As soon as the 331 day window opened, I booked two skysaver award tickets on the following itinerary:

Outgoing:
March 17 MCO-ATL-EWR-FCO

Returning:
MXP-CDG-ATL

I am waitlisted for the final leg, i.e. ATL-MCO (or TPA). I guess if nothing comes available which I have to assume is unlikey, I will just buy a couple of one way tickets.

Just booked 2 coach award seats (at SkySaver level - 50,000 miles) for August. The routing is as follows:
WAW-AMS-IAH-CUN (Aug 11)
CUN-ATL (Aug 22)
ATL-CPH-AMS-WAW (Sept 4)

I did not really expect to get these seats during the peak travel time. Partner award desk rules!

A little over a month ago I was able to book two SkySaver F awards, LIT-LGA, for travel during the Thanksgiving holiday(out Wed., back Sun). Also, a week or so later, was able to get one J SkySaver award, on AF, for June travel, IAD-CDG/BIQ-CDG. Then just the other day, got another two SkySaver F awards for early August travel, LIT-BOS, and one Y Saver for the same time period, SCE-BOS. And then, just today, was able to redeem one Y SkySaver award, on AF, for my daughter to travel MPL-MAD in mid-June. BTW, the Saver F awards were redeemed using the old MC award(only 25000 miles each!) and was able to do so directly with SMS, albeit with the $10 phone ticketing fee, contrary to what some others have reported when trying to use this old miles award. Overall, I'm quite pleased.

TXL-JFK may 26th
JFK-TXL may 30th
BE Skysaver with 20 day advance notice!

F ATL-SMF August 4. Layover in SLC outbound. nonstop on the return. When I checked again two days later, the same return had been changed to SkyChoice.

I just returned from a TLV-MXP-TLV itinerary on El Al, which cost me 30,000 SkyMiles. Oddly enough, if I had taken that same award ticket on Alitalia, a SkyTeam partner, Delta would have charged me 40,000.

I made the reservations about a month in advance and was given my choice of either El Al or Alitalia and a wide range of available dates.

I was able to change my (very inconvenient: ATL-YUL-CDG-WAW with 6 hours of layover in YUL and 5 hours layover in CDG) outbound routing on an award itinerary to a much more convenient one within 24 hours of departure!

Also, the agent I spoke with mentioned there was plenty of SkySaver availability in business on ATL-CDG route for today, May 30 (no coach seats though).

In short - if your award routing is inconvenient - call back within 48 hours of departure and you may score! If you are PM this does not cost you even a dime.

Got my sister a coach skysaver PHL-RSW for July 4th week. Got this yesterday, exact dates requested, I did it on the website on the first try. ^

Whether by design or by better revenue seat utilization or a combination of both, I find that BE award seats (to Europe) in 2006 1) indeed are harder to come by compared to last year (and the years before) and 2) that those fewer seats available, more often than not use inonvenient connections when compared to years past (i.e. to catch a 6 PM flight out of ATL to Europe, you need to take take a 6:30 am flight from SLC instead of a 11:00 am flight etc.)

In contrast to some, I do believe that it is Delta's prerogative to tweek their award policy anyway they see fit, and I put this development to an ever growing part of my brain allocated to keep swet memories of bygone times (!!)

I loved the "PM exception" 2 years ago where PM's were allowed to make one SKYCHOICE reservation (but for more than one person) for a SKYSAVER price, enabling some friends of mine to get award seats in F on a travel to Hawaii with me and my wife who traveled in PMU upgraded first. That experience made me feel better about my relationship with DL than any of the other perks. I certainly would much rather have such an excemption per year than 1) 2 (or 5 for that matter!) PMU's I can't use anyway, and 2) $500 worth of Hardman luggage I would not buy as that really is not my style!!.

Maybe I have been unlucky in my sampling, but since my family regularly travels on BE awards to Europe at all times a year, my search patterns haven't changed over the years, and I have been able to be out searching in ample time, but for the first time, the availability seems to be noticably less this year.

SFO-HNL r/t AUG25-29 SkySaver in F

Was looking for AUG28 return and Y, but those were only available as SkyChoice.

Totally agree: a PM exception would be much more valuable than the PMU's.
On a related note, tried to use PMU's on the flights above. G inventory available, but guess what: they only sell LUT or Y fares and nothing in between!!! To use that PMU it would cost $1500+, as opposed to the $700 for a LUT. Nice try DL; no thanks!

Just got FLL-MSP (via Detroit) RT on NW using 45k skymiles in July in F.

There was a non-stop (in coach) on the way up but would have been 50k for the complete trip. So I saved 5k by connecting and going all F.

Go figure.

Just got 9 SkySaver seats from ATL to LIR in September. These were nowhere to be found 6 weeks back. woody125 and his little brother are taking the fams to Costa Rica for a week. 6 kids under 7 so your prayers are appreciated!

My second set of skysaver award seats this year.

2 HSV-SFO RT tickets in Y for a September honeymoon for my oldest son and his wife.

They gave me a fairly broad set of requirements, but those coupled with my need to use HH points for rooms in Napa and San Francisco made me wonder whether I could do it.

DL Compromises: early morning flights, 2 connections on the way back, 1 RJ between CVG and HSV and a 4 hour layover in SLC (which he says is ok if I'll throw in a couple CRC day passes).

HH compromises: Napa HGI instead of ES.

Success score: I'll give it a 7 out of 10.

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It's time for me to plan for my two annual ski trips out west. 2 SkySaver Coach seats booked on each trip. Exit seats on every flight.

Jackson Hole, Wyoming:
Feb 28: CAE-ATL-JAC
Mar 5: JAC-SLC-ATL-CAE
(ATL-JAC nonstops are only offered on Wed and Sat.)

Steamboat Springs, CO:
Mar 15: CAE-ATL-HDN
Mar 20: HDN-ATL-CAE

While searching for these, I also found good availability to Vail/Eagle. There was a lot of availability between SLC and other ski destinations, but it was often tough to find SkySaver availability between ATL and SLC.

My typical ski trip is designed to provide four full days at my destination in addition to my travel days. I travel on weekdays to take advantage of the weekend and to minimize the number of vacation days that I must take.