Can anyone help me out with suggestions on how I can redeem FF miles? I have enough miles on CO for at least one free trip but whenever I try to redeem them there are always problems. They either want me to use "EasyPass" (double) requirement or they want to give me very inconvienent routes. I read somewhere that I should try to reserve 330 days in advance. Is that true?
Any help would be appreciated.

I can not speak for CO, but AA and UA if you search around for dates you can typically find reasonable availability.

As soon as your travel plans are in place check on the web(if they have web option)or call them and block the tickets - most times they do block the tix for 2weeks or until the day of travel(if your travel is with in 2weeks)

Status will usually help you get seats for miles. Please tell us what status you carry, this will help those here give you more tips.

And yes, planning in advance helps a lot.

Moving your CO miles to UA via Amtrak usually helps a lot too.

Lemons:

Availability of award tickets depend on the route, dates, your status(to some extent) etc. Any sensible help is possible only if atleast you could specify the route and dates you are trying to book an awrd ticket.

And, welcome to FT !

Thanks everyone,
My status is Non-Elite and would probably want to use my miles to go to from Newark to San Juan. We go to the British Virgin Islands each winter through SJU. I just plugged in that route for early December 2004 on the CO web site and was advised that my only option would be to fly first class and it would cost 60,000 miles. Actually I would like to use my miles in February 2005 but their schedule for 2005 is not posted yet. I also tried to get EWR Rome earlier this year and had the same kind of problem.

Lemons, welcome to Flyertalk. I have a couple of thoughts for you. First, I have found that CO miles are the most difficult to redeem. Apparently I am not alone in this regard - just do a search on the CO board and you will see what I mean.

Second, your proposed trip is a poor use of your miles. CO can only get you to San Juan, not the British Virgin Islands. So you would be using miles to get to San Juan and then have to purchase a ticket to get from San Juan to BVI. I have used AA miles to fly to the British Virgin Islands � from New York to San Juan and then connecting from San Juan to Tortola. If you are loyal to CO, I would recommend you purchase the ticket instead of using your CO miles. Advance purchase fares from New York/Newark to San Juan tend to be quite low � in the $250 range. If that is your routing, buy the ticket and use your miles in lieu of a more expensive fare another time.

And there's the rub.

Most times I've found I could only book the "saver" type award if the RT fare available is right around $250-$300.

Don't forget to ask about availability on their partners Northwest and Delta. On my last trip to New York I ended up flying Northwest roundtrip using CO miles. And of course don't forget to look for alternative airports (e.g., San Jose or Oakland instead of San Francisco).