Mr. S

My wife has an account on Delta and I have an account on Continental. Each of us has about 35,000 miles and we'd like to travel to Hawaii together on the same flight. (For example, Continental flight #15 nonstop from Newark to Honolulu.) Is this going to be a problem?

pmaddock

Well it depends if you are and/or care about Elite status. If there is an Elite involved then with this combination its best to fly with whichever airline you have the highest elite level since CO and DL don't reciprocate the way CO and NW do. Similarly CO is sticking to their partner unfriendly EQM policy so there is impact to Elite Mileage Qualification.

cpx

I think you are thinking about using the 35k miles for your flight correct?

well.. I think you should check each airline and find out if there is an availability.

try to cross match it and pick the flight where you can redeem miles
from Delta as well as CO.

ST partner availability might be different
compared to the primary FF program.

themicah

In theory it's no problem. You can use either DL or CO miles to book award travel to Hawaii on DL, CO or NW metal.

The problem is going to be finding availability. It's hard enough finding two 35k award seats to Hawaii. It's going to be harder to find two seats on the same plane that are available in two different mileage programs. And the odds of finding them on the EWR-HNL nonstop are even harder, since that flight is in very high demand.

When you do your searching, you should do some initial searching for two seats to Hawaii on the dates you want with each program. Once you find some flights that look like they have seats, you should call both programs and confirm they each can get you TWO seats (not just one seat) on the flights in question. If they each only have one seat available, there's a small chance you could get one seat from each program on the same flight, but more likely once you book that one seat with one kind of miles, it will disappear from availability for the other kind of miles.

Good luck!

Mr. S

Correct. We would be looking for standard/saver (or whatever it is called) seats for the minimum # of miles (35K). And we would be booking far in advance (330 days), which should help with availability.

While the EWR-HNL nonstop is obviously best for us, it's most important that we travel together on the same flights on the same days, whether it's via Houston, Minneapolis, LA, Atlanta, etc.

Does anybody have any thoughts about which airline/program will be easiest in terms of finding availability?

themicah

AA generally has the best availability, but that's not an option if you only have DL and CO miles. Most likely you'll end up on DL or NW metal, is my guess. But you never know. When you get to the 330 day window, start calling the airlines and asking about availability. But know that these days you're as likely to find an award seat 7 days in advance as you are 330 days in advance.

sbm12

CO doesn't release seats at 330 days like all the others. They do it when they feel like it.

Good luck.

bkramt1

For specific needs, like this, I've found it best to call the FF reservations line for the mileage program you're using and ask to look at all partner availabilities (DL, CO, NW, etc.). Unfortunately, as noted, the availability on the same flight can change, depending on whose miles you're taking.