tracer55

Ok kinda new to this and I need some help.I have aprox.206,000 Delta FF miles and me an my wife are planning a trip to Itally and Greece in May.We live in Ohio so the nearest airport is CVG we would like to leave on either May 11 or May 18 and fly into a city in Itally,stay in Itally for aprox. 10 days then go to Athens and take a boat to Santorini for 5 days,back to Athens then fly back CVG.We are flexible on flying out/in of other close airports to CVG and flexible as far as flying into Itally or even another a neighboring country.The catch is I would like to do this with Skysaver seats(50,000 points) and not Skychoice(100,000 points).I hate to blow all my miles on one trip.Also is there a way to get the trip from a city in Itally to Athens included in as a stop over?So far all I have tried is Delta's web site but have only came up with Skychoice seats and I know you cant check their partner airlines from there.Just looking for any help as to the tricks of the trade you guys seem to be so good at.Maybe there are better days of the week to travel than the 11th or the 18th and we could do that also.Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

robbr

NWA has the best award ticket checking tool. I recently used it to find two skysaver seat in first class to Hawaii leaving on January 29. You can have open jaw or one stopover arrangements in most cases

georgequinones

Tracer

First of all skip the website , call the 800 number, get over to the partners award desk , just state u dont know if will be using delta.

Once there start checking dates. I think you may be a little late for May 2006 , I booked our end of May'06 trip Last summer if I remember correctly. remember you have to start looking 330 days before your departure date.

If there is availabity , you should be able to do a "stop over" in italy for 10 days then continue your outbound fight to athens.

There are a couple of articles that stated ask the partner desk to run the "macros" , i guess these are prerecord search routines that allows the rep to maximize the city pairs combo available.

USCGamecock

Using the SM number, press #9 for the old menu and then 3 for international and then #1 for partners desk.

tracer55

Could you tell me what is the SM number ? Do you mean the Delta 1-800-xxxxxxx number? Becuase that is a voice activated menu number.

Richard1148

With regard to the stop-over, this is exactly what we did last year. We flew into Rome as the stop-over point on the way to Athens, then flew Alitalia (a SkyTeam member) to Athens. We were able to get DL to Rome and back from Athens, but I made the reservations around the 330 day before departure maximum. At this late date, for May you will probably have to take a partner airline. Like the others have said, call Delta and see what they can do for you.

crazygrow

One semi-off topic thought: Take a flight to Santorini. We did that recently (flew on Olympic). Saves a lot of time and I found it very cool to see the islands from above.

This thought does not apply to you if you or your wife do not like small planes. They use turboprop planes that seat about 50 people. Overall, the ride isn't that bad and cruising altitude is low too so you can see the islands all around you. Let me know if you have questions about Santorini, where to stay, etc. if this is your first time.

P.S. We flew from Atlanta to Rome on Delta and then Alitalia to Athens. We returned home through Paris. Well worth the 50K miles.

Gargoyle

The phone number on the back of your SkyMiles card.

xinerevelle

Also, by calling you'll be able to select other cities in Italy besides Milan and Rome.

At 330 days out I had booked an inbound to Florence and an outbound from Venice 10 days apart, but using AF and CityJet metal on some portions. It wasn't something that I could book from the website.

Unfortunately, I started a new job and couldn't take that trip last November, so I had to get the miles redeposited.

georgequinones

there is still hope as more seat are relased the closer you get to your selected days.

ET

I would call the tollfree number and talk to a CSR. Find one that is willing to spend the time to work with you. You are looking a bit late for travel this summer. If nothing is available, try to find out which segment(s) are the problem ones and work around it. My guess is that there is little to no availability on the actual international segment from the US to anywhere on the European continent for saver miles. The trick would be to find the available international segment (anywhere US to anywhere Europe) and work the rest of your trip around it to fit your actual departure city and arrival desination choices. It would involve a very good and dedicated CSR. Your trip will most likely involve many segments and partners to try to work the availability (if any). It may not be worth it to you to go extra segments and bad times if it's vacation, so you may want to SKyChoice it.

If you have time to kill, you can try to locate the international segment that has Saver availability on the website, if it exists. Just pick the actual international departure city and arrival city segment only. If you can locate this, the Delta CSR can probably do the rest for you, though it may involve overnighting at a few places to make connections.

mceuen

As has been mentioned, the trick is finding the international segment bottleneck that is available through SkySaver. I flew to Europe using SkySaver miles in late May last year, also leaving out of CVG. What worked for me was to fly through Canada; at the time Air France had a daily YYZ-CDG and three daily YUL-CDG flights. I booked CVG-YYZ-CDG the October before but then, in March, had to change the departure date. They were able to switch it to CVG-YUL-CDG, though I did have an all-day layover in Montréal.