease my affiliation and loyalty from Delta. I know others who have experienced similar problems with Delta.

I have had about a 75% success rate using my SkyMiles for leisure travel, but the last time I tried to redeem any miles through Delta was over a year ago. If you can't get where you want to go with Delta proper, perhaps you could use one of their partners, Air Jamaica or Northwest, to get where (and when) you want to go. Good luck.

DELTA is THE WORST airline for redemming Frequent Flyer Miles..

You have to literally BOOK 364 days PRIOR to travel AT EACH leg of your trip..

Major pain !! And they do NOT have enough FF seats on ANY of their International or Caribbean flights..

Let the Frequent Flyer BEWARE!~~

Also had awful time with Skymiles. Tried to book our honeymoon (May 2004) with Sky miles 7 months in advance and were willing to go to Caribbean, Mexico, Hawaii and not one of them were available. Decide on Costa Rica. Then because we had two legs (one to Atlanta and then one to Costa Rica) and only one leg was available (Atlanat to Costa Rica), we were told we had to call them evey two weeks to reconfirm our interest and hold the one flight. Mind you the other flight was Atlanta to Charlotte, NC and there were four flights a day. Kept this up for 3 months. But we were never able to get a seat on any of those flights from Atlanta to Charolotte after being told if we just kept calling we would be able to. Very frustrating. Experiences with US Air were much better.

I've had much success with redeeming Skymiles for leisure travel to Mexico, the Carribean and Europe (both Business Elite and Coach). I've booked tickets out as far as 10 months and as little as 5 weeks. I've been very pleased with using Delta for reward travel.

You can also check availability for award seats at Delta.com which is a great tool as you can play with dates. If you have particular dates you wish to travel and those dates are not available, speak with a Delta agent about putting your name on a wait list. I've had success with this approach as seats always seem to open up the closer you get to the travel date...at least from my personal experiences.

Good luck!

Have seen similar things from both Delta and NW...too bad Southwest didn't have assigned seating and fly to Caribbean destinations. Their FF program is VERY user friendly. Perhaps the "traditional carriers" could learn a thing or two.

I don't know where you're headed but you can try to redeem Skymiles to fly on Air Jamaica. There seem to be more available seats on Air Jamaica operated rather than Delta operated flights.

That's what we're doing for a trip in May. We had originally booked in October, but two weeks ago I needed to make a change in our dates and routing and I was still able to find something that worked for us. It helps if you have some flexibility and are willing to make an extra connection. I also find the agents at the partner award desk more knowledgeable and helpful as far as looking at various connection possibilities.

I've had good success redeeming Skymiles for travel to a variety of destinations (Caribbean, Mexico, Europe). I generally try to book more than 6 months out but have on occasion booked a few weeks in advance. I've never tried the 331 days in advance route. I also tend to travel in the off season, Europe in the winter, Caribbean in the summer, etc. so that probably helps.

Good luck!

If you are booking the trips on Air Jamaica, you can stop over in Jamaica and then onto another island at no additional cost/points.