skymiles rant

[mommytomy3]

called Delta this morning at 7 am to book flight for next April 21-30... we had to wait until today because of the 331 day thing...
well, of course,all the 25,000 point seats are gone!! I cant believe it! I called a few days ago, but they said they couldnt check anything until the 331 day mark..(today) now my only choice is this:
get 5 seats @ 50,000 points each, OR 4 seats in First Class @ 45,000 points each and hold DS(he will be 1 & 1/2 then) on our lap.
Im leaning towards the 4 first class, because the last few times we flew, we always bought a seat for our now 2 year old, and he always ended up on our lap anyway. I have never not bought an infant seat. What would you do? does anyone know if Delta's first class seats are nice and roomy? TIA

 

[mommytomy3]

bumping.....

 

[VAgal76]

Yes, first class seats are roomier. They tend to be a few inches wider and much more leg room. You typically have to get a bulkhead or exit row seat to get the same leg room in coach. A good place for seat configurations is www.seatguru.com. You can choose Delta and then the aircraft you'll be flying on.

 

[seashoreCM]

There might have been only two or three (or four; you needed five) 25,000 mile seats to begin with. You are rejected if you ask for more than what they have at the moment.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[rparmfamily]

Have you tried booking through any of the Sky Team Partners? You can with you miles but if your not interested in doing this then I would book the first class tickets and hold them for two weeks and keep checking day to day for the sky savers in coach.

Rex

 

[ralphd]

Have you tried booking through any of the Sky Team Partners? You can with you miles but if your not interested in doing this then I would book the first class tickets and hold them for two weeks and keep checking day to day for the sky savers in coach.

Rex

You have to call the Delta Partner telephone number to check availability. The Delta Skymiles desk does not have access to partner flights. May find seats on Northwest or Continential. Seats may open up 30-90 days prior if the flight does not sell out.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

It has been my experience that it is extremely difficult to book a SkyMiles seat for 25,000 miles, at least to any place I would like to travel!

Personally I would not use a total of 180,000 FF miles to fly first class on a very short trip from NJ (if that is where your flight will originate) to MCO. It would be a waste and bad value for FF miles. You could get 2 RT first class tickets to Hawaii, or 2 RT business class tickets to Europe for that many miles. I would just buy the tickets from NJ to MCO.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

To use FF miles on any airline, flexibility is usually the key. Finding 5 tickets on a single flight at one time is usually difficult, if not impossible. Have you considered:

1. Booking as many cheap FF coach seats as are available and paying cash for the rest? Often trips to MCO are relatively inexpensive and paying cash for some seats may be a good option.

2. Splitting your family between coach and first? If you can find 3 seats in coach, let 1 parent and 1 older child ride up front going and the other parent and older child ride up front on the return.

3. Booking as many on coach as you can in your preferred flight and then booking the rest on different flights? As noted, more seats may open up on your preferred flight and you may be able to switch at that time. Of course, this depends on Delta’s fees for changing flights on FF tickets after they are booked.

For future reference, many people book the outbound ticket when it opens up 330 days in advance and then book the return flight later when it opens up 330 days out. Not sure if you were having a problem with both flights or just the outbound, but this may be the reason.

Best of luck -- Suzanne

 

[rparmfamily]

You have to call the Delta Partner telephone number to check availability. The Delta Skymiles desk does not have access to partner flights. May find seats on Northwest or Continential. Seats may open up 30-90 days prior if the flight does not sell out.

Well of course you do and if you are booking 5 award tickets then I am assuming that she knows the procedures to do so since you just don't earn 125K or 225K without learning the rules of FF. Partner flights are continental, northwest and a few in between so why wouldn't they have access to these??

Rex

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I am assuming that she knows the procedures to do so since you just don't earn 125K or 225K without learning the rules of FF.

I would not assume this at all. I know of people with this many miles in several different FF accounts who don't have a clue as to how these programs work. Taking a lot of trips on one airline hardly educates one on how a frequent flyer program works. So many miles, so much waste!

And quite frankly, IMO, anyone who really understands how FF programs work and the value of FF miles, would not be wasting that many miles for first class tickets within the US for such a short trip. No disrespect intended to the OP.

 

[mommytomy3]

Thank you so much for your suggestions! I know, it is extremely difficult to get 5 seats.. although only 4 would have to be reward seats, and the 5th I could pay a reduced infant seat rate, and yes, they did check their partners, and there was nothing available. I definately would not want to split up my family, and we definately have the points (about 200,000+),so I wouldnt need to pay for the tix, and earn about that every year (so we fly free every year to our annual WDW trip!) (Dh is a general contractor, so we earn alot of points because he uses the card for everything!)
I was just hoping that we'd be comfy holding the baby on our laps!

