Any tips/tricks/advice on using frequent flyer miles?

[Cibahwewah]

My DH and I each have about 35,000 miles on Northwest, enough for a basic ticket, but not enough to upgrade etc. We'd like to use these for tickets to Orlando for our December 2010 trip. I was initially thinking Dec 4th-11th, but now DH thinks November 27th-December 4th may be better (so his mom won't be upset about us being away for their 40th anniversary in case they decide not to come with us....sigh, family drama...) but I think traveling over Thanksgiving weekend may be problematic. Anyway, I've never had any luck actually using miles--whenever I've tried, nothing is available. Anyone else have any experience about how to get the flights you want? I saw on NWA's website you can book a flight 331 days prior to departure, but I'm not sure if that applies to "award travel." I've heard of people getting online on New Year's Eve and when the clock strikes 12, book their tickets. Any other ideas or surefire bets for getting what I want?

 

[BrettS]

Northwest has one of the easiest search engines for finding award (mile) tickets. Just go to www.nwa.com and on the home page put in your cities and dates and on the left side tell it to "search by" "Worldperks Award/Perk Choice". Check your dates and see what you can find.

You might also want to check Delta's site now that Delta and Northwest are merging you can create a Delta skymiles account (if you don't already have one) and transfer miles from Northwest to Delta (or back). Sometimes Delta will have award ticket availability when Northwest doesn't or vice versa. To check Delta go to www.delta.com and under "Book a trip" click on "Skymiles award ticket"

If you find tickets on either site for 25000 miles (round trip) and you're certain of your dates then book them because they may not last long.

HTH,
Brett

 

[Cheshire Figment]

As Brett said, you may be better off on Delta's site. And if you have a SkyMiles Account you can merge your NW WorldPerks into the Delta SkyMiles and you can use the SkyMiles for either airline.

And you would have to wait for the 330th day from your return flight to make the reservations as you get charged the same miles for one way or round trip. I don't follow NW closely, but Delta will charge 45, 62, or 90 for First Class travel, depending on dates, flights, phase of the Moon, etc.

 

[akcire]

Any other ideas or surefire bets for getting what I want?

I don't know where you live, but typically travel to MCO is cheap. To maximize your miles, I would book a vacation to a more expensive destination. For example: I am located in Chicago on most days I can fly to MCO for $200.00. The last time I cashed in miles we flew from Chicago to Alaska, cash price was nearly $450.00, so using the miles was a better value.

Just my two cents.

 

[surfgirl]

good luck finding 25k seats available over Thanksgiving. Honestly, I would be surprised if they ever exist - even on day 330 at 12:01am. Airlines know when people want to travel and make those peak times worth more miles (and some still have blackout dates).

I was just booking flights to Europe for Spring 2010 - I started watching at day 330 for a month out when we actually wanted to go. There were no standard miles seats available on any Thursday, Friday, or Saturday - they were all double. Wasn't that I had missed them, they were never available. I ended up booking on a Wednesday night : )

 

[cndij]

2 years ago, I booked 7 award tickets to Hawaii. I set my alarm for 11:45 and made sure I was logged into Delta's site before midnight 331 days out. Yes, holiday tickets are going to be difficult if not impossible, but I thought the same about 7 award tickets on the same flights (I was really only hoping for 4 and was going to buy the other 3), but it happens. If it wasn't a holiday or popular destination, then they also do open up unsold tickets for additional award seats at the last minute (like 1 week or less out), but again the holiday is going to make that unlikely. I also weigh carefully the dollars vs using miles and try not to use my miles for anything less than a $350 ticket, but if you are on a budget, any money saved is more in the pocket.

 

[cndij]

By the way 35,000 is enough for a skysaver ticket to Hawaii, which from the east coast is usually at least $700.

 

[Saraheg2107]

You need to call the first day you can, and honestly, be flexible with your travel dates, particularly with the time frame you want to go.

In 2006 my sister and I were going to use our miles to go to Italy over the holidays, I started trying to book our tickets in February of that year. Could not be done, we could not get seats to where we wanted to go without having about 4 connections, which would have taken two days off our vacation (1 going and 1 coming). We ended up going to France instead, got exactly the dates and flights we wanted.

Obviously you are not flexible with your destination like we were (we just really wanted a vacation), but be prepared to be flexible with your dates, that is going to be the best way to use them over the holidays.

Personally, I have to agree with the PP who said you can get to Orlando pretty reasonably priced. I saved my miles for a trip I really wanted and would not have been able to afford without using miles (the price for a ticket for the time frame we were going was between $800 and $1,000).

Hope some of that helps!

 

[Tina]

I agree with the others. I always save my miles for more expensive destinations. I have a bit over 100k right now on United. I plan to use them for First Class across country or possibly economy to Hawaii (unless I can save a bit more for FC). I did consider using them for a Thanksgiving trip (09) to Florida, but found that all of the lower mile fares (saver) were gone and only the standard were left. I didn't want to waste 50k per ticket for economy to Florida.