How to book award flight 10 months out?
 

I am anticipating a Hawaii vacation from Albany, NY May 2015. The airlines I am looking to book it with miles seem to allow you to book about 10 months in advance. So let's say the first day that I can book the outbound leg I grab good award seats. Would you have to grab them one way and wait say 10 days if you are planning to book the return trip when that day to book opens up?

Second question. Let's say my wife and I have FF miles enough to fly rountrip to Hawaii but not enough in either account to book the 2 tickets from one account. Do you book the tickets separately from each account or transfer miles (if allowed) before booking?

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

U.S. carriers typically allow you to book flights 331 days in advance, which is almost 11 months out. But there is no assurance that low-tier award seats will be made available on the first day that a flight can be booked.

Which miles will you be using? Some carriers allow you to book one-way awards for half the cost of a roundtrip, so you could book the outbound first, and the return on a later date. But some carriers charge the same number of miles for a one-way as for a roundtrip.

thanks for the reply
 

I've got enough miles on both UA and AA. It would be a leap of faith to book the outbound flight on award miles on the first day available 331 days out, not knowing whether you could get a good award flight coming back until that day is 331 days out so you could book the return.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

That's true, but sometimes that's a risk one has to take. If you wait until the return flight is bookable, availability on the outbound might have already disappeared (assuming that it existed in the first place).

FYI: AA permits you to hold an award reservation for five days at no charge, but that won't be of much help to you if you're planning a longer stay in Hawaii than five days.

To answer your second question: You book two flights (not necessarily one roundtrip) from each account. Transferring miles is expensive.

I booked a trip for two on the phone and the CSR took the miles for one trip from each account - costs you $35 to book via phone, but might be worth it.