As a long-time lurker but new poster, I want to thank all the forum members for their on-line advice. My previous award booking at Delta was something of a nightmare but I chalk that up to my inexperience. Reading the FAQ and various threads, I put all the advice (book early, be polite, be flexible, travel off-season) to good use and was able to book an F award on AF next March (MCO-ATL-JFK-CDG-ATL-MCO) in a grand total of 17 minutes from start to finish.
I will echo previous posts that the people at the partner award desk were wonderful and, with a little tweaking, I was able to get decent flights (no red-eyes). Looking forward to NTC on L'espace Premier. Also thanks to whomever posted the heads up on the 5k bonus for booking into Boston with Amex - am flying there this weekend out of MCO. Delta going up and Song on the return. Guess I'm getting both ends of the spectrum in the next few months
