I have 85 thousand Delta miles (also good on United). I want to use the miles (which should be about 100 thousand soon for two tickets to Hawaii or to Europe before we talk about starting a family next year.

What are the things that I should be doing now (many months in advance) to secure a couple of seats to a prime location.

Also, is it difficult to use the FF miles on a nonstop flight to Europe or a good one stop flight to Hawaii.

Need the basics. Thanks.

Start as early as you can.
Try to go during non-peak travel season.
Go to Delta ticket office in person and let them work with you. Check back in a few days if the days you want are not available. Seating changes daily and seats not available on the flight you want when you ask today, may very well open up tomorrow. Be flexible and patient and you will normally always get a ride to a prime location. Do you have Skymiles or Frequent Flyer miles. The Frequent Flyer miles are from the old mileage program and take precedence over Skymiles.

The previous poster is incorrect. You do not go to the Delta ticket off concerning utilization of its FF miles. You should contact its FF department. For Delta's SkyMiles office call 800-325-3999. For United's Mileage Plus, it's 888-467-0507.
Unfortunately, you cannot finalize the bookings until you actually have the miles. Once you know when you'll reach the 100,000 mark, you can call and book. They usually hold the reservation for 30 days before you have to finalize.
Just be forewarned also that you should book many months in advance for either Hawaii or Europe.
Your chances of a direct flight are pretty good.

We are already booked for San Francisco to Turkey. Paris to San Jose, California for March 29 home on April 23, 2002.

We find our own way (planes & trains) to Italy and Paris.

We have two Delta accounts only one we use. My acc't had 60,000 old miles my husband was short 9,000 for his 50,000.

I booked the flights under my account (60,000) gave them husband's FF number and they held them. When it got time to be ticketed his extra points weren't there (we upgraded to platinum to get 5,000 miles) so DELTA borrowed the points.

They now ticket within 2 weeks it used to be 30 days. But they will WORK with you. I made my first reservation 10 months in advance and because Air France was going to be one of the connections & their dates weren't up yet. Delta kept extending the deadline.

This worked out for us because we than changed our mind and decided to stay 3 nights in Paris rather than just 24 hrs.

You do not have to go in and out of the same cities. As you can see on ours.

We will be able to fly from Naples to Paris for $99 each.

Hope this helps.

As the others have suggested, book as soon as you have enough miles for the trip that you want to take. Hawaii is a very popular destination, as are the major European cities, so it is essential to book as early as practical.

A couple of things to note. With United's program, you can change the dates of your trip (but not the routing) later at no charge. Therefore, if you're not totally sure about your dates, make the best guess that you can and go ahead and book the tickets. Similarly, if the dates that you want are not available, book the best dates that you can get, and continue to call back periodically to try to change the dates. What you'll notice is that as the dates of travel get closer, if the airline realizes that they are not likely to sell all of the seats on a particular flight, they will open up some of the seats to frequent flyers. Therefore, flights that were not available to you six months in advance may become available a month or a few weeks before the travel date.

Specifically for travel to Europe, if you cannot get a flight into the city that you want, consider flying into an alternate city, since some cities are more popular than others, or may have more frequent flights. For example, I find it easier to book tickets on United into London than into Paris. So in the past, I've used the FF miles to fly into London and then traveled by train or by by a relatively cheap British Air flight on to Paris. Also, when traveling to Europe, if you are having difficulty getting the flight that you want, check on the partner airlines of Delta and United (e.g., Lufthansa, etc.). You can often get a seat on a partner airline when the primary carrier has nothing available.

Howard has the best and more accurate advice. Call Delta for Delta miles, and remind the clerk that United flights would work for you, also. Be flexible and nice, and you shouldn't have a problem with either destination. Remember, with miles, you can go out of a small town on their commuters--big city not a requirement.

I agree with Howard who disagrees with me. The point I am making and from experience, is this: It is not necessary to go to the Delta Ticket Office and talk to a representative..BUT it can be helpful. There are only so many FF mile redemption seats available on each flight and the availablity of them changes from time to time. By going to the Delta Ticket Office, in many cases they can continue to search the system from time to time when they have a moments. I have done this several times and check back with them later in the day or the next day or a few days later. More often than not, they have been able to find me the upgrades or the seat for a FF redemption ticket. I do not profess this is successful every time, but you would be surprised. Of course it helps to have a Delta Office nearby and to travel enough that the Delta Ticket Agents recognize you.

We have used Delta FF miles twice to travel to Hawaii. The first time in April of 96 we traded in enough miles for 6 of us to go First Class to Hawaii. We made our reservations on the first day possible, in May of 95 for our April of 96 flight. They did not want to free up 6 seats in first class, but with some gentle pushing by my husband (a million miler) we were able to get everyone on the same plane.

In July of 2000 we once again traded in enough miles for 4 of us to go first class to Hawaii. Again we made the reservations 11 months in advance. But unlike in 96, no amount of talking could get all four of us on the same flight. We had to take two seperate flights, but it didn't matter we all got to the same place within an hour of each other.

My advise to you is to plan ahead, and book early.

Debbie