trying to go somewhere with my miles for Xmas
 

Hello, I have over 200k miles on Delta and my girlfriend and I are trying to get away for Xmas/New Year... Our first choices are Bangkok or Delhi but we can't find award flights even though Delta claims there are no blackout dates...
I also have some miles on AA but the situation there is even worse, at least in terms of airports served by the airline...

I am just posting to find out whether there are any sites out there that offer miles-based flight deals or comparison tools... Since we are open to multiple destinations it would be nice if there were a site where you could say: I have these miles and this date range, where can I go?

Also is there a website like kayak.com where I can see results in miles instead of prices?

Thanks for any suggestions

LOL

We would all LOVE an application like that. It takes a lot of research in order to find available flights. Trying to get a saver award near the holidays will probably be impossible at this late date.

Your best bet is to try calling the airline and hope you get a good agent who will do a lot of the research while you are on the line. If you can't get a good agent then you will be stuck, like the rest of us, just trying dates, flights, various routings etc.

Good luck.

After 1 hour and 56 minutes and 8 agents (2 great ones, a supervisor and 5 dumb ones!) and 5 hours looking at travel sites and dates I actually managed to get something for the holidays... amazing! I'm excited!

Somebody should really do an application like that!

Great! Where are you going?

Is that a service you would be willing to pay for?

I am going to Bangkok and Tokyo (multi-city from 12/18 to 1/3). I wanted to book everything with miles from NY but found no availability so I booked (with money) a flight from NY to Minneapolis and back and then booked (with miles) the Minneapolis-Narita-Bangkok flights there and back with 150'000 miles... Seems a little steep but I've been accruing them for a while and never using them so i wanna start to ripe the benefits, you know?

Yes I would pay for that service IF it was priced affordably AND IF it didn't require a yearly subscription (since I probably would use it only one month out of the year if at all)

Just made the same trip ourselves back in August and September for almost the same amount of time. Shoot me a PM and I'll point you to some threads and reviews.

marcnyc,

Can you clarify how many tickets and points you received for the 150,000 Delta Skymiles?

Did you get two (2) MSP-NRT-BKK round trip (with the open jaw in Tokyo) in Economy Class for 75,000 miles each ticket (2 persons X 75,0000for a total of 150,000 miles)?

150'000 per person
MSP-NRT-BKK round trip but with a 3 day layover in NRT on the way back

OUCH!!! That hurt!

You paid 150,000 miles, 2-1/2 times the 60,000 mile Economy Saver price + you bought a NYC-MSP Round Trip (say $300). That hurts!! The "3 day layover" is a Stopover and is no cost (no additional cost) on any frequent flyer ticket.

I know it wasn't the best deal but over Xmas and new year's eve I didn't find anything else at all... I looked into 10 different destinations and 3 airlines and nobody had anything this close to it... I am sure you'll do better when you look for your next trip.

I've been looking into using DL miles for Asia travel as well recently and the new prices are, indeed, shocking to see in print. Business class tops out at around 315k RT, iirc.

Yeah it's not fun... I don't how many miles it would have required if it was off-season and not booked two months before, but considering the situation and the distance of the trip I'll take it

When I read about your situation, I was very doubtful. My company always forces us to take vacation around Christmas & New Year's, and that's the worst time because flights are expensive and any award seats are snatched up by those who plan a year in advance. I'm actually impressed you found anything workable at all!

US to Southeast Asia economy is 60,000 year round (all tix include an open jaw and a stop over for the same miles). On Monday, I booked IAD (Washington) to MNL (Manilla) two days in advance with a 60,000 mile ticket. Last week, I booked a IAD-BKK with an open jaw return, MNL-IAD with a 60,000 mile ticket. Certain months are hard to find 60,000 miles tix (December and June).

I thought I was on the DL forum when I read this. Add one more thread to the list of many on how DL allocates awards.

Many people are trying to get awards for June, July, and August to Europe and there is not one standard award anywhere in BC (that is what they are posting.. I did test ORD-MAD for that time frame and did not see one online).

Hope the person looking at accumulating miles on AA or DL is reading this thread and all the ones on DL to make a prudent decision.