What's the trick to using frequent flier miles?
 

We have accumulated almost 300,000 FF miles using our American Express card. Supposedly, we can transfer the miles to several different FF programs including Delta, Continental and USAirways. We have tried several times to use the miles to to take our family of 5 to Turks and Caicose, Dominican Republic and other places that are within the US. We've always been told that there are no seats available, even though we tried to book 11 months in advance. We've been very flexible with dates and have tried the caribbean in off-season. Not interested in using the miles for hotel stays or anything else. We just want free airfare. Do the airlines only allow 2 or so FF seats on each flight? Any suggestions for being able to use our miles on flights?

The furthest out you can book is 366 days. At that time they open up a few FF seats that are first come first serve. As the dates get closer and flights are not selling out, they open up more and more FF seats.<BR><BR>Fly at off peak times (no holidays, no caribbean Christmas thru May, no Europe in the Spring or Summer) and you should do just fine.

I'm very surprised you are having problems using your miles. Maybe it is the fact you are requesting 5 tickets. I have never had a problem using my frequent flyer miles on american or Continental. In fact, I had used our Continental miles this July to fly open jaw from NYC-Anchorage-Vancouver-NYC for only 25,000 miles each person. And to top it off, I only reserved it 6 weeks in advance. I have used my miles for 2 separate trip to Hawaai, Seattle, and other cities in the US. Have also used miles to go to germany too. I have never encountered the problems that others seem to find. <BR>Most important is to fly off season and be very flexxible. I always pick a month I want to travel, then call to find out what the availability is for FF mile travel. All the programs allow you to 'hold' the reservations for at least a week, if not longer, without actually cashing in the points. THEN I see if I can take the time off from work.<BR>In Other Words, I plan the vacation around the availability of FF travel, NOT whether there are seats available for the times that I took off from work. If you try it my way, you will find you will have less problems using miles. <BR>

First, you have to make sure that your destination,to get there you would use &quot;pure&quot; Delta/Continental/USAir, not any &quot;code shares&quot;.If you pick a destination where there is only say 1 flight a day in and out,you will NEVER get there on FF miles.Also, I have found it helps to pick a spot where the use ONLY jet equipment,no small props.Small props have almost NO FF seats,ever.The best way is to pick non stops if possible from Point A to Point B and back to A.Midweek to midweek is best.I have never had a prob with any Delta request,but everybody is different.Hope that helps.

Call the airline, tell them where you want to go and ask the dates they have available.

To test FF flight availability, I just did a little 'test. Using American, I picked a NYC-Miami itineary for Feb, '03, which actually should be peak for Miami. I just picked 2/7 departure, returning 2/15 (hypothetical Valentines In South Beach)<BR>No problems getting FF flights - in fact, there were tons of flight choices for both departures and arrivals. <BR>So this proves my point that the ff flights are out there - you just got to do your homework!

I think it's possible to try to book too far in advance for FF flights. As was mentioned above, more ff seats can be added as the airline judges how full a flight will be. I was able to book 3 ff seats (and one paid one) in March for a July flight to London. We also booked July tickets to Hawaii only a couple of months in advance (but in 1999).

We've had the same problem and with over 400.000 miles on American or any of their partners we have tried for the past 2 years to book flights to Europe, Hawaii and Mexico for 5 people with no luck!!! It doesn't seem to matter when you try to book, if you have 5 tickets you're SOL! Let me know if you find success anywhere.

If it's the # of passengers that seems to be the problem, I would either split up the bookings (try 2 then later 3 seats) or you will have to pay for a couple of the seats for everyone to fly togheter. You can also book some of the seats using the awards that require less points, but you have a co-pay.This way you limit the actual cash outlay.

I normally book with Aeroplan FF miles precisely a year in advance (about as soon as they will let you). I've always had the seats and schedule I wanted.<BR><BR>This year, however, I delayed my booking until 7 months in advance (didn't have quite enough points at the one year mark). So I was able to get the flights and dates I wanted, but, on one leg (ot of 4), was not able to get into Executive Class. I'm waitlisted, though, and hopeful.

