Hi all:

Is it too late for booking holiday travel? Was thinking of heading to the Caribbean for 4-5 nights over New Year's.

Have free tix on US Air or any AmEx partners. Looks like almost all reward tix are taken - any strategies on timing? Perhaps people will change their minds and release seats?

Also, we are hoping to find accomodations on a beach - love the concept of Caneel Bay and their Beach Front Suites. Budget is $1400/night with a meal plan or $800/night. We have 3 small children - so need a suite or separate bedroom area. Caneel Bay is also booked up as is Half Moon in Jamaica.

Any other ideas that would present us with a way to get reward tix and a great vacation?

Thought of Atlantis and looks like we could get seats there but afraid it will be huge, impersonal and we'd be in a high rise far from the beach with thousands of other travelers.

Thanks, Lisa

Check first top make sure there's not a minimum number of nights you have to stay over New Years-most places in Caribbean require 7-10 nights over the holiday.

It's probably too late to get tickets from points, they have a tiny (I mean tiny ) number of point tickets, and usually if released later, will require 2-3 times the number of points.

You may want to check out some villas-possibly in Virgin Gorda, or St. John.

I don't think it's too late to get a vacation for that time period, just too late to cash in points and get bargains.

While it's not too late to get room accomodations for Christmas/New Years you may not get your "first" or "second" choices as many resorts do get filled up early, especially the high end places like Caneel Bay. The only way to be sure, of course, is to check directly with the resort since any contributor on a travel forum can only give you a response based on anecdotal evidence. Many, but not all, have minimum stay requirements during Christmas/New years so factor that into your plans and budget.

As far as getting a "reward ticket" that's tough. As blamona pointed out there are precious few reward seats available on any given flight and most get "scapped up" very early. Getting 5 (assume 2 adults and 3 children) award tickets is going to be extremely difficult. You've already discovered that there are no award seats available to one of your planned destinations and since you are planning to travel during one of the busiest times in the travel industry the chances of additional award seating being made available is slim. Think about it, why would an airline release seats for "free" travel when they would have no difficulty selling those same seats to paying customers.

Do people change their mind about traveling and "release seats"? Sure, it happens all the time but, and it's a big BUT, there's no way to predict if and when that will happen and if it does whether the dates of a cancelled trip will coincide with your planned dates of travel. Also the chances of 5 people cancelling makes the odds of you successfully getting tickets for a given flight even higher. Your only recourse is to keep checking with the airline. The trouble with that approach is you may never get tickets.

You have to figure out FOR YOURSELF what is most important to YOU. Is it imperative that you use "award tickets" for this trip? If so, then you are definitly going to be limited in your final destinations and you'll have to check directly with the airline to find out where you CAN GO. If, on the other hand, you are willing to purchase your airline tickets you should have no difficulty at this point in time getting tickets for just about any destination. Your only limitation will be how much you are willing to pay.

Most of the luxury resorts have a minimum stay requirement at Christmas, including Caneel, which has historically had a minimum at that period. It's going to be very hard to find a luxury resort for only 5 minutes at that time, but I'm sure somewhere there's one for you. Villas would probably be out of the question except at the last-minute if one were not rented.

I would urge you NOT to go to the Bahamas, which could be pretty cool at Christmas (not always beach weather).

Thank you much.

It is imperative that we use our award tix. We don't travel that much and we have such a stockpile of points - I don't want to lose them by not using them.

I am going to assume we are not going this year (but will check occasionally - since all 5 tix would not have to be free) and will be prepared for early booking for 2009.

Thanks!
Lisa

I hope you'll pardon my atrocious typing in the previous post.

If you can arrange travel for sometime in the first two weeks of January 2009 (preferably leaving after January 1 but returning before Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday), then I think you'll find a lot of good options. There is usually a lull in the Caribbean right after the busy Christmas season.

I've heard early December (prior to the 15th) can be good too. I just have to wait and see what teachers the kids get and how they feel about taking off from school before pulling the kids out.

Our back-up plan for this New Year's may be to go to Palm Springs - a relative has a house there - so it could be a fairly inexpensive trip and then I can get on the ball earlier for next year.

By the way, when do people start to plan these things? 12 months before? Earlier?

Most resorts allow guests to book their rooms a year in advance and many repeat guests make their reservations for the following year while they are at the resort or when they are checking out.

Airlines traditionally make award seats available 330 days out and many seats are booked within hours of their availability. Thus if you want to go at Christmas/News Years 2009 you should begin planning "where & when" sometime in the Fall of 2008 so you are ready make your actual bookings at the first opportunity.

Continuing Roamsaround point: I think US Airways allows booking with points just under a year out-you might want to call their rewards line and inquire for exact details. You literally have to be ready and book at 12AM the day the seats are available for rewards travel over the holidays

As far as Caneel, they do have a minimum night amount for booking over the holidays-not sure but I think it’s 10 days.
The problem: the last time I was there in 2005, I inquired about holiday booking and they explained there's a ten-year waiting list.
Between returning celebrities (Alan Alda) and people booking several rooms-one person actually reserves the entire building of rooms at Turtle Beach every year-it might be a moot point.

Wow - I had no idea I was up against that much competition or financial buying power. . .

No wonder so many resorts don't even put pricing or avilability for the holiday season on the website. There is none!

Thank you. . .

Lisa