Need help fast! Redeeming miles
 

Here is the situation: I have many miles with many different airlines. I am planning two seperate trips I want to use my miles for, one June 9-17, 2007 to Grand Cayman, second one summer 2008 to Hawaii. There will be 4 of us and I would like us to fly together, if possible (2 kids and 2 adults). I know that I need to book my flight IND-GCM this Thursday night (right after midnight), but have never done it before and need help laying out the strategy.
1. I know that United is increasing points required in September or October, so would like to use these points first, but only have enough for 3 tickets. Should I buy miles for the forth one or try with Delta for the forth ticket?

2. How do I book return flight/when?

3. Should I just use Delta and use my United for Hawaii?

4. Could I combine my NWA account? Is it worth it?

5. Should I just let awardplanner handle the whole transaction for me? How much would this cost me?

Here is what I have today:

United Milage Plus:
Self: 123,148
DD: 500


DELTA
DH: 185,769
DD: 2,162

NWA World Perks
Self: 13,471
DH: 14,538
DD: 3,010
DS: 3,010


USAIRWAYS Divident Miles
Self: 14,320

Continental One Pass
DH: 1,267

Please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would save my UA miles for HI in 2008. They are only increasing the interisland miles from 5K to 10K in Oct. I've had trouble getting DL tix to HI.

Thank you very much for your reply! I will try Delta tomorrow night (331 days, right?) for the outgoing flight, but what do I do with the return flight? Should I just wait a week? How does it work? How difficult is it to book GCM in June (4 tickets)? Should I try both airlines and cancel one? Can I cancel without penalty? Should I call customer service or book online?

I have many, many questions and very little time!

I would book Delta to GCM, and UA to Hawaii. I think UA has better options into Hawaii. I never thought UA had a lot of options to the Caribbean, maybe they do into GCM, I don't know. I'd bet DL has better options, I just think of them as more of a southern airline. As far as the return leg, I'd call DL and see what their policy is. You may be able to book the return even if it's too many days out. You could always call and agent and reserve/hold the awards tix with a bogus return (next day even). Then continue to extend the reservation until the return you want opens up/becomes available. I've done this with UA and CO. I just kept calling, everyday, but always before my reservation expired and asked the agent to re-reserve the trip, therefore extending the time before the hold expires. You can do this a couple of times. If the agent won't, then politely excuse yourself, hang up and try a different agent. You'll find someone willing to work with you. If the return opens up, great you're in luck. I'd guess that you'll be fine, you're planning way ahead.

Good luck, Bubba

Thank you, Bubba! I think I have a plan now... ^ Delta holds only for 2 days (from what I've read) but I can call every 2nd day and extend the hold. Thank you for your help!

USAir has quite good service to the Caribbean, so the OP might try using their UA miles to get to CLT or FLL on UA and then to GCM on US.

Go with UA for Hawaii
 

I would concur; use DL to Caribbean and UA to Hawaii. All of DL's service to Hawaii is on 767-400's, which are very cramped seating, even in F. You'll get more options, more frequent service and likely better aircraft seating choices on United. But don't expect the good old days of free macadamia nuts and fresh pineapple....those days I suspect are gone forever.

I don't have enough miles with USAir, I only have Delta and United at this point. I think I will go with Delta for this trip and leave United for Hawaii.

United miles can be used to redeem on US through the Star Alliance partnership.

Still, I would stick with DL for GCM and UA for Hawaii unless there are some special sales that you can successfully take advantage of.

So you have 1 year to earn 16,852 on UA to get 4 to Hawaii on the next trip. (or a credit card would do it :D)

Flying Skyteam to GCM leaves you 65K in DL (and 33K in NW if you pay to combine the accounts) (Or you could also fly First on a Skyteam airline with your spouse and have your kids in coach :P [60k x 2 + 30k x 2])

I would strongly recommend comparing the airline options to GCM, another Skyteam airline might be a LOT more comfortable than Delta..

Actually, your choices are either CLT or PHL....depending on the day. CLT-GCM goes 1x daily, while PHL is only on the weekends for now. I was on this set of flights a couple weeks ago, and both US flights were also listed as UA codeshares. Not sure if you can use the UA miles on a codeshare without going the * Alliance route.

Hope this might help.

Check on getting a United branded creit card with 15,000 to 25,000 miles as a sign up bonus as an easy way to get the missing miles.

Besides the above-mentioned routing & aircraft factors, DL to GCM is only 30K per person, while all others are 35K.

Yes, there is a penalty for cancelling an award ticket: IIRC $50 each on DL, $100 on UA or US. DL even penalizes date changes once the ticket has been issued:(, while US & UA don't ^. On DL if your favorite date or flight is unavailable & U grab 2nd or 3rd best, be sure to waitlist the better choices, because if the waitlisted flight opens up, U can grab it for no fee!

Since U have the DL miles, go ahead & book tonight, but I would not expect GCM in June to be gobbled up so far in advance. So book 3 tickets to Hawaii in Summer 2007 for 2008, then relax if it takes U till Jan. 2008 or so to get those last miles for the 4th (your own, since only U have meaningful UA or US miles to add to.)


If worse comes to worst, money-buy the last ticket or change dates for no fee.
Please note that UA & US awards allow flying on any combination of those 2 airlines (+ other Star Alliance airlines if going international.) So build up both those accts. just in case U want to invite a 5th person to Hawaii on your same plane :) .