Therese

Patty,

Thanks for the link to the flyertalk thread. Lots of great info there. The advice to hang up (politely, of course) and get a different agent if you happen to find an unhelpful one (which is unusual in my experience---most of the agents in international bookings are extraordinarily helpful and patient) is particularly good.

Looks like you found lots of options for LOT. Let's hope he/she gets to take that nice trip to Rome.

LOT

Patty-

You are incredible, and a wealth of information! Do you work for an airline or travel agency? Thank you so much for your time and help, and the very educational link you provided. I am certain this will be a great help to many other people out there who are wandering around in the dark tearing their hair out, but who will hopefully bump into this forum. It sure would be nice if Delta included this information as a permanent sidebar in their monthly SkyMiles Insider newsletter, or hire you as a consultant and pay you a hefty fee so you can get the word out. Thanks again for your help!!

LOT

Oh - I forgot!! I did call Delta's Partner Award Desk yesterday afternoon (you need to go through several prompts and people to get there - there appears to be no direct 800 number). And yes the agent was successful at finding a roundtrip SkySaver seat for THIS summer to Rome!! I was totally shocked to say the least! It took him probably a half hour of searching to do it while I paid bills, but he was very friendly, patient, and diligent. And I agree - if you do not get an agent that seems to be working for/with you - conclude the phone call, and call again. Thanks again for everyone's help!

Patty

LOT,
I'm so glad you were able to find a flight to Rome this summer, congrats! I've also found the vast majority of agents working in partner awards to be knowledgeable, helpful and patient. And no, I don't work for an airline or in the travel industry. This is just years and years of practice. Again I'm glad this is working out for you. Have a great trip to Italy!

LOT

Patty or Judyrem or anyone-

Another detail question for the future:

Judyrem wrote: "I had 330 day date marked on my calendar and called at 9am that day. How could they not have had an opening hmmm,,,,could not do a return flight so waited till the valid day came and sucessfully booked my return trip."

Is my understanding correct that you can not book the return flight (on a round-trip) using SkySaver miles any sooner than 330 days out? Does this mean that in order to increase your chances of securing a round-trip ticket, that it would be advantageous to book outbound and inbound flights separately (330 days out respectively according to departure and return dates). And if so, do you know, or anyone, what the Skysaver mileage requirement would be between the U.S. and Europe when booked separately. Would these essentially be two one-way tickets when booked separately, and consequently require more than 50,000 skymiles?

Jed

2 years ago we wanted to go to New Zealand for 3 weeks with FF from USAir, who would give us seats on AirNZ. We first reserved (but did not ticket) the outbound when it became available, then waited 3 weeks to reserve the return and ticket the RT.

I explained to them what I was doing, and they kept the first reservation until I was sure of a return. The agents were helpful at all times.

Patty

Good question, LOT. Delta used to hold all award reservations for 14 days and one could normally request an additional 14 day extension if necessary so that it was easy to book your outbound flight, put it on hold, and call back later to book your return flight without issuing your ticket until the entire itinerary is complete.

In February, Delta reduced the award hold period on international itineraries that include any partner airline flight down to 48 hours. I've heard that starting next month all award holds including domestic and Delta only itineraries will be reduced to 48 hours as well (could be just a rumor but it wouldn't surprise me if it's true).

I haven't made any award reservations since this recent change, so I don't know how this is going to affect award reservations where the return date is beyond 330 days. Hopefully they'll still grant an extension in this case.

This is a very good question that I don't have the answer to. Perhaps you could ask one of the partner award agents about the recent change and how it will affect those trying to book flights at the first available date.

Booking two one way awards would not be a good alternative as Delta awards cost the same amount of miles regardless of whether it's one way or roundtrip, so you'd be looking at 100,000 miles for two one ways.

FEMAJOR

IVE BEEN A SKYSAVER WITH DELTA SINCE 1965. AS RECENT AS YESTERDAY 9/18/06 I TRIED TO GET A FLIGHT. I WAS SO DISGUSTED WITH THE HELP AND RESULTS I WAS OFFERED I HUNG UP ON THE OPERATOR AND SCHEDULED AND PAID FOR A FLIGHT WITH NORTH WEST. WHAT A SHAME, I HAVE A FIST FULL OF SKYMILES.

happytrailstoyou

I noticed this practice about two years ago and gave up on Delta miles.

Saraho

I have to say I use Skymiles frequently. Maybe it depends on the places you are trying to go. I often use them to fly into Regan National in DC and yesterday I got one with less than a week"s notice into Jacksonville, Fl.

Therese

Just successfully booked SkySaver flights to northern Italy this summer for myself and my two children. I used the partners award desk. My dates were somewhat flexible (June 2007, departing after the first week and returning by the end of the month, two weeks maximum stay) and I was willing to fly into or out of Milan (Malpensa), Geneva, Zurich, or Munich. Malpensa was the most convenient of the options (we're going to Stresa, on Lake Maggiore), and an hour later the tireless agent had found reasonable options for all of us.

