Delta FF Miles Awards Impossible?
 

After many years, I finally have enough FF miles on Delta for a round trip to Europe Business Class. I spent an hour on the phone yesterday with their Skymiles Rep. Even though I was flexible enough to fly FROM any major US city TO any major European city (except in Spain!) and to travel ANYTIME during April, May, October or November, there were NO SEATS available.

Can you tell I'm frustrated!!!! Anyone have any help to offer?

Thanks!

are the lack of seats only on delta? did they also check Delta partners as well? (air france, united, alitalia etc...) Everytime I have used delta miles delta seats were unavailable, or undesirable, and I have used one of their partners.

I would say that part of your problem is that you wanted to go business class. Also, it's very late for any kind of FF seats for April and May. However, I would think that there would be coach seats for October and/or November especially with your flexibility of time, departure and arrival cities.

Hi.

Yes. Unless the rep already advised you on this, do not limit your options to just Delta. Your miles are probably good on several of their partners. Inasmuch as Delta does not serve the cities we wanted, they booked us on Air France.

Our original itinerary was for May; due to unrelated circumstances we had to rebook for September. On both occasions I merely told the agent what our preferences were (dates, cities, etc.) and she told me what was possible. We got perfectly satisfactory reservations and it only took a few minutes.

Good luck.

on many airlines (don't know specifically about Delta) your best chance is to hit the phones on the very day the booking period opens. For most airlines that is 12 months to the day ahead of time. So to get a seat for April 3 many flyers will start calling the previous April 4.

I was just successful using Delta points on Virgin which is a partner. We're going in June which is prime season.

I think that rather than visibly curtailing their FF programs, the financially troubled airlines are drastically cutting the number of FF seats available. I had enough AA miles to buy 3 of our tickets to Paris...when I booked in July for our March trip, the agent told me that I had booked the last 3 available FF seats on that flight!

Meant to add - on some carriers it makes a difference what level ff you are. If you have just barely gotten to a threshold you don't have as much clout as you would with hundreds of thousand of miles on the books. They will often be able to "find" seats for the best customers when they are booked up for others.

Oops! Forgot to tell you our itinerary. New York to London which is a popular route....

I was successful using Delta miles for 2 business class seats on both Virgin and Alitalia. Matter of fact, it was one of the easiest transations I've ever had. I would suggest that you do some research and narrow down your request. You can always broaden out your search. I think that agents are not always willing to look that hard and broad for you.
June

Actually, Delta FF availability is eleven months in advance, to the day. Call one minute after midnight.

Try calling Delta at different times to get different customer service representatives. Some are more knowledgeable and/or more willing to find different travel options, like via partner airlines.
Calling to secure FF seats as much as 11 months before flight dates is good advice. I was offered standard award coach seat availability to Europe for next summer on both Continental & Delta when I called in November.
Business Class award seats in periods of peak travel are more difficult to obtain far in advance since the airlines want to sell them for $$$.
Perhaps , you could request standby for Business First as they could be "released" closer to departure date if unsold .

Contact www.awardplanner.com for help with Delta FF, which we did and they have us in business to Paris, after we basically bottomed out trying to work with the airlines' ff staff. This is Rany Peterson's business, very reliable, and you can access www.FlyerTalk.com for tips, etc.

I did follow the advice to call the very FIRST day seats opened up (on USAirways / coach). I tracked the freq-fly calendar for weeks, until finally the day arrived that I could book both legs. This was done in November '03 for this coming October! ('04)

My frequent flyer miles are with Northwest Airlines, yet when I went to book my flight to L.A. to London they put me on a Delta flight - Business/First. I am coming back from Paris via Northwest and although I do have my tickets it's in coach, not business/first which I am waitlisted for. Good luck

DRJ is correct.

Keep calling, keep trying I always have to call multiple times before I can get seats. Some service reps are willing to try a lot harder than others. If at all possible try to get over the pond on Delta, their b/c is a lot nicer than Air France, although I cannot comment on Alitalia.

Thanks everyone for the answers. Yes, I did have her check the Delta partners. Yes, I knew it was late for April, May, but I thought I should be able to get something during October, November - that's not really peak season. The only thing she came up with was SLC - San Francisco - Paris - Rome. (God only knows how many hours of travel that was.) No return seats were available however! There were seats to fly into Spain or London, then I'd have to find connections to Italy. London is probably the best option. I'm thinking Ryan air for the intercontinental segment.

I'll keep trying. Although I do like to plan my trips in advance - 9 to 12 months, having to call a year in advance to grab the (seemingly) 1 FF seat on a flight really stinks.

I'm going to cancel my Delta SkyMiles card & just pay for consolidator tickets in the future. When you do the math, adding up yearly fees and interest, you could just pay for the *** seat!

