DotsandLoops

I am planning on possibly using my miles on worldperks for a trip to Athens Greece in the summer. Since i know prices are pretty outrageous around that time i wanted to use my award miles for that. I'm not quite at the amount of miles i need but almost ..So how hard is it to book award flights in the summer? I've heard about this on the forums briefly but i would like to know what are the best ways to get my gift flights booked since i am planning one in the summer..Any help would be apreciated.

civicmon

while this should be in at least the NW forum, if not the milebuzz forum, i'll at least try to help you.

the simple answer is yes.

the complex answer is not always, but flexibility is the key. If you're willing to book now and be flexible, it should work out for you but there are never any guarantees. For int'l destinations I try to book at least 6-7 months in advance just to make sure I get the days I want. Usually successful, though I wanted to be home for my b-day last year, I wound up spending my b-day alone in MEX because COPA had zero availability

good luck.

OB one

Seeing that you have booked from ONT/LAX before, I am going to guess that you want to fly LAX to ATH. You will need at least one partner, most likely KLM. The problem is putting together itineraries across partners and to and from NW gateways. nwa.com is just ok at this. NWA.com shows there is rulebuster availability for MSP ATH for 100,000 miles for coach july 11 to July 25 (random dates), 160,000 miles for First/business class. Then you have to find availabiltiy from LAX MSP. Lots of standard award coach tix are available for 25,000 for these dates but you need to find the itineraries that work and call NW to tell them your itinerary so they can combine legs for you and issue the awards.

The NWAA award availability tool is here http://usr.v7.com/wpaa/ but once you find dates, go to www.nwa.com and play with the award booker but again you have to call most likely. Getting a standard ward to Athens won't be easy for the summer, but it can be done. It isn't likely. What is more likely is that you may find standard awards going out and rulebuster coming back. Happy hunting, See you in the NW forum.

channa

I'll echo the comments on flexibility, flexibility, flexibility.

The more flexible you are, the better your chances. Think about the partners in your alliance and how to get there. LAX-AMS-ATH on KL, LAX-CDG-ATH on AF, etc. Also think about non-traditional gateways or combinations of carriers (e.g., LAX-DL-JFK-AF-CDG-AF-ATH).

We often see people rant about how miles are worthless, just to find out their itinerary is available if they had just a hair of flexibility -- maybe change the date by a day or two, maybe make two connections each direction, maybe leave out of an alternate airport.

The other issue I often see is people using a weak booking or search tool. "Nwa.com had nothing, so these miles are worthless." Not quite. Nwa.com is not exhaustive, and doesn't check everything. It also has biases agianst certain airlines. Same for every airline's site. They can't think of the possible partner combinations.

This should be easy enough to accomplish if you have some flexibility.

dmfriedman

I'm going to move this over the the Northwest WorldPerks forum. The Mileage Run forum is for the discussion of fares/rates that generate high rates of points or miles, without necessarily regarding the purpose of the trip. Information on specific programs should live within that program's forum.

Dave, a.k.a. dmfriedman
Moderator, Mileage Run

DotsandLoops

100,000 miles? I thought it was 50,000 miles from the states to europe on award travel..
here is the chart
Also what is the diffrence between "rulebuster" and standard coach award tickets? When i fly out to ATH i will be most likely be there for a few weeks or more so the "saturday stay" thing shouldnt be a issue right? Plus i am pretty flexible with the days of flights. Weekends or not not really a issue for me..

I also will always be flying out of ONT to ATH since i live Very close to ONT and it is more convenient. ( More miles from ONT with all the connections?)

Last time when i flew from ONT to ATH i yielded over 17,000 miles alone(including bonuses,etc). And i hope i will be able to go on my next trip there based on the 50,000 mile award and NOT the 100,000 rate.

Any info will be apreciated!

SPN Lifer

While "more miles" is good when you are earning miles, when you are spending them it does not help.

Your need for "convenience" may very well end up costing you availabilty for an award. When redeeming miles, flexibility is the key, and it may very well be worth it to fly out of LAX.

Jaimito Cartero

Rulebuster means there aren't any normal award tickets available. You pay twice as many miles. Usually not a good deal unless you absolutely have to take the flight.

