All,
Hesitant to post this message, but I need advice from the travel experts:

My husband and I would like to get away this summer leaving our infant with the Grandparents for the first time for a trip overseas. Due to my husband's work schedule, we can only travel the last week of June, July, or the first week of August.

We LOVE Italy and have traveled all over the country. We have also traveled to London, Paris, and Belin. Outside of Europe we've traveled all over the U.S. and Canada.

We would return to Italy again, but due to the peak season we're unable to find coach or business class flights available for a 5-7 day trip using our frequent flier miles. I have a feeling all the top touristy spots will be just as difficult to find frequent flier seats available, so does anyone have suggestions for a location a bit more off the beaten path? Keep in mind that to fly to a destination a little less traveled, we will still have to go through a major city. Any other destination outside of Europe that I am missing for a short getaway?

Two questions: What are the closest major cities to where you live? What airline are you FF miles with?
At this late date, you might have more success with a domestic destination.

Thank you for your response.

Closest airport: Boston
FF miles on Delta.

Check out this thread on the "airlines" forum:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34567944

We've had very good luck with Delta FF miles. So much depends on the agent you happen to get after you hold for 10-15 minutes. Although it's more time and trouble, if the agent doesn't seem motivated to really search for seats and be creative, I hang up, call back and wait for another agent.
Just this week I got seats from Norfolk, Va (always difficult) to Marseille in October. I was shocked to get all good connections this late, but the agent was very helpful.
Keep trying...spend your child's nap time on the phone. It can be worth it!

Obviously, the first thing is to go to the Delta website and find our where it flies to from Boston.
Once you have an idea of possible destinations, try to create as much flexibility with dates as possible. That'll provide you with a much, much greater chance of booking with FF miles.

Delta is part of the SkyTeam alliance, and it also has other airline partners. So, you can basically go anywhere in the world, provided you have enough miles to spend.

Make sure you have the SkyMiles agent check all possible airlines.

Hi Karen. Delta's primary partners for getting to Europe are Continental, NW, and KLM. KLM's hub is Amsterdam. From there they fly all over Europe. The key thing you need to find out when you talk to the agents is which leg of the journey are they having trouble with -- getting across the Atlantic, or the leg within Europe? Consider laying over a day or so in Amsterdam or wherever the connection is -- sometimes that can help.

Don't forget Air France. AF has been a long-time partner of Delta, and is a founding member of SkyTeam. NW and KL used to have their own little alliance which was folded into SkyTeam, as KL and AF is now part of the same company. CO only joined last year.

And Air France flies to more destinations in Europe and the world from CDG than KLM flies from AMS.

Don't forget other partners in SkyTeam too - like Alitalia or CSA Czech. Delta also has other partners that fly across the Atlantic like Emirates, Virgin, Singapore, Malaysia - though I doubt there will be much seat availability.

Thank you for all of your suggestions and encouragement to remain persistent with the airlines. After weeks of calling, my persistence paid off. I got directly flights from Boston to Milan using my miles on some preferred dates. Thanks again!