Around the World Award & Transfer Miles
 

Hey all!

I'm looking to book an Around the World Award with a friend. I have 280k miles, my friend has 103k miles. I was planning to book both tickets myself, since I have higher status. To do that I was hoping to transfer their miles to my account, but I just realized the fees Delta charges for that.

We'd like both to be on the same ticket to simplify things for booking and any possible changes while we're traveling, but I don't know how to consolidate the accounts in a cost effective manner.

My backup option is to transfer AMEX points to my skymiles account. I really wanted to save these for other travel expenses on the trip, but I have 120k and they have 84k.

Any advice on the best way to consolidate points and book these on one ticket?
Any other general tips/advice for booking an Around the World Award?

Thanks!! :D :D :D :D

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

IMHO, there is no cost effective way, and further believe you may greatly overestimate the value of two travelers (at least if they're both adults) on a single reservation.

Let me suggest you look into travel insurance, however.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ole-thing.html

Welcome to FT!

To get you both on the same reservation, the miles can only come out of one account. As you noted, Delta charges a fee to transfer miles. There's really no way around this other than to transfer points in, whether from Amex, SPG, or otherwise... or to sign up for a Delta credit card and meet the minimum spend for a sign-up bonus, if you haven't already.

Thanks for the advice on travel insurance! Not sure what the cost would be for a RTW ticket but I'll look into it, as it's likely worth it with something this complicated/expensive.

Don't have the Delta card yet, but am looking into how long it'd take the bonus points to post to my account since we're looking to book in the next month or so - I think it might be too tight of timing.

But I think I'm leaning towards paying the ~$1.2k to transfer everything to my skymiles account (both of our amex points and their skymiles) so we have enough for 2 business class tickets. Do you know if booking business class increases the odds of finding 'eligible' flights? or same odds as the coach option but in better seats?

For travel insurance, be sure to read the fine print carefully as the value of an award ticket is roughly zero. Many people don't think it's a good idea to purchase travel insurance from your airline or cruise ship company.

Best advice you can get from the thread 3Cforme linked is to not about insurance, but rather that you shouldn't book separate tickets where, if you encounter flight disruptions, would cause you to miss a flight on your RTW ticket.

Since most of the flights on a RTW ticket are on partner airlines, your status won't mean all that much with regard to favored availability. Personally I would not value both tickets being in one reservation to be worth the $1,200 transfer fee.

If we book the RTW trips from two different skymiles accounts (so two different tickets), I know they can 'link' the reservation. But I've heard conflicting information that it's a 'total complete party' flag that the system can read versus just a note in the comments field. Is paying ~$1k worth the peace of mind of not being split up during irregular operations or any other funny business while on the other corner of the globe?

It really is just a note in the reservation. Specifically it is usually an OSI (Other Supplemental Information) entry.

I myself would never pay the $1,200 for such "peace of mind" but it sounds like you are trying every way possible to have such peace of mind. So in your case, it might well be worth it.

Not worth it. It's really not a big deal to be on different reservations. Just keep an eye on your trip and if an IROP develops, be proactive in contacting DL to rebook your party together.

[QUOTE=MSPeconomist; Many people don't think it's a good idea to purchase travel insurance from your airline or cruise ship company.[/QUOTE]

It depends on the policy.

My wife and I just returned from 12 day Holland America cruise around the western Mediterranean. We purchased their Premier (?) policy for $189 each. It carried a high level of protection, but also permitted us to cancel the cruise up to a point that was very close to departure, for any reason, and be given a 75 percent discount on a future HAL cruise.

Since we fortunately didn't have any travel issues, we will never know how good the coverage was, since we didn't submit any claims.

Delta's "Award Trip Protection" insurance for this is $27 per person (since we booked on separate tickets). Is it worth it? Seems to be a lot of qualifications around what is/isn't covered. but $27 seems oddly cheap for a trip of this magnitude.

My inclination would be the opposite. There are less business award seats available and it can be pretty difficult to find options.

Just booked!! We booked on separate tickets at the same time and got close to our ideal itinerary, which I am incredibly happy with given that we booked this only 4-5 weeks in advance. Not counting side-trips we'll be booking separately during our stop-overs, we'll be flying 55k+ miles over the course of 3 months, hitting 6 continents (no routing to Antarctica, such BS).

A couple legs didn't have business class available, only coach, so we'll be calling back every so often checking on alternative availability/routing as the trip gets closer.

But overall, we're incredibly excited!

Question again on travel insurance through Delta. Online it's giving me what looks like a steal for $27, considering we'll be hitting South America, Europe, Africa, SE Asia, Japan, and Australia. I'd get it more for the medical and emergency transportation options than anything else. I've never bought travel insurance through Delta, let alone on an award trip. But this seems like it's a no-brainer for $27, anything I'm missing?

http://i.imgur.com/FjjWBBa.png