DotsandLoops

WOW..(lol)..i just browsed (random dates) the Standard award ticket availability tool and could not find ANYTHING from MSP-ATH or ONT/LAX-ATH during the summer..I even checked some random November dates just foro the heck of it and Those were even scarce. I knew there was a catch to the 50,000 mile awards thing..Sure you can be eligible to Get one But they just wont have any Available!! lol..and the Rulesbuster trips for 100,000 miles doesnt sound like a good deal at ALL to me.

Like i said i havent aquired 50,000 miles quite yet but im not that far and a summer trip to ATH from ONT/LAX would be very well worth it (considering the very high prices to ATH for the summer)

I noticed that the award tickets are roundtrip, right? So how would worldperks work out the amount of miles i need with a rulesbuster award roundtrip from MSP-ATH and a Standard award from Ont/Lax to MSP??
How many miles would i need exactly in that scenario?..Sorry if this is too many questions but all of this is alittle confusing.

Thanks to everyone so far that has helped! ^

shedwannabe

Booking award travel to Europe in the summer should happen around 11 months before. I got 3 seats to Europe (on 2 different days) in 2003, and spent 11 months trying to find a date they could all be on the same day. No luck (but at least I used 150,000 miles to save $3500.

DavidDTW

If you fly one way on a standard award and the other way on a rulebuster award, the cost in miles is split. For your flight to Europe that would mean 25,000 miles one way and 50,000 the other. Total cost of award ticket = 75,000 miles.

smilee

I think it is theoretically possible to book a 50,000 standard award to europe in July or August, just not too likely. I religiously checked using the nwaa lister and found nothing from 11 months out until 3 months out BUT closer to departure about 3-8 weeks ahead there I did find 1 seat here and there that was available.

I would say not only do you need to be fliexible, you also would need to be lucky. However as I said, for some reason, I can not remember exactly how close to departure some seats opened up on the outbound to europe.

So it is possible, and if you were Elite Platinum, I think they can sometimes even open up a seat.

Also check partner airlines and see if they have any availability. By the way, from what I have read, CO miles are even harder to redeem.

LexPassenger

We needed to get four people to Scotland next August. Last September, we called and scored all four at regular mileage levels within a day or two of our optimal preferences, two business seats LEX-GLA and two coach seats, one LEX-GLA and one SCE-GLA.

I think it all depends on the demand from your particular outstations and destination overseas and how early you call. There seem to be plenty of seats DTW-AMS for early callers on regular awards.

I will note that at a certain level UA is more honest. Their high-mileage awards are called "standard" and their regular level is "saver". What is generally a UA "standard" award is a NW "rulebuster".

[edited for additional info]

channa

Couple points:

1. WPAA lister and nwa.com only show a FRACTION of your options. Why limit yourself to those? AF, AZ, DL, etc. are all valid partners and your miles are good on them too. It's a shame to see people put all this work into checking just the WPAA lister and such, when perhaps a simple phone call to NW would've wrapped it up on a partner. What's more of a shame is the number of people who book RuleBuster because the computer says that's all that's available. Again, a simple phone call may have avoided that on a different route, carrier, or combination thereof. What is someone is flying IND-DTW-CDG in WBC, and IND-DTW is the only segment not available in F. Nwa.com will sell you the whole itin as RuleBuster, instead of telling you that you can pay half the miles if you're willing to sit in coach for just IND-DTW! As long as people continue to only use weak tools such as WPAA or nwa.com, they will continue to have weak results.

2. If CO and NW have almost all the same partners, why would CO miles be any different to redeem than NW? Personally, I think this is one of the biggest misconceptions here on FT. CO (or NW or DL for that matter) does not control the inventory of its partners, so the mileage is identical for most practical purposes. CO may be stingy with its own availability, but with the number of partners out there, who cares? Wanna fly AF SFO-CDG on an available award seat? If you got CO, NW or DL miles, it doesn't matter, the seat is yours.

TRVLRZ

Just keep hitting the "Search" button. :-: :-: :-:

I was looking into IND to BKK in WBC, going out on October 9 and returning on October 19.

The first time it came up @ 360,000 in RuleBuster, I hit the "Search" again and got.......a RuleBuster/Standard @ 270,00, then I hit it a third time and (drum roll)................hit the jackpot on a Standard in WBC for (2) at 180,000!!!!