Orange County Commuter

I tried a search, but...failed

I am thinking of booking the Christmas 2011 trip via Delta vacations. On thier home page it says this

New Limited-Time Offer
•Redeem up to 20,000 miles toward your flight and hotel vacation to all destinations in the US48 and Alaska, excluding Las Vegas
•Redeem up to 40,000 miles to Hawaii and all international destinations including Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, and more
Featured Mileage Offer
Redeem up to 40,000 miles to Las Vegas, when staying at The Venetian or The Palazzo Las Vegas!

But hurry! These offers are only valid on reservations made by Mar 1, 2011, at 9am CST, for travel through December 30, 2011."


OK. So I dummy booked and it looks to me like I can use all 250,000 plus miles on my booking? Am I missing something? (I didn't go past the calcuation screen I don't want to give them all 250,000 plus miles )

And is it really true that come 3/2/11 I can't use my miles to book the vacation package? Not sure I am 100% sure where we will be going by 3/2!

Honestly, using the miles on the package looks like a better deal then using the same miles to get tickets and paying for the hotel. Seems like I would save $$ that way based on my math.

I do get that unlike a ticket if we cancel I don't get my miles back so I will have to do some insurance research.

Any thoughts are welcome!

motytrah

The history behind this is Delta Vacations is really MLT (an actual travel agency). The majority owner of MLT is DL, but they do vacation packages for CO and UA as well. Historically NW vacations was able to accept miles for vacation packages. That functionality disappeared post merger.

It appears DL will give up $.01 per mile against the cost of a vacation. There are redemption caps as listed above. In addition, they seem to accept various DL vouchers over the phone. Vacation destinations are limited, but this might be an interesting way of clearing old various DL scrip in one transaction.

Interesting tidbit, if you cancel you don't get your miles back. You get a voucher for the miles value minus any change fees.

Based on this the miles redemption seems like a limited time offer. I suspect they will extend it, but there's no guarantee.

Finally, I don't think there is a phone booking charge for DL vacations. You should be able to call and get the scoop.

Orange County Commuter

I realize it LOOKS like a cap, but when you book or use the "calcuator" there appears to be on cap. Just a little bizarre.

I will probably have to call because I want to add a few days to the 'package'. But even if I can't use the miles the package is a pretty good deal based on the prices I have paid for this type of trip the last few years.

My bigger is issue is that I am not sure I will be ready to book for 12/11 by 3/1!

milesandpoints

If anyone has done this, did they also get miles booked for the trip as well. Delta Vacations is telling me yes, but I just wanted to make sure!

MSPeconomist

I would guess that these packages use consolidator fares, so unless you can find a Delta Vacations exception, you should not expect full miles, even if they tell you otherwise. You could ask them for the exact fare codes they use for bookings and check whether these are published fares.

RhinoDL

Flew on the outbound of a deltaVacation today, got the miles tonight. Full miles just like I thought I would receive. Apparently, in addition to the MQMs we should be receiving a chuck of bonus RDMs as well but that should take a few weeks after we return per thier documentation.

Travelomania

Yep ... I actually use DV quite often and can confirm miles post always quickly, including bonus SM status miles plus extra DV bonus miles ^

Travelomania

from the DL website:

mobile19

Well I just book a trip to HNL using Delta Vacations. I will be traveling out of LGA via ATL to HNL r/t. DV offered 15000 bonus miles plus 3000 for using DV and another 3000 for staying at a gold selection hotel. So if my math is right, that's 21000 bonus miles plus 10000+ flight miles = free r/t ticket. I don't fly enough to qualify for medallion each year, but that does sound pretty nice to me.

milesandpoints

Thanks All - Does that include if you have used Skymiles as part of your payment?

Travelomania

Yes, absolutely.
I use SM to the max all the time to book on DV ^

Travelomania

Actually, I depart tomorrow on a DV itin to CPT - paid for with SM - and will report back when the accrued miles have been posted @:-)

Update 2/27: miles for 1st leg have posted within 24 hrs - base miles plus bonus miles ^