I'm looking to use NW miles in June for a trip to Key West. Seems like there should be availability as this is definitely off season, but for the most part impossible to find award seats in Y or F. Has anyone else experienced difficulty in getting DL awards?

Try on-line and call as well... both seem to have different availability...

Yes, I agree completely. I have sometimes found availability online that gold elite line agents could not find. At other times I've gone online and found nothing - then called in and the gold elite line agents found what I wanted. VERY strange.

I have had far better luck in getting Delta rewards than NW awards. Try routing through CVG, if possible, because there always seems to be more award availablility out of CVG than ATL.

Also, if you don't mind an extra stop, try a combination of two carriers. Last year I booked a CVG-DTW-SLC-ELK-RNO trip, part on Delta, part on NW, part on Skywest.

I know CO Connection (Gulfstream Airlines) flies to EYW via TPA, MCO, FLL, and MIA, maybe others. I think you can use it for an award, but if I'm wrong someone will tell me I'm sure!

Looks like I'll most likely end up using CO. DL was preferred as we could get from SEA to EYW in the same day at a reasonable hour and only 1 connection.
After some more digging SEA-ATL was no problem- is the ATL-EYW leg. Looks like even days with light loads there is little to no saver award availability.

Don't forget MCO-EYW on DL Connection. One could do SEA-AS-MCO-DL-EYW or SEA-AS-MIA-CO-EYW.

I had a very strange experience- phoned Delta SkyMiles (I let my medallion status elapse once NW joined SkyTeam as I have PE with NW) to burn up my remaining 140K miles on a F class ticket from VCE-CDG-BKK w/Air France. The rep advised no availability- I said I would call NW and see if there would be any difference using WP miles with PE status. She asked me to hold and called the "SkyTeam Elite HelpDesk". I have never heard of this before- she said it was run by SkyTeam- not DL or NW etc. They were able to use my DL points- but override flight restrictions due to PE status. This is new to me- dont know if it will work everytime but if it does...SkyTeam beats the other alliances hands down! Try telling LH that your GlobalServices card with United means anything at all....

Has anyone had any luck having NW call the SkyTeam Elite Help Desk?

Key West is a hard place to get awards, based on past attempts. There are limited seats and a fairly strong demand. They did fly out of Orlando at one time.

By the way, I usually have reasonable luck getting flights on DL. No longer PM, just Silver.

Thanks for that huge bit of insight. [The only other frequent flier program relationship where I've noticed expanded award availability was AA and BA providing it's extra award availability for top-tier members on a reciprocal basis.]

I have enough SkyTeam flights this year to qualify for top-tier in any two SkyTeam programs (or maybe 3) and am trying to figure out how to break-up the crediting of my flights. If anyone knows whether or not award availability is the same across the alliance for Skyteam Elite (+), then this may well help simplify my decision-making. Anyone know?

Just for future info, DL limits luggage on its flights into EYW.

"Customers traveling to or from Key West, Florida are limited to 1 checked bag."

You can find this info Here.

No such restriction on Gulfstream.