Trying to go the week of 3/14-3/22. (Wife's spring break). this is the 1st time I have encountered any difficulties. The best they could do was fly me out 3/16 & back 3/26 ?? When is carnival ??

My husband and I booked frequent flyer tickets to Ireland for two weeks next May/June. The miles were with American, but we will be flying Aer Lingus. We booked in August, and got our first choice of dates.

Ash Wednesday in 2003 is March 5, so Carnevale (that's Italian for carnival) festivities will be late February through March 4.

I booked the first week of August using USAirways Dividend Miles and Marriott Rewards. Had no problems securing the airline dates I needed, and in Envoy Class, no less! The Marriotts were likewise easy to book.

Just last week I redeemed some of my United miles for a rountrip flight from Seattle to Rome. I am flying SAS over, and had the option to spend time in Copenhagen. I fly Air Canada on the return.

Oh, I leave at the end of April.

I just booked on Delta for a trip to Europe in May. I had to be flexible with cities and dates, but we are flying business elite into Brussels from Atlanta, spending 2 nites, then going to Paris for 5 days, then to London for 2 days. Our flight home to Atlanta is direct also. We didn't mind adding the 2 cities before and after Paris, but it would have been very difficult to fly into CDG in May, since most flights including Air France were booked for FF seats. If you don't plan 330 days ahead, I guess flexibility is a must.

I tried to use our Delta ff rewards for our vacation in France trying to work around July 4th or Memorial Day in order to make better use of our vacation time. Ended up booking our trip for Labor Day weekend. It probably works out well since we hope to experience smaller crowds but I can't stand the wait.<BR>Also, we are booked on Air France(code share)which is fine with me. They have never disappointed us.

I was the original poster &amp; I ended up buying 2 seats &amp; upgrading to 1st class using miles. Trying to cash in miles on USAir to Europe right now is nearly impossible for the summer months.

Good for you,brutforce. Delta is the worst trying to upgrade and I had a heck of a time trying it. I also think they are the most aggressive marketing their miles and make it the most difficult to use. American is great,BTW. Very flexible. Upgrading or redeeming on Delta,too hard.

Air fares to Europe are currently so low, it seems a shame to use the miles.<BR><BR> Keith

Let's face it, most of us can't book years in advance because they take so long to accumulate. American was very accommodating to us. At the end of December we booked tickets for a June trip to Italy. We fly into Rome but had to return from Geneve and add 3 days to the trip. Who cares; it was $2400 worth of flight from San Jose, DA. We're thrilled.

I recently booked on Delta for a trip to Italy this spring (three persons travelling) and found the experience straightforward. I was somewhat flexible with my dates and destination, and the staff were very helpful at trying various combinations to get me the best possible times. <BR><BR>Airlines aren't going to give away seats they can sell. If you're flexible you can turn your miles into a nice vacation.

Last year in April I booked 2 RT from bergsville USA to Paris for September. I tried 3 times a day for about a week before getting a leaving time I could live with. We ended up having to stay an extra 3 days in Paris because we could not book the return (4-5 months in avance mind you)on the day we needed. It is really tough to have to spend 3 extra days in Paris &lt;G&gt;. My boss even understood the sacrifice I was making to stay those extra days and not able to return to work.

About two weeks ago we used FF to fly to Paris in May going business class.<BR>the people at UAL were most helpful in arranging schedules<BR><BR>We are going LAX-DAI-CDG.

we were able to reserve 4 tkts on American airlines DFW-CDG(Paris) for the week of Apr6-13. We Have to get to DFW from Atlanta but the fare (40,000 miles pp)is worth it . Good luck!

Kanoneli, keep checking on that ATL-DFW segment until mid-March when you need to buy tickets. Sometimes the free seats open up as the travel date gets closer!<BR><BR>I tried for weeks last year to get 4 of us on the New Orleans-New York-London route. One or the other segment was always not available. Two weeks prior to departure, the entire routing was available clear and I could book the tickets using miles. <BR><BR>AirTran will be a nice low-cost alternative for Atlanta to Dallas if necessary.

We had a similar experience to Mikex's in using FF miles for a trip to Paris last May. Like Mike, we were &quot;forced&quot; to extend our trip three days. My best advice is to have flexibility. When I called Delta with the original dates, the agent said that those dates were gone and IMMEDIATELY asked how much flexibility we had. We ended up extending on both ends. This was all accomplished with one phone call about 7-8 months beforehand.<BR>

We booked Pit to Fra without much problem....when I called they said they had nothing available...when my husband called the next night...miraculously they had seats available in BUSINESS CLASS.<BR><BR>previously they ONLY had coach and we booked late for our June trip because we were originally going in September and had a change of plans. <BR><BR>I think it all depends on WHO you get.<BR><BR>I was told &quot;marketing hasn't released business class seats to europe&quot; but the next day they were there??? YEAH RIGHT<BR><BR>We were even flexible with our city in Europe and somewhat flexible on dates.<BR><BR>I am only staying 10 days....June 5th-June 15th<BR><BR>I think it all depends on who you get on the phone with US AIR <BR><BR>being in Pittsburgh we are limited in our flying choices and mile programs to exploit!