Best use of Miles?
 

First off, I discovered this site several months and I must admit that I have spent hours looking through the different threads and have learned a lot from lurking. Finally, I have decided to take the big leap and register because I finally set a goal: Go to Europe next fall from Hawaii (where I am stationed in the military) first class. I have a few questions/need some advice and I figured you all are in the best position to offer it. Here it goes. Due to my government miles plus some other miles, I have accumulated miles in several FF programs (70K in DL, 30K in UA, 18K in NW, 20K in AA, and 17K in HA). Obviously, Delta is the program with the most miles and I will reach the 120K needed for award travel, so that is my goal. Any ideas on how to possibly transfer some of the miles in other plans to DL? Also, trip planned for Sep/Oct 2004. Can I expect any problems on booking the award travel? Where to book to and finally, not very impressed with DL First so I was thinking of booking with Virgin Atlantic or Air France. Thoughts? Im sorry this might be a bit long but excited about finding an outlet for my passion--travel. Mahalo

HawaiiTrvlr:
Welcome to Flyertalk! Glad to see another Oahu member join the boards. There are quite a few of us from the islands...

Europe from Hawai'i is no hop over the pond, as you know. It's about a 17380 mile RT if you fly thru Delta's ATL hub and onto LHR.

I did a search of how many miles would be required to book an award ticket on DL from Hawai'i to Europe and DL's website quotes 50,000 miles. Even a First Class ticket is 100,000 miles... Here is where I found the information: http://www.delta.com/skymiles/use/sk...rope/index.jsp

Please let me know if this information is correct or if you're seeing something else. The Hilton HHonors/DL relationship is no more, and really, you DL miles are pretty much worthless unless on DL...

The only problems you should expect with booking award travel is that you might have to wait a few more months to do it. Standard award availability might also be limited, but since you're booking so far in advance, it shouldn't be much of a problem.

Aloha http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

It's a watse of miles to transfer from one program to another. The loss of points during the transfer makes it not worthwhile. If the miles needed is 100,000 for a Delta award, it can be done through bonuses on credit cards, long distance telephone switches, ect. Good luck.

One thing you can do with your orphan airmiles in AA and HA is transfer them into Hilton Honors points. Two Hilton points for 1 airmile. Must be in increments of 5,000. So 20,000 AA and 15,000 HA miles would net you 70,000 Hilton points. That should get you a couple of free nights at a Hilton property. If you work it properly maybe 3 nights.

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"A day without Points/Miles is like a day without SUNSHINE"

10,000 Hilton Points = 1,500 Miles and must be transfreered out in 10,000 point multiples.

They transfer in at 1:2 and out at 20:3

Your net miles lost after completing the transfer from Miles to Miles using Hilton is 7 miles for every 10 earned

Consider consolidating from multiple accounts and leaving the points in Hilton and use their air awards

Using Domestic 48 Numbers, (the most common award) only as an illustrative index

Hilton Miles
Southwest/Midwest 85,000 42,500
Alaska/America West 90,000 45,000
American/Continetal 100,000 50,000

Using your numbers of 155K miles in 5 programs you would end up with 310K HH Points - These awards are only coach

Using The clearing house approach with Hilton yor 85,000 miles in the other program would net 15,000 additional points to Delta and strand 15,000 points in orphan programs

Rule 1. Pick a program and concentrate all of your activity to maximize your benifit

Rule 2 See Rule 1

Solamente mi dos centavos



[This message has been edited by FC_Dave (edited 06-22-2003).]

Another piece of advice - most awards open up 330 days before departure so plan to snag your seat then or very soon after. Call DL and see what their rule is.

The best use of miles is a coach award, not a First Class award if you don't have much money.

Some justify a first class seat as added protection against DVT's (there's some merit to that argument), while other say that the price of a first class ticket is very expensive (however, such argument makes sense only if you normally buy first class tickets).

Good luck in trying to get a Hawaiian award, which is hard to find a seat for.

Same mileage, but since he's coming from Hawaii he wants http://www.delta.com/skymiles/use/sk...rts/index.jsp.

I am not seeing your point in that F tickets are very expensive if you normally buy F tickets. Could you please explain that. Thanks.

What are DVT's?

I'd like to remind everyone something I read somewhere: You write something once but it is read thousands of times. Saving a couple of seconds of typing will generally result in other people spending several minutes trying to figure out what you've said. Take the time to spell out what you mean unless you've used an acronym previously in the paragraph.

Airconnect means that first class tickets are very expensive. Therefore, getting award travel in first could be viewed as a good "value" because you are getting a high dollar value ticket for your miles. On the other hand, if you never buy first class tickets with cash, one can't really say that you are "saving" the cash value of the first class ticket by getting the first class ticket with miles.

For example, I usually buy H or K fare basis tickets on Continental to HNL from EWR. I upgrade using miles or sometimes buy a last minute upgrade for $325 as a CO Elite. By this valuation scheme, a first class ticket to Hawaii on CO is worth $750 (cost of K ticket) + $325 (one-way upgrade fee) + $325 (one-way upgrade fee) = $1400. Thus, when looking at the "value" of the 75,000 mile Standard Award for first class to Hawaii on CO, I use $1400 rather than the lowest published first class (D) fare of $2800. This would give me a "value" of 1.87 cents per mile. Note that using the cash D fare would have given me a "value" of 3.73 cents per mile.

Deep Vein Thrombosis, a condition which affects people who sit in the same cramped position (typically in a travel context, an economy-class airplane seat) for extended periods. In extreme cases it can be fatal.

With all respect, DVT is a common acronym among travelers in general, not only on these boards. Expecting someone to spell it out when posting in a travel context is like expecting someone to spell out "United States of America" instead of writing "USA" when addressing an envelope.

Googling an unknown acronym or abbreviation will usually find a definition in short order.

Of course, it's the link above without the period.
Thanks for the correction!

Ah, this is my point. One can spend the three seconds it takes to type out deep vein thrombosis or force everyone else who doesn't remember or know the acronym offhand to look it up. particularly annoying if the acronym in question is not the "I'm feeling lucky" winner at Google.

Anyway, I don't think this is a particularly big issue. I think it's a matter of common courtesy in a newbie thread and I've also been on a tear at work encouraging people to explain technical situations in ways that enable others to understand what is going on.

Besides, taking the lazy way out myself, it is actually faster to ask here than to look it up in google and infer from context which acronym is meant. =)

Thanks for the explanation. I don't agree though. If you redeem miles for a free ticket, its still free. If you are in Y J or F its still free. I myslef tend to buy tickets and upgrade with the miles. This comes down to your view of miles and redemption.

[This message has been edited by Arcolaio99 (edited 06-22-2003).]