rbnwdln

Well, I tried. Called NWA and tried every route I could think of to every destination that was reasonable on any date that worked. The answer was, "No!" Our top choice is Minneaplis to Rome but I threw out leaving from New York or Chicago. "No!" How about flying into Paris? "NO!" London? "No!" Milan, Florence, Naples, Venice, Bologna,? "No." Leaving anytime in early June? "No!" Sheesh. Does anyone have any ideas? The agent, and I use that term loosely, told me that he couldn't get a flight through Amsterdam and that NWA flights to Europe go through Amsterdam. I told him I knew they flew directly to Paris, but "No!" Again, any ideas? The parameters are that we have reservations in Positano June 12 - 17, which can be a little flexible on either end but otherwise we are open. Thx

Seamus

Did you ask about flights on any of the other Sky Team airlines? One would think that the agent might offer that option, but all too often they don't.

rbnwdln

Seamus - The first time he checked he said he would check Continental and Delta. Then is was all NWA. When he kept saying that there was nothing available through Amsterdam, I should have asked about the other airlines. Just too new at this and he seemed so bored and exasperated. I was clutching at straws on the phone trying to think of all/any options. Maybe I will call tomorrow and hope to get a more helpful person.

Therese

Based on my experience with the Delta agents who deal with awards travel you likely encountered an exceptionally unhelpful individual agent. I'd try again, and if you should be so unlucky as to get this particular agent a second time just terminate the call early (but nicely). Same advice for any agent who seems unwilling to work with you, as this ticket could easily take an hour or more to find. You can certainly suggest itineraries, but in the end it's often the agent who figures out a creative way to get you from point A to point B (with a possible detour to point Q along the way).

The big issue is the transatlantic flights: the "gateway" airports into Europe are particularly busy in the summer. A recent query turned up Aeroflot, connecting in Moscow, for a flight from Atlanta to Milan. Hmm, well, I've never been to Moscow... In the end I decide that Aeroflot connecting in Moscow was perhaps rather more adventure than I wanted for this particular trip and we found an alternative.

I will point out that it's generally easier to book a hotel than to book an awards ticket flight, and so were I you I might consider re-booking the hotel in Positano after you've found a flight. It's unlikely you'd suffer any sort of financial penalty for changing your plans this far in advance.

rbnwdln

I can rebook the hotel except our wish is to travel in early June. I am a teacher so can't leave before June 6th but don't want to go to Europe in July or August. I will continue to try but may just end up using the miles for domestic flights. The more I talked to the agent the more it seemed that the early June trip to Rome was turning into a July trip to Outer Slobovia. Too much of a compromise. BUT I am willing to compromise a bit. One problem with a weird connection is that we have miles for ONE ticket. We will need to pay for the other and a flight going all over the place will be too costly. I told my husband that he can use his miles to fly and if the companion ticket is too much I will fly on another flight. His reply was, "Yeah, and we could sleep on the cobblestones in Rome to save money too, but do you want to do that?" Hahaha Can you tell how desperate I am to get back to Italy for the third summer in a row???

DejaVu

I booked FF flight into Amsterdam and out of Paris for mid-May-early June through a Delta agent about a month ago, and I can tell you it took some serious work on the agent's part to find something open and some flexibility on my dates (it was especially hard getting that Amsterdam leg). That was a month ago, AND included her looking at all of Delta's partners (one of my flights is actually a Northwest flight). This was with 50K miles rather than the SkyChoice, for which there would have been more options. The agent told me that the seats are so limited on these flights that there wouldn't have been anything if I had waited much longer. So maybe there genuinely is not anything available.

But I don't understand why the agent didn't look harder for to find something that was not NWA but with one of the partners (and that includes AirFrance and All'Italia on SkyTeam). With Delta, you can't search the partners on the website, but the agent can do it for you on the phone. The agent I had was great, very persistent in her search; she really worked hard for me.

Maybe you should try calling again ASAP and see if you get a better agent.

Therese

I wouldn't necessarily reject the option of going on different flights if the savings are significant. We are taking precisely that option, as I describe on this thread: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34877249

My husband's taking the direct flight and I'm taking the kids the roundabout way. His ticket (non-stop from Atlanta to Milan) is about US$1,300, whereas purchasing the same roundabout itinerary as the SkyMiles awards tickets would have been close to US$4,000, almost exactly the amount I was saving by booking the awards tickets in the first place.

Given your timing constraints (the same as ours, actually) and understandable reluctance to fly separately from your husband, I'd probably just keep the miles in your account and purchase the ticket. You'll earn miles on that flight (and more miles if you purchase it with a credit card that offers them) and will be able to apply those towards your next trip to Europe.

And I wouldn't necessarily rule out visiting Outer Slobovia at some point: fewer tourists, cheaper accomodations and food, etc.

Dayle

Hi R,

From my first and only experience using FF miles to Italy last year (booked 11 months in advance), I say keep trying! I spoke to many different agents, most of them very unhelpful, one outrightly hostile and who I reported to their Customer Service department. Finally - I got a wonderful, helpful lady who took the time and effort to help. I got my ticket and she got a very nice comment to Customer Service!

Buona fortuna

rbnwdln

Well, I tried again today and got a lovely woman who spent tons of time trying every possible avenue. She was sooo different than bored-exasperated guy I talked to yesterday. Unfortunatly, in spite of her efforts, the flights she was able to find were so convoluted that the companion ticket would have been ridiculously expensive and DH insists we fly together. SO...we will wait until we have enough FF miles to get two tickets. Using our miles credit card to pay for the new roof should head us in the right direction! Thanks so much for all the good advice!

Therese

Glad to hear you found a pleasant agent: it really does make all the difference.

With the new roof, charging the tickets on your miles card, and earning miles on this summer's flights you'll have a good head start on next summer's trip.