Tips for finding award tickets?
 

Anyone have tips for finding award tickets with Delta or Northwest miles? Is there any site that lets you search for award tickets from multiple airlines (i.e. because you can redeem NW/DL on Continential, Air France, etc.) or am I stuck going to each site individually? Any other tips? I've always used my miles to get tickets to my mom's (and that was simple - only NW flies there) but this is my first trying to get an award ticket to Europe. Also any tips about whether it is ever possible to combine miles (I know eventually DL and NW will be consolidated, but it hasn't happened yet). Thanks!

Patty on the Airline forum reported that you can transfer miles between accounts when you're short for an award:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35173101

As for looking for awards on Skyteam partner airlines, the best site has always been Northwest's Japan website. But that is often still not complete. You should call DL or NW to get all the partner awards.

www.asiares.nwa.com is the Japanese website. It's a bit annoying to use since you have to keep clicking the award selection or it reverts to price.

Wow, that is great to know that you can transfer miles for a specific ticket - I searched on the Delta and NW sites and did not find any mention of this. I will give it a try and see how it goes. Will also check out the Japanese site, that is too funny that it is the best for finding tickets. Thanks so much!!

When are you hoping to travel? During high season (summer//holiday travel times) one must begin looking for tickets as sson as seat availability is posted (350 days out?), especially is you are seeking m ore than one ticket. At less popular travel times, it is easier to find tickets on shorter notice.

Hi audreyleigh99,
We had great luck redeeming our Delta points for free flights for the exact dates we wanted. And yes, they were nearly free. We are flying open jaw LAX-LHR and FCO-LAX for under $100 per person and 50,000 points each. We booked them each 331 days out.

This link to the Delta site:

https://www.delta.com/awards/home.do...ER_APPLICATION

is where I would do all of our checking for Delta points flights.

It does list Air France and I believe the other partner airlines also. It is very easy to use and if you start far enough ahead you can keep checking for awhile to get the best points price.

Good luck, and remember it is possible to get nearly free flights, you just have to know the system and be a little flexible.

Take care,
Michele

Hmmm, the NW Japan site is giving me some but definitely not all of the flight options (i.e. putting in ATL to CDG did not yield Delta flights). And the Delta link is what I was already using, it only yields Delta flights. I might just end up calling to see if they can find anything better than what I'm seeing . . . but it is still good to know I can transfer my NW miles, so thanks!