I don't know if I'm posting in the right place but here is my dilemma. One of my relatives just bought a condo on the big island in Hawaii and the only time we can all (family of five) can go is over Christmas. I have both AA and DL points and the wife has two free tickets with her Chase CC. Unfortunately the points don't go as far during Christmas but I'm willing to pay extra since the lodging is free. The main problem is with my oldest son who cannot travel until 12/20 from BHM. I only have around 50K Delta points which doesn't cover the points required for a 12/20 departure. I need 77,500 for that. I looked at buying points but to make up the difference but it was going to be $784. That seems like almost the cost of a cheaper R/T ticket. Would it be feasible to earn extra points with say a credit card offer or is it too late for that? I missed an offer that Hyatt had not long ago that gave Skymiles points with a four night stay. Thanks.

I would just buy the tickets soon. Xmas holiday travel is always tight.
You can always use DL miles later for something else, at 1 cpm with PayWithMiles.

If you can, transfer Amex to DL - instantaneous.
If you do not have Amex, just buy the award ticket ASAP and if need be buy his ticket alone with cash.
Or book his ticket on AA and book your flight on DL to add to your miles.

or if your date is cheaper on DL, book your trip on DL at a lower price in miles and buy his ticket later with AA/UA or cash.

here is a link: http://www.delta.com/skymiles/buy_tr...Y1000K29-H-A-A
delta has a 50% bonus when u transfer to a family member and the miles post quickly.

You'll still be paying several hundred dollars for a transfer of this size. Generally not a good value versus just buying the ticket.

I had the same sort of problem with not enough miles for myself actually. I actually paid for the cheapest seat RT from home to LAX. Then I used miles from LAX to KOA. I figured it both ways and used different cities on west coast. The entire trip did not cost as much as buying TPA/KOA round trip or using miles that I had to purchase.

Don't give in too easily. You might try to find an Alaska flight and then combine it with a Delta flight by using multi-stop. Also when you look for DL awards, use one way to search.

I didn't realize how difficult (popular) it is to get to HI at that time of year. You might by a ticket or portion of that route as suggested above

Thanks for all the responses. I'm actually finding that it might be cheaper to use the award ticket one way and then buy a one way on a different carrier as some have suggested.

You should be aware that DL prices its OW and RT award tickets the same (in miles), so if you get a one way, you're paying as many miles as for a round trip.

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

As you spend more time here, you'll see that FT is organized into forums for specific topic areas. With a quarter million members and well over ten million posts, that's the only way to avoid total chaos.

In this case, your question is specific to Delta Airlines. There's a forum for Delta. That's where the experts on its program hang out and where you're likely to get the most informed advice, though (as you can tell from the above posts) many knowledgeable people come to this more forum as well.

If I were you, I'd click on the "Alert a Moderator" button (black exclamation point in a triangle below the poster's name) in your first post and ask a moderator to move your post to there, since cross-posting is frowned on.

That said, DL is considered one of the toughest airlines to book award flights on. This has led to a common derogatory nickname for its frequent flyer miles, "SkyPesos." And, as you know, the winter holidays are not exactly slow season for Hawai'i travel!