Award Miles: Too many for this trip?

[MSMcDuffy]

Please let me know if you think that using 40k Skymiles would be a waste for the following trip:

 

Minneapolis to Anchorage, Vancouver to Minneapolis (or vice versa) - nonstop on Delta in July

 

Back in '06 we were able to get Mpls to Vancouver RT for 25k miles. I recall it was about 3 months out that we got the award tickets. I haven't used any since then; do they still typically go down closer to the date?

 

Thank you!

[Keith1010]

When I make my decision I factor in what the cost of the flight would be. If it's priced low I purchase the tickets but if it is high then I would look at awards.

 

I know on American Airlines in the vast majority of the cases usually the lower awards are available early on and as time goes by only the higher awards are available.

 

Keith

[thinfool]

Please let me know if you think that using 40k Skymiles would be a waste for the following trip:

 

Minneapolis to Anchorage, Vancouver to Minneapolis (or vice versa) - nonstop on Delta in July

 

Back in '06 we were able to get Mpls to Vancouver RT for 25k miles. I recall it was about 3 months out that we got the award tickets. I haven't used any since then; do they still typically go down closer to the date?

 

Thank you!

 

You'd better take it if flights are available now. Delta has the worst FF availability record in the industry....and this is after they effectively raised the award limits.

 

Somewhere there is calendar that shows which award level is available for the flights/dates you are considering. Don't expect it to change.

[greatam]

Please let me know if you think that using 40k Skymiles would be a waste for the following trip:

 

Minneapolis to Anchorage, Vancouver to Minneapolis (or vice versa) - nonstop on Delta in July

 

Back in '06 we were able to get Mpls to Vancouver RT for 25k miles. I recall it was about 3 months out that we got the award tickets. I haven't used any since then; do they still typically go down closer to the date?

 

Thank you!

 

You are flying PRIME TIME for Alaska flights, paid or award tickets. AND you are looking at nonstops. There are limited flights to Alaska on all airlines except AS (seasonal service on most). This all equals LIMITED availability for award tickets.

 

Plus, so many more people have credit cards that give miles, so more and more people trying to get award tickets. Selling miles to credit card companies, mortgage companies, hotels, rental car co, etc. etc. has become big business for the airlines and one of the ways they are able to stay afloat with the cheapo airfares and high fuel prices.

 

Be thankful you got anything.

[Gardyloo]

It's ultimately your call, of course.

 

I try to get about 3c value (or more) per redeemed mile so if the money cost of your ticket was ~$1200 I'd say that was fair exchange. Of course if you don't have $1200 but do have 40K miles, then the equation changes, if it means going or not.

 

I would, however, look at using Delta's partner, Alaska Airlines, to see if some "cheaper" seats might be available. You'd probably need to phone Delta to see, rather than doing it online.

 

And there's a reason the FF community refers to Delta's program as "Skypesos." 'Nuff said.

[PennyAgain]

Book it if you can get it. It is nearly impossible to get award seats for cruise prime season flights.

[Azulann]

MSMcDuffy, Just used 90,000 FF miles for a trip to Italy and back to MSP in early Sept. I booked this in fall of 2010. I had been saving NW/Delta FF miles for years.

I would say for 40,000 FF miles go for it before Delta raises the # of miles you need for a trip. They also limit the number of seats for FF travelers.

I know we are captive here in MN with Delta. Glad to see Southwest here and SunCountry is good competition on their limited routes.

[terracool]

I don't think it's bad. I think that any award flight on DL has a floor of 25K miles. Here, you are going in and out of Canada and not a round trip - it's a triangle trip. If I figure that the simplest round trip flight within a single zone (eg between two cities in the eastern US) at an unpopular time is going to cost 25K, then 40K to go from at least one zone to the next, maybe two zones over, two countries, not round trip, prime time - 40K doesn't sound that bad.

 

I spent 75K to Rome and back - three legs each way as I do not live in a hub city. I could ahve gotten it for 60K but was looking for longer layovers and no EU airport stop - so I was being a little picky. The flight value was about $1300, so I was happy. I honestly think that if I only used miles if I could get a 3x return (ie, 25K miles for a $750 flight), I'd never be using them. I was happy to be able to get a little over 2x (60K for $1300) and then didn't mind going under that since I was being picky and had several 60K options from which to choose - but I declined to do so.

 

Good luck with it.

 

.

[frugaltravel]

You'd better take it if flights are available now. Delta has the worst FF availability record in the industry....and this is after they effectively raised the award limits.

 

Somewhere there is calendar that shows which award level is available for the flights/dates you are considering. Don't expect it to change.

