Delta skymiles has me confused..

[frugaltravel]

I had thought about doing that! I don't know why I am so nervous about doing this it's nuts! I guess it's the unknown. I never use a TA for anything and this just is giving me anxiety!

 

Then just call or use a TA. Why get all worked up and anxious about it? Life is too short. Get it booked and move on to the next step :)

[Tinkerbell]

Thanks everyone :)

[nolatravelgirl]

Thank you so much for all the input! I am looking for a multi city ticket DTW to ANC on July 2, 2013 and flying home July 12 from VAncouver to DTW. Just coach seats needed. Thanks again!

I am not trying to be a negative Nancy, but you are looking for two tickets, during high season on a holiday weekend. The likelihood that you will get this for the "low" award pricing of 25K round trip is about as likely as you winning the Powerball. If you don't mind spending 50K per ticket then fine, but just be aware that 25K roundtrip isn't going to happen.

[frugaltravel]

I am not trying to be a negative Nancy, but you are looking for two tickets, during high season on a holiday weekend. The likelihood that you will get this for the "low" award pricing of 25K round trip is about as likely as you winning the Powerball. If you don't mind spending 50K per ticket then fine, but just be aware that 25K roundtrip isn't going to happen.

 

Sorry I have to disagree with you on this one. First of all, the chances of a Delta ticket for less than 50K miles is WAY greater than winning the Powerball. 25K mile awards to Alaska in the summer are definitely possible. Been there, done that.

 

Secondly, Delta doesn't even have 50K mile awards.

 

My guess is that they can find award seats pretty easily for 40K miles and maybe even for 32,500 miles per ticket.

 

I fly to Anchorage multiple times a year using miles. It is almost always using Delta miles, often in the summer. Almost always for 25K miles round trip. In fact, for a trip earlier this summer to Anchorage I found more than just a handful of seats for 25K miles each using Delta miles for the same flights - we had a small group going! It definitely can be done!

[nolatravelgirl]

Secondly, Delta doesn't even have 50K mile awards.

Going to have to disagree with you on that one. I did a test booking for the OP's dates and it came back with a 50K award. One direction was 20K for "Standard" and the other came back as 30K so unless the laws of addition have changed then that adds up to 50K.

 

Yes, 25K awards are possible, but it appears the OP has specific travel dates and when one is inflexible on departure/arrival airports and dates then the possibility of 25K awards for two is reduced especially trying to get into a cruise port.

[waterbug123]

Sorry I have to disagree with you on this one......Secondly, Delta doesn't even have 50K mile awards.

 

Going to have to disagree with you on that one. I did a test booking for the OP's dates and it came back with a 50K award. One direction was 20K for "Standard" and the other came back as 30K

 

I hadn't looked at DL's award charts lately so I pulled them up:

 

http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/skymiles/use-miles/award-travel/airlines-and-mileage-charts/travel-from-the-u-s-canada.html

 

It looks like it IS possible to get a 50K combo.

[frugaltravel]

True - a combination of medium and high levels (or whatever the new terms are) will result in 50K. So I take back what I said.

 

But much more likely will be 40K mile awards - 20K miles in each direction (which are easily available in pairs for the dates and cities mentioned since I checked). If you checked and got 50K I hope the OP keeps checking since I found 40K awards on multiple flight options for the dates mentioned. My guess is you just did a multi-city web search on delta.com for DTW-ANC and YVR to DTW. Unfortunately that is not the best way to search for Delta award flights. But that discussion is for another thread!

 

Also, 25K mile awards or 32,500 mile awards (low in one direction and medium in the other) are certainly available in the summer.

[travelplus]

With United you can book using the website to save the $25 fee and you can even book on partners such as Air Canada, Lufthansa, Swissair. In fact I got a flight one way on United from Europe for 30,000 miles on an Air Canada/United Award and $55.00 in taxes. I was able to prereserve seats as well.

[frugaltravel]

With United you can book using the website to save the $25 fee and you can even book on partners such as Air Canada, Lufthansa, Swissair. In fact I got a flight one way on United from Europe for 30,000 miles on an Air Canada/United Award and $55.00 in taxes. I was able to prereserve seats as well.

 

If delta.com were even half as helpful as united.com is when booking award tickets, most people would be very happy. Unfortunately it is not. The OP is talking about Delta, not United.

[Tinkerbell]

If delta.com were even half as helpful as united.com is when booking award tickets, most people would be very happy. Unfortunately it is not. The OP is talking about Delta, not United.

 

This is true! When I have called or emailed them about doing this they just dance all around the questions and never have given me a real answer. But what I am going to do is go on our main computer and have my husband on his laptop we will bring each of our accounts up and book them at the same time..Hopefully this will work...:D

 

Side note: I just read on another thread that we may end up not sitting together unless we get the reservations linked?

[frugaltravel]

Side note: I just read on another thread that we may end up not sitting together unless we get the reservations linked?

