pernodoj

I am planning to take a vacation to prague and budapest in august (yes, i know it's totally stupid, but it's the only time that our schedules works out) and am getting very scared of the prices. I am very flexible about flying into prague/budapest/vienna.

Currently, my options are to get a free ticket through CO (although NW flight) for my boyfriend using 75K miles and buy my ticket for $1200, or paying $2400 for both of us and upgrading using Delta (80K). Neither of these possibilities is really thrilling to me. Granted, I have AMEX Rewards plus and I'm still in my first year, so I should receive double Membership Miles. I would like to fly on either Delta or CO (or partners) since it slays me to waste all those frequent flyer miles and I'm determined to get some sort of status this year.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I feel like I'm missing something and it's killing me talking to the zillion desks trying to find SOMETHING.

Also, am I prematurely freaking out that EVERYTHING to europe on rewards are booked? should i just bite my nails and wait for spots to open up?

Thanks and sorry for the long explanation.