 

Actually DL's award availability changes a lot, usually for the better the closer to departure. But that usually doesn't help people like cruisers with very limited flexibility.

 

The biggest issue is trying to find low level award availability using their website. Best is to use tools like KVS because it is very difficult to use delta.com to find low level award seats. I have redeemed hundreds of thousands of miles this past year on Delta, all being low level awards, both domestic and international. So very definitely such awards exist and not just for their very frequent flyers. Finding the seats that are available is the key and persistent searches as well as flexibility (e.g. not limiting yourself to non-stop flights, having multiple dates, etc) using partners, etc. are all very important.

[MSMcDuffy]

Thanks to everyone for your replies, much appreciated!

 

I called Delta today and they were able to find a ticket for 32.5k w/1 stop on the return & good flight times. The only bad thing is the change/cancellation fee of $150, which I didn't know about; thought that was only for $ tickets.

 

I also called Alaska Air because I saw an award ticket on their website for 25k (staying an extra day, which is fine). Their change fee is $100 but they said since I have Skymiles I can only book thru Delta. Neither the Delta phone rep nor their website were able to offer the 25k mile award ticket on Alaska Air.

 

The 32.5k ticket sounds good but the thing is our cruise is not set in stone yet. We are planning on putting down a deposit soon but circumstances are such that we might have to switch to a different cruise and we might not know until as late as March. So for now I guess we'll have to wait and see what is available at that time.

 

Thanks again!:)

[alidor]

Just curious - why spin your wheels doing all this if you might not take the cruise?

[FlyerTalker]

Just curious - why spin your wheels doing all this if you might not take the cruise?

My thoughts as well.

 

FWIW....miles in ANY airline program are redeemable through that program's redemption scheme. Even though AS may have an award for their 25k level, that doesn't mean that DL's inventory on that flight would also be at the 25k level. Now, if you had AS miles you could go direct to AS Mileage Plan.

[MSMcDuffy]

Just curious - why spin your wheels doing all this if you might not take the cruise?

 

We are planning to go on a cruise next summer, we just don't have the exact date nailed down yet (a couple more people might join us in which case we may have to switch dates).

 

I'm going to put a deposit down for the cruise that we'll likely be on if it's just two of us and I wanted to also secure the miles now if it seemed like a decent deal. I did not know there was such a high penalty to change or cancel/re-deposit miles. Last time in '06 I made a change after the initial award reservation and there was no fee (and it was like a month later that I made the change).

 

Everyone's replies still helped a lot, thanks:)

[frugaltravel]

I also called Alaska Air because I saw an award ticket on their website for 25k (staying an extra day, which is fine). Their change fee is $100 but they said since I have Skymiles I can only book thru Delta. Neither the Delta phone rep nor their website were able to offer the 25k mile award ticket on Alaska Air.

 

I book a lot of Alaska Air flights using Delta miles, so most likely it was an uninformed DL phone rep. Delta's website would probably find what you are looking for, but you have to "trick" it. Or keep calling DL back. Always ask "why" they are not able to offer something that you find online. Don't take answers at face value.

[Wildblue]

The above posters have good thoughts. I'd summarize my input like this:

 

- Yes, 40k miles per ticket is high, since round trips are as low as 25k.

 

- Sometimes, even if you have the miles, it's "cheaper" just to pay with money, and save the miles for later, if the mile requirement is too high. (and then you accumulate even more miles, too!)

 

- Delta, Alaska, and their other partners (i.e. American, etc) are good about interflying on award travels. However, each is only set up to initially look at their own airline, particularly booking award travel online. You often have to call and pay the $25 agent fee or whatever to get assistance in booking "award partner travel". But it's often worth it.

 

- Everyone's needs are different, but I highly recommend doing whatever you need to do in the initial reservation so you do NOT need to later go back and pay a change fee! Personally, that just gets my goat if I ever have to pay that fee, because it's totally lost money, that you are not getting any travel benefits from whatsoever.

[Steph123]

Please let me know if you think that using 40k Skymiles would be a waste for the following trip:

 

Minneapolis to Anchorage, Vancouver to Minneapolis (or vice versa) - nonstop on Delta in July

 

Back in '06 we were able to get Mpls to Vancouver RT for 25k miles. I recall it was about 3 months out that we got the award tickets. I haven't used any since then; do they still typically go down closer to the date?

 

Thank you!

 

We did this flight starting in Detroit and connecting thru Mpls. for a cruise and land tour Sept. 2011. Also pd 40,000 pts. We booked in Jan 2011 for this flight.