New to the game
 

Now that the kids are out of the house..my wife and I are starting to travel. We have accumulated some ff miles, but we are clueless as to how the system works, and what we need to be wary of in planning to use our miles. For instance, planning a trip to Hawaii from the east coast next year, probably on Delta. We each have 14,000 skymiles, and another 28,000 miles on a Chase visa card. Can I give my wife my skymiles toward one ticket, and get the other ticket with the other miles ( assuming we have the correct number accumulated by then?) Don't mean to be wordy, but is there a concise info source that would answer these beginner questions? Thanks a million!

Bolto1,

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

Most of the answers to questions like this are in each program's materials and/or Web site, but you sometimes have to look carefully.

Some airlines, such as AA, have "unofficial" program guides maintained by fans, many of whom frequent these boards. I don't know of one for Delta but I may be wrong.

Delta, like most other major US airlines, does not let two people combine miles toward an award. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Since Chase runs its own program, its miles can't be combined with Delta's even if they belong to the same person. Advance planning could pay off in the future, as there are some cards (AmEx and Diners families; you'd still need Visa/MC for places that don't take these) whose points can be converted to Delta miles.

You'll probably get better answers to program-specific questions like this in the forum for that program, in this case Delta.

Have fun in Hawaii!

Bolto-

Welcome aboard to FlyerTalk, but I must warn you this can be very addicting http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

If your planning a trip to Hawaii via Delta with your skymiles it will take 30K each to get you an your wife there, unfortunatly you cannot combine miles btwn accts but.....

you can accrue more miles by signing up for the American Express skymiles card and earn up to 15K miles fo new members (depending upon which card you apply for; gold,platinum etc.), you can also earn 2K miles for signing up w/MCI long distance through Delta's website, with car rentals and hotel partners.
These are just a few options and you can find many more by going to Delta's website> click on skymiles> membership guide & program rules> earning mileage

If time is a factor you can always purchase the addt'l miles needed in increments of 1,000 for $25, up to 9,000 miles; only when redeeming a reward (good for travel in US and Canada only(not sure if this applies to HI.)

My husband and I went to Hawaii last year (maui) and I'll be glad to help in any way I can http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Aloha!

Check the MCI board - - you should be able to find a code to get at least 10,000 SkyMiles.

See also the Delta board generally and this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/004147.html