Frequent Flyer Awards

[wbhoward]

The SO and I are considering taking the Dec 23rd 2005 sailing of the Adventure of the Seas. We'll have enough miles at the end of this year to try for two award flights to San Juan. We've never booked award travel before, but I suspect that Christmas isn't the best time of year to get an award seat. Has anyone had any luck booking award flights for that time of year?

 

Thanks!

 

Bill

[billybob123]

Look for the seats as soon as they become available (ask your airline for when they release FF seats) - it should be around 1 year in advance. Good to start looking now, but don't get your hopes up!!!

 

Good luck

-bb123

[jcanino]

The SO and I are considering taking the Dec 23rd 2005 sailing of the Adventure of the Seas. We'll have enough miles at the end of this year to try for two award flights to San Juan. We've never booked award travel before, but I suspect that Christmas isn't the best time of year to get an award seat. Has anyone had any luck booking award flights for that time of year?

Being that the cruise will end on December 30, 2005, you will need to wait until about January 31, 2005 to call your airline as seats are available 330 days out. Normally, the airlines will blackout holiday times for FF award travel. If you have enough miles and can afford a premium award, that would be the way to go as there are no blackout dates.

[Julees]

This is a great time to do that. Believe it or not, you will have your choice of flights. Flying on Christmas is actually a great time since most people don't like to fly then. Most people are spending that time with family. You will just need to double check the blackout times.

[wbhoward]

Thanks - I'll have to mark my calendar for Feb 5th and start making some calls! At any rate, the airfare RCCL is quoting is not all that bad - just not as good as free :)

[Globaliser]

You might want to phone and ask your airline now what the earliest date for booking award travel is. You don't want to labour under the misapprehension that it's 330 days if your airline will do it at 364, for example.

 

Also ask whether you can book and hold the outbound seats at the 330 day (or whatever point) from the date you want to travel, and then phone back to book the return seats when it's 330 days (or whatever) from that date. You don't want to phone at 330 days before the return date only to find that other people have already snaffled up all the outbound seats in the couple of weeks or so that booking's been open for that earlier date.

 

Finally, do price the cash fare at the same time, before you make a final decision to use the miles. What's the point of blowing all those miles if you can buy the ticket for a dirt cheap price anyway? (Provided you can live with the conditions of the cheap cash ticket, of course.)

[bob278]

Globaliser is dead on. Delta's limit is 331 days, for instance. I have no idea why, it's not 10 months, not 11 months, not 1 day less than a year or anything elase that makes sense to the general public. It's just a number.

 

And I know Delta will let you make the outbound flight on the 331st day with either an open return or will let you have up to 14 days to book the return so you could then go back on the maximum day for the return.

 

And finally, he is right about comparing the cost (through the cruise line and the airlines) because sometimes there are sales around holidays.

 

One hint, call the airlines a few minutes BEFORE midnight of the day before so you will be on the line with an agent as soon as the date changes (if it isn't too early, you might even be able to get all the particulars done (FF number, names of passengers desired flight, details about when to get the return, etc.) and just have to hit enter to get the seats. The 23rd of December will be tough if you are going through any hubs.

 

Good luck.