Dawn - Have you tried the NWA site for Japan? They will show Delta, Continental, and NWA award availability.
www.asiares.nwa.com Be sure to click the World Perks Award box before searching. You have to keep resetting the Award box to search other cities which can be a bit annoying. Patty might know of a way around it. Try posting on the airline forum. If nothing else, there are almost always award flights to Zurich - a 19€ smart train fare ride to Milan.

kybourbon - Thank you! I have only been playing around with the delta site. I have a few more months before the dates will be bookable.

I am also waiting on FF miles - I currently have about 125,000 and am hoping to be able to transfer some more AMEX and am using my Delta Amex for everything right now...

I have been reading flyer talk, and a few other sites.

I am hoping, praying, dancing in a circle LOL that because I have total flexibilty and do not care where I end up flying too - that we can score the tickets. :-)

I will post it on the Airlines a little closer to when I am ready to book.
~Dawn

We booked at the beginning of January for our trip at the end of May using Delta FF- had no problem.

spinch - where are you traveling from and to?

That helps :-)

~Dawn

I just booked a FF flight on the Delta site for Sept 22-29, but the cheapest in 'miles' were actually on Continental. So - booked thru Delta.com but flying on Continental.

travelnut - where from and to?

Dawn

MomDDTravel- we're flying from Atlanta to Rome, Rome to Sicily (5 days there), then back to Rome and on to Athens (2 weeks in Greece) and then we were able to get a direct flight from Athens back to Atlanta. My husband wasn't able to book it online, but when he called had no trouble.

spinch that is GREAT! I will be calling them in a few months - I hope to have the same luck :-)

I would love to hear about your trip when you get home - sounds fabulous!

~Dawn

I'm a horrible writer, but I'm sure that I'll post something! Can't wait! Told my husband that if I couldn't go back to Greece this year that my soul would die. He decided that he didn't want that on his conscience.

I used my Delta FF miles to book nonstop flights from Atlanta-Athens for May, and did it about seven months in advance (late Sept).

I booked using the Delta website and used 75K miles (half sky choice, half sky saver). I guess if I had called, it's possible I could have booked it for 50K miles, but I wanted the nonstop flights and I probably would have had to add some layovers to get it down to 50K, which I didn't want to do.

Related to my above post: round-trip Jacksonville Fl - Amsterdam.

Wow, so much has changed since this thread was first started! The very helpful Flyertalk thread I kept referring to no longer exists, the reissue/redeposit fees have increased to $100 per ticket, they no longer hold award reservations by phone and delta.com now supports award searches for CO and NW flights (with AF and KL to be added) though I still find the NW site easier to use.

The NW site kybourbon posted will also show availability for Air France, KLM, and Aeroflot among others (in addition to CO, DL, NW). You should be able to change the origin/destination on the Search Results page without having to keep resetting the Award box. You're looking for flights that have PerkSaver availability. Once you find it, you still have to call DL to book or book on delta.com if it's one of the online bookable carriers.

If you're looking for business class awards, keep in mind that an itinerary with any transatlantic flight on CO or NW will cost 100,000 miles per ticket as opposed to 90,000 on all other carriers.

If you're totally flexible, you shouldn't have a problem scoring tickets. There's bound to be transatlantic availability on some carrier to some city.

Forgot to add, if you book by phone and have a segment on a partner carrier, there's now a partner award fee of $25 per ticket which is in addition to the telephone ticketing charge of $25 per ticket.

Patty you are great - thank you so much -- I really appreciate all your advice. I will definately be following your suggestions!

~Dawn

Any recent experiences?

I'm a last minute man. For the past two summers I have used Delta FF miles to pay for my daughter's flights to CDG or MAD from LAX or SNA with one month stopovers at DTW or FNT. I booked about 6 weeks in advance. The cost? About 107k miles for each.

I booked two FF tickets online going open jaw ATL-CDG and AMS-ATL in May and it cost 60k miles for each ticket. I booked on delta.com, but the flights are actually on Air France and KLM.

I had to add my experience here bc i was so amazed. I just got 5 FF seats for Europe next summer..which i thought would be totally impossible and was prepared for all kinds of alternatives.. willing to adjust dates, fly into and out of different locations, etc. i booked last week and there was avail on many europe destinations from what i saw on calendar.. maybe delta is attempting to open more seats? my specifics were into Prague on June 13 and out of Zagreb on July 4.. I did use the agent and pay $25 per ticket bc open jaw is not easy to see "prices/miles" on the planner. Also, 4 yrs ago, I got 4 FF tickets into Paris and out of Milan in the summer. Best of luck to all..