It's because you are requesting 5 seats. Try seperating the group with different airlines..with similar departure/arrival times.

Try booking a little closer to your departure date.

I have also had problems using FF miles. Any other ideas????

american airlines is far and away the best to work with! We got 5 seats to fort lauderdale for school vacation. Everyyear I plan in Sept. for April. All I can say is use AAirlines<BR>

In June of this year,as soon as I knew my brother was going to be discharged from the hospital, I started calling the airlines(not mentioning his injury).The average quote to fly Denver to NY was $2000.00 and I wanted 2 tickets!<BR>I took a chance and asked if I could use miles for a flight that day - and lo,and behold I could! By 5pm we were in the air.<BR>A round of applause for UNITED!

Last year we used our Delta FF miles to book 5 open-jaw tickets to Hawaii for our summer vacation. I know we would have to be very flexible for that time of the year. We booked about 7 months ahead and got our flights. We even booked our inter-island flights with Hawaiian FF miles. Keep trying and be flexible!

Maybe we have just been lucky, but in past year have booked flight with 200,000 miles on USAir (so there goes the theory that in-trouble airlines will not let you use miles - we booked Boston to Las Vegas and San Diego to Boston on a round trip first class tickets for 4), 100,000 miles Boston to Seattle on UsAir (4 RT coach tickets), and single coach tickets on Delta and American. With trips to west coast we were prepared to be flexible but did not have to be. Other 2 were fixed dates, also no problem. <BR><BR> I wonder if there is some way they know you were transferring miles from American Express card - since they use FF programs to promote brand loyalty, using a credit card that allows you to transfer to any airline negates that motive.

If you used AmEx, you likely have Delta. I've had good luck asking the Frequent Flyer desk to check routing us through different cities to Europe than only ones closest to us .. such as trying Cincinnati or Atlanta too ... had exponentially greater success. There is also a program where you can use twice as many points to bypass the FF restrictions, but I've never wanted to give up that many points ... but you have plenty of points to do that for 5 if you wanted to. Ask about using double miles.<BR>

I use Delta (because of my Amex miles) and found that if I call later in the evening they will spend more time with me. Then I pick a date and ask them to keep checking uptil they find one. Day in front and day in back etc.I can almost always find free seats, it's the upgrades that I don't seem to be able to get.

Five FF seats is a tall order, particularly when you may be dealing with destinations that have limited service on a given carrier. Carriers have different affiliation/codeshare arrangements with their partners, but some of those partnership can make it far more cumbersome to book an FF ticket. <BR><BR>I've mentioned this tool before here, but here is a site you can use to check seat availability by class:<BR><BR>http://flyaow.com/classavailability.htm<BR><BR>You'll need to know the letter designator for minimum level FF seats on the carrier(s) you are researching. (For example, in my own case, I know I am looking for &quot;W&quot; class seats). Then you can just plug in itineraries and carriers until you find what you're looking for. When (and IF) you do, call in and lock it up. (It's a whole lot less frustrating and time-consuming on the telephone if you are asking for things that you already have a pretty good idea are there to begin with).<BR><BR>Another advantage of doing it this way is that you may find, say, four FF seats available and then you could scarf those up and have the last person purchase a ticket at a reasonable fare (because you will also be able to see the cost to purchase). Be sure to have your MOST frequent flyer in the group be the one on the paid ticket, since that's where the most value and flexibility will be gained going forward. <BR><BR>Lastly, you may want to do some research on:<BR><BR>www.flyertalk.com <BR><BR>with your question. That board has a very competent group of FF flyer/hotel point enthusiasts who will offer excellent suggestions and a realistic look at your chances of trying to accomplish what you are trying to get done. You'll find dedicated sections of the board for various airlines and programs to look through. <BR><BR>Good luck! :o)