I called 10 months in advance for a June trip to Germany for 4 FF tickets. I couldn't get anything direct or with one change on Delta or a partner to Munich, Stuttgart, Vienna, or Frankfurt for June, period. I had to eventually settle for flying into Brussels (with one change in NY) and flying out of Zurich direct. It is ridiculous to have a "benefit" that is totally useless.

I think it depends on when you are trying to fly / how many tickets you are trying for / the agent you get in touch with / sheer luck.

I had finally accumulated enough FF miles (most earned through AmEx Rewards) for a business ticket last year and was able to successfully book a flight last April for 1 from San Antonio to London. When I had previously booked FF tickets (economy), I had always booked the 11-12 months in advance so was surprised when I was able to get this. I was also able (surprisingly) to make changes to my return flight a couple weeks prior to travel.

That said, I don't think we can use experience from a year ago or a few months ago on what to expect today. I have managed to accumulate enough miles for another economy ticket but am not in a position to plan even a year out.....and everything I'm reading here and on various news boards indicates that it's going to continue to get more difficult to use FF points.

Dayle,
Cancelling the card is a smart thing if it takes a long time to accumulate points. These cards cost $$$$$ and if you only build points with purchases,it is one of the biggest scams yet.
Try a card that has no ties with an airline and has no annual fee. I dont travel as much as past,so it works well for me. There are no blackout dates and no specific carriers. When you purchase a ticket,just call the CC company,they purchase the ticket and deduct the points,that easy.

I understand your frustration, but FF business class seats are very desirable and hard to get. My wife and I are flying business class on American Airlines from Chicago to Rome in October 2004. AA opens seats 331 days ahead of time. I called at midnight on the first day available and was awarded the last two business class seats.

I just booked my coach seat for Newark to Cagliari, and from Calabria back to Newark for August with my Delta miles. It was really easy, maybe because it's coach?

I have to reply to this message because I just had a very similar, frustrating experience. I wanted tickets using Delta miles to Europe from DC in June. We had enough tickets to go coach or business and were willing to go through any city and were flexible on our flying dates (within a week). Still nothing. There was also nothing if we paid for a ticket in coach and wanted to upgrade to business with miles. VERY FRUSTRATING. THese FF programs are not what they used to be.

AP: way to go!!! How did you manage to get free seats in August (on Alitalia, I presume?). When AZ was partering with Continental, I managed to get two free coach seats LAX-MXP-FCO-CAG; return AHO-LIN; MXP-LAX. This was in June/July 2001.

Never give up trying to get Frequent Flyer seats. I booked about 5 months ago and got seats in both directons, however I only got the class I wanted going to London Delta/First Class/Business Elite. My return Northwest coach out of Paris. I kept calling and calling to see if anything had opened up in First/Business Elite from Paris to LAX. Finally this past Saturday I got my upgrade Business Elite/First Class. One layover each way. My miles are with Northwest but they are in partnership with Delta and Continental. When I called on Saturday she said nothing was available. I said could you check Delta and Continental. She did and found what I wanted.

Last year I had zero luck with Delta getting two business class tickets to Europe, which I wanted so we could take a cruise. After several failed attempts I pressed the button for partner travel and ended up getting booked on DELTA metal! I'm convinced that Delta didn't want to pay it's partners whatever the agreed on rate is, and so they intercepted the request.

Anyway, we booked into Milan and out of Venice, and were later able to pay $100 each to change to Venice only. So it worked out for me.

Last summer was weak for travel. Not sure we could ever do it again.

I also think it was easier for me because I'm flying solo.

Keep trying and you may be pleasantly surprised. Just yesterday I got 2 roundtrip tickets Miami/Palm Beach to Paris for early next month. Sweet-talking, rather than berating, the person on the other end of the phone never hurts.

GAC-

Now that I sort of have my itinerary worked out, I had called Delta about a week and a half ago. I told them the dates that I want to go from Newark to Cagliari, and return from Lamezia to Newark. they had the exact dates I wanted and I booked it with no problem. Although the itinerary is changing so I may have to call back, because instead of ferrying it to Naples I may fly. I would like to get this all on one ticket if I could. This was my 1st experience getting a ff ticket, and so far it's been smooth.

I booked my FF business class seat for next Sept last October, as soon as the seats opened. Booked my outbound, then called back 11 days later for my return. A friend booked on a different outbound (in coach) for the same day. When we called for our returns, she tried to switch to the same outbound as me (New Orleans-JFK-Venice instead of New Orleans - Paris- Venice)... no more seats available on the JFK-Venice part. This was almost a year in advance! We also tried to switch our flights to go into Munich and out of Venice about a month later...no go without really bad connections. Seems like the way to do it is to decide where you want to go, then book the day the flights open.

Anne

I booked mine about 11 to 10 months in advance. The return is one day sooner then I want, but.... I plan to start calling every week or so. I have often been able to change or add at the LAST minute. (I think that is when the airlines give up hope that someone will actually PAY for that seat!)