Hi folks,

just want to express thanks for how this board works. Here's the story:

I've been trying to book a free flight to Spain on Northwest for August. Nothing, but nothing comes up on the web site a for round trip from Phoenix, for all of Europe in August. A few other options for South America, etc., but not what I wanted. I spent more than a few hours on their web site checking options. I could not get through on their phone line in the evening (maybe it was that new dollars/miles promotion), and when I did reach a live person, they tried to be helpful but seemed to have fewer options available than I was seeing on-line. I didn't want to risks waiting to see if more options appeared later in the year.

I did a search on the Northwest Board, and found a conversation from earlier this year, from people here in the valley trying to go to Spain on Northwest, and having no luck with an award. (Sounded _very_ familiar!) Lots of good advice in that conversation, and it paid off this afternoon.

I booked my trip out of Detroit rather than Phoenix, and will use a free Southwest flight to get there and back. I also had to shift 7,000 miles from Diner's Club to Northwest in order to book business class for the trip back--the only class of seats available for return in August.

It cost more than the advertised 50k to get there, but it will still be a great deal and a great trip (and I'll enjoy the better seats coming back). I doubt I could have figured it out on my own without doing research here.

Shame on Northwest for not offering more connecting flights to DTW, and not offering more economy out of Europe (AMS). I've booked several free summer flights to Europe with Delta, and have never had this kind of trouble.

I suspect I could have had some kind of issue with virually any airline serving the US, and I could have found answers here. Again, thank you for the great information you provide here!

JP