 

Please post the link to that thread. Totally false statement.

 

How you book, who you book through (with few exceptions), how many reservations you have and if the reservations are "linked" have little if any effect on whether you can sit together (some consolidator fares might not allow advance seats but other than that I can't think of an instance). Once you book you can choose seats, subject of course to availability (most airlines don't allow 100% of the seats on the plane to be booked in advance, but that has nothing to do with reservations being linked or not). In case of a schedule change, you need to be sure your seats are still together. And even without a schedule change, I would double check the seat assignments every month or so to be sure they didn't change. But this has nothing to do with whether or not the reservations are "linked."

 

Also, if you know what "linking" reservations really is, you will realize it is pretty much a "feel good" step for the travelers but in reality means little. I have had two reservations with Delta "linked" and in the case of a major schedule change, we were rebooked onto different flights. It took a call to Delta to get it straightened out. Beware of putting too much trust in "linking."

[nolatravelgirl]

True - a combination of medium and high levels (or whatever the new terms are) will result in 50K. So I take back what I said.

 

But much more likely will be 40K mile awards - 20K miles in each direction (which are easily available in pairs for the dates and cities mentioned since I checked). If you checked and got 50K I hope the OP keeps checking since I found 40K awards on multiple flight options for the dates mentioned. My guess is you just did a multi-city web search on delta.com for DTW-ANC and YVR to DTW. Unfortunately that is not the best way to search for Delta award flights. But that discussion is for another thread!

 

Also, 25K mile awards or 32,500 mile awards (low in one direction and medium in the other) are certainly available in the summer.

You are correct that I just did a quick delta.com search and got 50K. The original poster has yet to come back and verify the account balances. Is she assuming that 25K per account is going to get her the pick of flights.

 

The OP is going to have to do some research and find availability flight by flight and put some time into the project. You have given the OP a false expectation that her and hubby can sit down this evening with a cup a coffee and just have two computers open and it will just magically pop up the convenient flights at the right times/dates without much effort for 25K round trip per person.

 

The OP needs to do some test bookings with connection point by connection point to see what is available and at what level. Delta makes it like an Algebra test with lots of twists and turns to get the best flights.

[Tinkerbell]

You are correct that I just did a quick delta.com search and got 50K. The original poster has yet to come back and verify the account balances. Is she assuming that 25K per account is going to get her the pick of flights.

 

The OP is going to have to do some research and find availability flight by flight and put some time into the project. You have given the OP a false expectation that her and hubby can sit down this evening with a cup a coffee and just have two computers open and it will just magically pop up the convenient flights at the right times/dates without much effort for 25K round trip per person.

 

The OP needs to do some test bookings with connection point by connection point to see what is available and at what level. Delta makes it like an Algebra test with lots of twists and turns to get the best flights.

 

 

Thank you for your input!

[waterbug123]

 

Side note: I just read on another thread that we may end up not sitting together unless we get the reservations linked?

 

Within certain parameters, you can generally choose your seats, so you can pretty much control whether or not you have seats next to each other.

 

P

 

In case of a schedule change, you need to be sure your seats are still together.....Also, if you know what "linking" reservations really is, you will realize it is pretty much a "feel good" step for the travelers but in reality means little.

 

Exactly. If there's a problem and you get rebooked, the "link" means nothing to the computer that rebooks you automatically. It's essential note that a human has to actually read that says, "these two pax are traveling together."

[Tinkerbell]

Since you guys have been so helpful on the thread and speaking of seats :D I have not had a flight with connections in years and don't remember do I pick seats for the first flight and then pick flights for the second leg of the flight?

[FlyerTalker]

Since you guys have been so helpful on the thread and speaking of seats :D I have not had a flight with connections in years and don't remember do I pick seats for the first flight and then pick flights for the second leg of the flight?

Yes.....each flight is a separate entity, with its own seat assignments.

[Tinkerbell]

Yes.....each flight is a separate entity, with its own seat assignments.

 

Thanks!

[Tinkerbell]

Thanks to everyone with your wisdom and thoughts! I did it! I went online and it worked....

[kenish]

@Tinkerbell- Also be sure to do online check in (OLCI) if possible. If something goes amok (cancelled flight, overbooked, etc) the airlines have a priority list. The order of check in can be a factor...there are many other things the airlines will look at first, but this could be a "tiebreaker".

 

A more relevant reason to do OLCI is pre-printing boarding passes in advance. It will save you time at the airport...most airlines are automating check-in, and having a BP saves a few minutes.

 

In the past months, two friends have arrived to a chaotic scene at the airport. At SNA the airport's computer was down and nobody could be checked in. The other time, SWA had a systemwide problem and couldn't print boarding passes. In both cases, my friends made their flight simply because their BP's were preprinted. TSA required a BP to clear security and both friends said their flights were late, and half-full.