Trying to use Delta and US Air miles
 

Tried to book the caribbean with these two airline miles and saver award availabilty was pathetic. Almost no green (saver, 35K RT PP) seats available for Feb, March, April, 2011 to St. Martin. Maybe it's time to switch credit cards!!! Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Benster

Not surprising since the dates you're looking at are probably about the busiest time of year for that destination. Where are you traveling from? Have you tried different gateways? I'm not sure how switching credit cards will help, you're still going to be dealing with whatever saver inventory the airline offers.

Other Airlines
 

Found availability on American, and United. I guess I answered my own question.

Unless your cc is earning you more than 1.25 DL miles/$ you should certainly consider other cards.

According to at least two recent studies, US and Delta are neck-and-neck for the bottom in terms of award availability, well behind everyone else.

SXM
 

Have you tried calling US and/ or trying partner routings? Perhaps they can get you in via CO, UA, AC, etc.

I'm not too familiar with US, but I'm almost positive all DL partner awards come out of the "low" bucket.

I sympathize with you. I tried using the Delta Award seat search tool for Dubai. There were no green seats for the next 11 months at ALL! It was either yellow or red. I am abandoning Delta and sticking with Continental.

One SkyTeam route to the Caribbean that is often overlooked because many, including DL agents, do not seem to know it exists, is AF's Caribbean service out of Miami. Unfortunately, Sint Maarten is not one of the islands it goes to, but it may be helpful for a few other islands. Also, the schedule is not great for DL connections in MIA.

The basic problem, however, is that you have miles on two airlines who seem to enjoy laughing at the suckers who earn difficult-to-redeem miles on their airlines, DL and US. At least with US, you can sometimes find partner availibility. For the Caribbean, the best airline to have miles on is probably AA.

USAIR and Delta for award availability = Bad and Worse

Agree with this general statement, but am not ready to give up on them totally.

Just snagged a couple of Biz tickets to Italy on Lufthansa for next year using USAIR miles. If I can get free or cheap airline miles on any airline, I go for them. They always come in handy for something or the other. The main drawback is that the USAIR/Delta miles are not good for travel to ALL destinations, but still okay for some. Of course for accrual, one must pick and choose the type of airline miles according to the award seat availability for the desired destinations.

here's one of the articles I think you're referring to for those who haven't seen it: http://http://blog.frequentflier.com/2010/05/which-airline-rewards-programs-are-the-most-rewarding.html?source=frequent_flier_crier&value=2 010-05-19+00%3A00%3A00&u=FD35429E02

Consider using your DL miles to pay for your hotel stay or car rental instead. Generally good availability and reasonable prices in miles.