may be stupid, but newbie question...
 

How hard is Delta to get award flights on? Any harder than any other airline, provided you give decent notice? Can you ever book awards in a few days notice because of an emergency? I am still new to the FF program and want to use a program where I will actually be able to use the pts. Amexes always double pts makes me go with the DL amex card, but I want to make sure that I will be able to actually secure award tickets, ya know? Sorry if this is a dumb newb question, but I really need some input as I have never actually even booked an award ticket. Thanks so much in advance.

I have never had a problem getting award tickets on Delta There may have been times I've had to move a trip one or two days in either direction, but I've always gotten seats to my destination and in one instance, at the last minute. I've had the same experience with American.

Ero2-We have been able to get award tickets with Delta but there has recently been an increase announced for most of the overseas awards effective Mar 2004. You might want to check out the Delta board to read about award availability and recent changes.

Thanks, I will do that! However, the odds of me using these pts to fly overseas will happen once in blue moon, but will happen at least once. Mostly will be used to fly to BNA from LAX. I am very flexible as far as moving my flights around 4 or 5 days either way, so, I guess being flexible is the key right? Thanks for the reassuring responses!

The only dumb question is the one that's not asked. Bob

Probably should have been posted at Delta forum.

But FWIIW, I have never had problrms getting award tickets... That is not why I left DL.

glad that I made a good choice then. Only bad part is BNA to LAX is always a 2 part flight. But if I used a different card to get miles and a different airline, I would get to see my family in tenessee a lot less. Because the delta amex will earn me trips MUCH faster than a 1pt per dollar. Because probably 2/3 of my purchases are everyday purchases. Thanks for the reassurnace, and for taking the time to help a newb :-)

Coach or First? LAX-BNA is really cheap in coach. That would be a waste of 25,000 miles.

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"It's as easy as 1, 2, C" -- Kelly, Married With Children

coach. The cheapest I could find was southwest for 308. Am I missing something? If so please show me the light :-)

Southwest regularly runs promos for r.t. tickets for $200 or less to some or most places they fly. Be sure to get on that airline's mailing list for discount fares. You get an email every week. http://www.southwestairlines.com/email/

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Free Frequent Flyer Miles

cool, thanks! the only bad part is it may not be a special time when I need to fly.

[This message has been edited by ero2 (edited 11-07-2003).]

so am I wasting my time with FF or does my theory make any sense?

Pay 55 a year
earn a 200-300 ticket (maybe more depending on where I am flying to besides BNA)
earn back at least 145 for spending around 15,000.

At least I wouldn't be wasting the cash back on something stupid :-)

Also, since I am new to this, how much would an award ticket on delta end up costing me? (just rough estimate?) I know southwest is completely free when you use an award ticket but how much would an award ticket end up costing me in cash ontop of the miles on delta?


[This message has been edited by ero2 (edited 11-08-2003).]

Well, that is a value of miles question, and if we really got into it, we'd be getting into the longest-running discussion on FT, (from what I've been able to discern). Just do a search for "value of miles" here and there, and you should get more answers then you'd ever care to read.


But here's a couple of pointers:

IMHO, coach awards are worhless. An intercontinental F (first) or J (business) ticket may run into $5-8K, and yet it (usually) only costs twice the miles. An infinetely better use of those miles.

Also, if you want to earn miles through a CC, get the Amex Starwood card. Starwood points are worth much more according to most people here, and they can be transferred into any domestic airline program, with a 25% bonus every 20K points. (So you get your coach award 20% faster...)




[This message has been edited by notsosmart (edited 11-09-2003).]

as others have suggested, unless you are very short on cash, ~$300 is not a very good value for 25k miles, especially on DL where last minute availability is decent, open jaws + stopovers are permitted, and sat stays aren't required.

many FTers employ a $.02/mile conversion when deciding whether or not to redeem miles. bna-lax in Y typically falls well below the implied $500. on the contrary, lots of people use that route soley for the purpose of building miles (and status) that yield dividends in other situations. if bna-lax is your main route and you never take vacations, you might want to consider WN because you'll earn free flights quickly, which you can redeem on the same route at a moment's notice.

I live in ATL and have found DL awards difficult to redeem. Of course, I have no status and am not willing to pay 50K for a domestic flight.

Every airline has capacity controls which they don't disclose, presumably because if you knew how hard it was to redeem you wouldn't bother saving the points. That's just a presumption on my part, but why else wouldn't they disclose how many award seats are available per flight?