We fly from Atlanta to Copenhagen on Delta. We'll arrive in the morning, and our flight (via Alitalia) doesn't leave until early evening, so we'll spend the day in Copenhagen doing a bit of touring and eating lunch. I've got friends who live and work just outside Copenhagen, so we'll likely get to visit, and it will be the children's first experience in northern Europe, so I'm happy with the timing.

Our flight home is two weeks later, flying Alitalia out of Malpensa into Berlin, Delta from Berlin to JFK, Delta/Comair from JFK to Dulles, and Delta from Dulles to Atlanta. A long day, but the connections are all reasonable (neither too short nor too long).

There were several other options in both directions, but these were the most workable given the constraints of traveling with children (such that we all had to be on the same planes the entire trip) and my desire to avoid an overnight en route.

The agent was endlessly patient and pleasant, apologizing repeatedly for the time involved. I was delighted with the service, her attitude, and the final results. The $4,000 I'm not spending on airfare will more than pay for our lodging for the entire stay.

mah1980

AAdvantage is so much better than Delta. I've not had any problems every getting a flight w/AAdvantage miles. Get the AAdvantage Citibank card, use it for all of your spending and bills, pay it off every month, and watch the miles accumulate.

Therese

Not having used AAdvantage I can't compare it to Delta's program, but since I live in Atlanta it's unlikely that AAdvantage could offer me benefits comparable to Delta's. Delta's AmEx program earns miles very quickly and offers frequent double miles bonuses. The miles pile up and we go on vacation.

tracys2cents

What's the use of offering double mileage bonuses if they then open up only 50,000 mile awards and never any 25,000 mile seats? It's just a gimmick.

I do notice that they often open up some seats a couple weeks before flight time. Probably because they charge $50 and $75 to book if you don't have more than 14 day advance, so it adds up to some income for them whereas opening up these seats a month in advance wouldn't have.

Therese

No, the double mileage bonuses offered by AmEx are not a gimmick: you earn two miles per dollar spend instead of one mile per dollar spent, and the miles rack up very quickly if you use your AmEx a lot (which I do).

What very few people seem to understand is that the SkyChoice option offered by Delta is actually a huge improvement over the old system in which you could redeem miles only for very limited "free" seats, seats which the airlines didn't think they'd be able to sell at all. SkyChoice seats are not limited, and in fact count as full fare tickets: you can book SkyChoice on any Delta flight that's operated by Delta. You can't use these awards for Delta codeshares where the flight is operated by another airline (precisely because the other airlines aren't about to give away anything so valuable) but that's not an issue for domestic flights.

So I can use my miles as I'd like: SkyChoice for exactly the itinerary I want or need, SkySaver when my plans are flexible. I've redeemed thousands and thousands of dollars in SkyMiles over the years. It's not a scam, and it's not a gimmick.

mah1980

Therese- do you work for Delta or something? You don't need to refute everything negative said about Delta's obviously unpopular ff program.

Re: using AAdvantage instead. Unless you live in Dallas or Miami, you have to fly to those cities for most of AA's flights out of the country. I presume that is the case on Delta regarding using Atlanta as the main hub.

Therefore, for those having problems with Delta I would recommend AAdvantage from my own personal history.

Therese

No, I don't work for any airline or for any other travel-related business. I do travel a fair amount for both work and business, and generally fly Delta or AirTran, as both operate hubs here in Atlanta.

It may well be that AA's program is "so much better" than Delta's. And if you have personally participated extensively in both programs then you'll feel comfortable making that comparison.

mah1980

I don't think I need to "personally participate extensively" in Delta's program to know that it's not good.

I think being an informed consumer means NOT joining programs if they have bad reputations. When I was shopping for a mileage credit card, it didn't take much research to learn about Delta's program's inadequacies, namely, that they restrict the he** out of the number of ff seats on flights.

But I guess you're right...Delta seems to be doing so well that they probably have nothing to worry about! Rigggggggggght.

Fairhope

From this years experience--It was not difficult to book 10 months in advance FF flight to Florence and leave from Rome within one day of our need to meet a tour.
Could not book to Jackson WY 6 weeks in advance because we could not use codeshare into Jackson and we were not flexible enough to fly into Salt Lake

Barbara_in_FL

We feel somewhat "stuck" with Delta and thus with our Skymiles because we live in a city where most flights go to Atlanta. : ) I want to second the suggestion that, if your first agent is unhelpful, keep trying and calling back. We used a combination of FF miles and paid tickets to go to Scotland this spring (we actually flew into Manchester and drove up because there was a good deal going on at the time). I spent literally HOURS on the phone arranging the tickets, and some of the people I spoke with left me pulling my hair out, but I also found a couple of VERY helpful, very courteous and very knowledgeable agents. So -- I won't get into the merits of Delta's program vs. others --but for those of us who are stuck with it for various reasons, don't be afraid to hang up and start over if you run into someone who tells you what you want is impossible.