I just got off the phone with an agent from Delta. I am trying to get a flight out of CDG on April 13, using my skymiles. She said that since I lived in US Mountain Time Zone, I should start calling at 10:00 in hopes of getting an operator in the East. This is the first I've heard of calling earlier than midnight. What do the rest of you know about this??

I know that airlines cannot book a trip until 330 days out at 10 AM or PM.

But wouldn't 10PM mountain time be midnight in the East? So, you wouldn't really be calling earlier than midnight.

The obvious solution is to just call! The worst that can happen is they'll tell you call back in a couple hours.

You can't call until 331 days ahead. I'll certainly try it. We recently had a long thread on the subject of calling times, etc. and this Eastern Standard Time thing was never mentioned. You also may call several times and never get an eastern time zone agent. Oh well, I'll start calling at ten and see what happens. Thanks for your input>

What's the time difference between MST and Bangalore, anyway?

AnthonyGA -

Cute... a day ahead!

For what it's worth I once called American two days before the maximum advance limit to check on something and in conversation, the person checked and found that the flights had already been loaded into the computer so I went ahead and booked them. That certainly helped to explain why sometimes people calling at midnight find their seats are already gone!

An agent at American explained to me that the seats for frequent flyer use aren't automatically given at a specific day and time. They are loaded into the inventory not unlike a store will stock shelves. This explanation helped me to understand the system. With this in mind, I'd start calling a day ahead, then every 8 hours or so - if securing specific seats are of utmost importance. Happy travels!