Sky Miles are a joke!
 

Has anyone been able to successfully book a ticket to the caribbean using their sky miles. I have called 4 different times and spent close to 5 hours on the phone and still can not find any location for a trip in February.

Try going to the companies website..is it US Air? Because I just started a FF program and do not have enough miles to cash in yet but hope that when I do..that it is not a pain in the butt.

I am guessing she is talking about Delta. I have had a terrible time with them the last two trips I tried to plan using miles. USAIR on the other hand has been very easy. I would note that early booking for Europe and the Caribbean is essential. And, be flexible with your travel dates.

Yes, we use our Delta Sky Miles every year for our Caribbean trips. The trick is you have to call exactly 331 days prior to your return date of the week you will be going on vacation. For example, if I want to book a trip for next year departing on June 7 - 14, 2006, I could book today using my Delta Sky Miles because it is 331 days out. However, if my return date isn't until the following day, June 15, 2006, I would have to wait until tomorrow to book because today is 332 days out. Also, I think Delta will hold an itinerary for a certain amount of days, so you can call 331 days out of your departure date and have them hold that itinerary until a week later when you can book the entire flight (departure and return). Another trick is to book your flights on weekdays, for instance Tuesday to Tuesday because this has less demand than a Saturday to Saturday itinerary. I hope this makes sense and helps. Everyone thinks I'm crazy for planning my trips 11 months in advance, but I don't have any choice if I want to use my Sky Miles. Good luck!

I have used both Delta and AA ff miles quite a few times to fly to the Caribbean.

What airline are you talking about?

The Caribbean is a very popular destination and award seats for any given flight are limited (depending on the airline and day of week there could be a few as 2 seats and rarely more than 8 available for award travel on any given flight). Don't think that just because there are plenty of vacant seats on a flight that any of them will be released for award travel. Like others have said, the trick is to make your reservations 331 days in advance (330 for some airlines). The shorter the time between the date you try to make your reservation and your planned departure date the more difficult it gets to find an award seat. You can increase your chances of getting an award ticket by having flexible travel dates and/or flying mid-week as opposed to travelling on weekends or during holiday periods. Occasionally airlines make additional seats available for award travel as the departure dates draws near if there are a lot of unsold seats but you can never count on this to happen. You can ask to be put on the waiting list. If and when additional seats are released they are first given to those customers on the waiting list who have elite FF status with the particular airline than to other. It's geeting more and more

Yes, I am talking about Delta. I just can;t book a trip 11 months out and really think that 6 months should be sufficient. I have the rep 7 different locations and the only thing she could come up with had three connections.

Make sure they are also checking flights on Northwest Airlines. Delta and Northwest are partners and you can use Delta miles on a Northwest flight. We mostly get Northwest miles but my husband and I have used both Delta and Northwest miles to fly together on a Northwest flight to Jamaica.

I don't have a problem getting a ticket on Delta with Sky Miles.. I usually use it once a year for a ticket to Nassau. Never had a problem 3-4 months in advance. Of course, I'm not looking for high season, but shoulder season works fine for me.

We have had similar problems using Sky Miles. After several calls to Delta & many hours spent, we were able to book a trip to St. Lucia using miles. The catch was traveling on a Tuesday both ways. We also booked approx. 4 months in advance. Good Luck!!!

You must call 331 days out at 12:01 am. Be on the phone at ll:55 dialing in and going through the motions. If you don't do this, and it is a holiday week, forget it. We did this for Aruba during spring break in 2004. We got the flight and our friends had to bump back two days. We were not all allowed to travel on the same flight. We had four seats, they had five. We had to fly seperately. (It was Delta). We have flown to SanFransisco and next year, we are going to Hawaii. But, if you can't plan that far in advance, and it is the high season, you most likely won't get those seats, because they were booked months before.

Just to throw my two cents in...i used delta miles on continental and booked a trip to St. Maarten about two months in advance. I left thursday and came back wednesday. But if i did weekends i was out of luck.

So i suggest to the extent you can, changing your departure and arrival days.

Well, unfortunately you want to use your miles during February, which is one of the peaks of the high season for travelers wanting to escape winter weather. I've personally had extremely good luck using my SkyMiles for travel to Jamaica for travel in January, booking anywhere from 3-5 months outs.

I believe that Delta can immediately check on NWA and Continental while you're on the phone with them, but if you want to request about Air Jamaica you can only make one request at a time and they can take up to 24 hours to get back to you. I wish you luck in finding a destination you can use. If not, try looking at Delta vacation packages--I think in many cases you can redeem your miles for the hotel portions and then pay for the air portion of the travel of the package. Which means you can continue earning miles for your flights.