 

[mommytomy3]

And quite frankly, IMO, anyone who really understands how FF programs work and the value of FF miles, would not be wasting that many miles for first class tickets within the US for such a short trip. No disrespect intended to the OP.

none taken, however, I am not splitting up my family, I have more than enough miles for it, we only fly once a year, and by next year, we would have enough to do the same thing again if we wanted to... , so why should I pay even $200 pp rt, which would be around $1k, when we earned enough to fly for free? I know it seems like a waste, to use so many points, but if I dont use them now, the same thing is going to happen next year, and the year after, and the year after that,etc.. until we ever decide to take a nice trip to Hawaii or something!

 

[isyt]

Have you ever tried to check availability on line with Delta. I waited and waited and checked all the time but did play with the dates and got 5 ff tickets from JFK to SFO and LAX back to JFK. I am very excited and can't wait, maybe if you keep checking that way it will be less frustrating than calling.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Just reading your post and thinking what to do with our 25,000 miles. Guess we can forget about that seat too. We switched to AA for frequent fliers and usually will able to get 5 seats at once. You might want to think about getting another airline credit card. Maybe continental, southwest etc. Good luck.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I know it seems like a waste, to use so many points, but if I dont use them now, the same thing is going to happen next year,

That's a very good reason to use your miles, if they are only going to be wasted otherwise.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

To the OP: If you have miles to burn, then definitely go with FC. We find that flying FC gives us the best value for our miles, even if domestic FC means little more than some extra leg room. And if it's fewer miles than coach on the same flights, then it's a no brainer.

I would recommend, however, that you get a seat for your youngest. If your DS will be 2 at the time of the flight, holding him on your lap won't be an option. With him in his own seat in a carseat, you will all be more comfortable and he will be safer as well.

If you consistently have miles to burn, your DH might want to look into a different rewards credit card. If a cash back card is not an option, then maybe a hotel card might provide rewards that are more valuable to you. For example, for charging 80,000 miles on Starwood Preferred Guest card, you can stay 10 nights at the Swan/Dolphin or for charging 140,000 miles on that card, you can stay there 10 nights and receive 100,000 FF miles as well.

Best of luck -- Suzanne

 

[joshua121301]

And quite frankly, IMO, anyone who really understands how FF programs work and the value of FF miles, would not be wasting that many miles for first class tickets within the US for such a short trip. No disrespect intended to the OP.

Not always true, I subscribe to Flyertalk magazine and am a regular on the boards there and think that I have a very good understanding of most rewards programs and I would use miles for any personal travel. I would use them for a one hour flight. If you have the miles, use them, that is the best understanding of any program. I fly 70 to 90 segments a year with 24 of those to Asia and want to use my points. The only reason that I stopped using Delta was because of the availability of reward seats on flights. Well that and I really enjoy Cathay Pacific, so I send those miles to AAdavantage.

 

[jnshakun]

called Delta this morning at 7 am to book flight for next April 21-30... we had to wait until today because of the 331 day thing...
well, of course,all the 25,000 point seats are gone!! I cant believe it! I called a few days ago, but they said they couldnt check anything until the 331 day mark..(today) now my only choice is this:
get 5 seats @ 50,000 points each, OR 4 seats in First Class @ 45,000 points each and hold DS(he will be 1 & 1/2 then) on our lap.
Im leaning towards the 4 first class, because the last few times we flew, we always bought a seat for our now 2 year old, and he always ended up on our lap anyway. I have never not bought an infant seat. What would you do? does anyone know if Delta's first class seats are nice and roomy? TIA

I followed the recommendations that I've read in many places and listened to my travel agent and stayed up late last night. I called Delta at 12:01 a.m. last night, since we finally hit the 331 day mark and tried to book just the outgoing flight to Orlando from Hartford. They had no 25,000 pt. seats at all for my two preferred dates of travel. Any time I have EVER tried to redeem these points I've had zero luck with my dates--and I've been flexible and willing to fly mid-week. Bogus. I'm bummed...........

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Not always true, I subscribe to Flyertalk magazine and am a regular on the boards there and think that I have a very good understanding of most rewards programs and I would use miles for any personal travel.

That's great. Good for you.

However, I was expressing MY opinion, not yours.

 

[joshua121301]

That's great. Good for you.

However, I was expressing MY opinion, not yours.

No offense, but when you say "anyone who really understands how FF programs work and the value of FF miles, would not be wasting that many miles for first class tickets within the US for such a short trip", I took that to mean ANYONE WHO REALLY UNDERSTANDS HOW FF PROGRAMS WORK AND THE VALUE OF FF MILES, WOULD NOT BE WASTING THAT MANY MILES FOR FIRST CLASS TICKETS WITHIN THE US FOR SUCH A SHORT TRIP. I thought that you stated anyone.