HawaiiTrvlr:
Welcome to Flyertalk! Glad to see another Oahu member join the boards. There are quite a few of us from the islands...

Europe from Hawai'i is no hop over the pond, as you know. It's about a 17380 mile RT if you fly thru Delta's ATL hub and onto LHR.

I did a search of how many miles would be required to book an award ticket on DL from Hawai'i to Europe and DL's website quotes 50,000 miles. Even a First Class ticket is 100,000 miles... Here is where I found the information: http://www.delta.com/skymiles/use/sk...rope/index.jsp

Please let me know if this information is correct or if you're seeing something else. The Hilton HHonors/DL relationship is no more, and really, you DL miles are pretty much worthless unless on DL...

The only problems you should expect with booking award travel is that you might have to wait a few more months to do it. Standard award availability might also be limited, but since you're booking so far in advance, it shouldn't be much of a problem.

Aloha