My husband & I have been saving AMEX Membership REwards forever. We finally have more than 260,000 points which I think should be enough for our family of 4 to get to Italy this summer. I have been reading various posts that discussed the lack of availability of seats, excessive points needed & other things that could get in the way of our dream.

Could I have some advice as to how to get started on the process? We currently have FF accounts with Delta & Continental. Should I start accounts with all of the flyers to be ready for transfer to whatever tickets will be available? If we don't have enough points for all of us & we need to purchase some, can we guarantee that we will all be on the same flight?

Any help is appreciated!

My first thought would be that you might want to take advantage of this promo:
http://dmn.delta.com/offers/getmore/ which would get you 390,000 delta miles. If you have an extra 10k miles already (or were to use an Amex advance of MR) you'd end up with 400k, and enough miles for 4 premium round trips if you manage the find low price availability @100k each, or 4 medium awards in regular class @ 90k each. (You each would also get silver status on delta, but that's not worth much except free bag checking, especially if you rarely fly.)

That said, there might be better deals out there, since skymiles aren't known to be the most valuable.

Another suggestion is that flights booked with miles are generally more flexible in terms of stop-overs and open jaws than the very discounted fares you might be used to. So if you are going to be traveling around the country, I'd recommend you arrive and depart from different airports (in an open Jaw) so that you don't spend some of your time backtracking through the country. And you might want to consider if you are interested in a stop-over for another visit on the same plane ticket.

You might want to check out the membership rewards forum here, as well as try and find availability before you move your miles to a particular carrier.

Good adice from oshelef. Remember to register for the promotion first before transferring. Good luck.

you should look at partner/alliance awards.....air france comes to mind......good luck....

Why not pick up an AMEX Delta to dogpile more miles?
Buying miles is just typically not a good value.

Thanks for the help. I'm trying to learn this new language but I have lots questions.

I'll check out the promos. Can anyone recommend a source where I can research them? What is an AMEX Delta? What do you mean by partner/ alliance rewards?

thanks again.

An AMEX Delta is a co-branded Delta Airlines version of the American Express card. You can have more than one type of American Express card.
There is usually a good enrollment bonus of Delta frequent flyer points and frequent extra points promotions.

Here is a travel blog where the writer discusses the best use of Membership Rewards points. There are 153 comments so far with additional perspectives.

Be very careful depending on using DL miles. They often don't have the low awards in biz when you want to use them.

NEVER transfer those points until you have the ticket on hold.Four seats may be hard but not impossibile.Continetal has a credit card offer for 50,000 miles. If you can be flexibile with your travel dates, try mid week should be the best.Also look at when cruise ships are departing.(those dates will be the worst)LINK http://www.continental.com/web/en-US...x?&offer=OPP50

you may want to look at an award booking service, their are many and they are all good and can get the job done. LINK http://thepointsguy.com/about/

Promotions for American Express points transfers to airlines are usually listed on the Registration and Other Bonuses page of my website below, under the listing for each airline. Currently there are promos for Delta Airlines, British Airways, and AirTran.

If you plan to transfer points to Delta or Continental, be sure to get the award first, telling the rep that you have the points in your American Express account, then transfer the points almost instantly.

Thanks again for your advice. I love the idea of a booking service! Planning a family trip is so time consuming if someone else can help with the booking that would be great.

If you don't want DL, you could transfer those for 364,000 miles with BA right now with the 40% bonus through March 31st. Their taxes and fees are higher though, but you may be able to get the awards for fewer miles.