A Question for Delta Skymiles Experts

[Art4th]

My wife and I each have just over 40K miles with Delta. We've had these for awhile and would like to use them up because we don't really collect miles for Delta. We can get flights we need for a cruise next February for 40K miles each. My question is, are 25K mile flights available very often or should we take the 40K flights while we can. I could probably get us another 10K each at some point if I thought I'd be able to use them at the 25K level. Thanks for your help.

[Fletcher921]

Sooo much depends on the market and how early you book your tickets. I am a hold-out for the least amount of miles.

[thheath]

My experience with Delta is that if you are flexible on the dates you can get award travel for 25K miles if you book far enough out. Also you need to compare the ticket price/cost to your destination to ensure you are getting good value for your award. Of course you also need to watch when your miles expire. Lastly you can now merge your North West Airlines and Delta accounts online for free.

[Jimster]

The way Delta has inflated their ff program I would take anything I can get and as soon as I can get it. Even if you get something for 25k it will probably not be a direct flight. But in all fairness, I must mention these good things about their ff program ... ... ... ...

[Rent_Share]

You might want to join and post over at Flyertalk.com

Switched my primary mileage earning to Continental a few years back from Delta and my most recently accrued a boat load of Segments on Greyhound (I mean Southwest) - At the end of the day they all are pretty much the same, just some make it harder than others to redeem the awards at the advertised rates

Since your dates are fixed I would take the higher valued seats and lock them in

My first hand experience is if you want the lower rates you need to be very lucky or flexible on dates. Like the timeshare industry you will find some flights open up award availability in the time period where the seats appear to likely go unsold - very risky -

When we went to Hawaii (family of 5) on miles we ended up booking two additional nights in a Hotel (Hilton Honors points) to find the lower point award

Frequent Flyer award redemption experience

LA - Orlando 7 Seats Delta
LA - NYC 6 Seats Continental
LA - OGG Maui 5 Seats Continental
LA - Washington DC 4 Seats Continental
LA - Cancun 5 Seats Continental
LA- Vancouver Anchorage to LA 2 seats Alaska(Cont)
LA - Nor Cal 2 Seats SW
LA - Nashville 1 Seat US Air/United
LA - Seattle 2 Seats US Air /United & SW
LA - Tampa 2 Seats US Air
LA - NORCAL 3 Seats SW

Keep in mind most of these miles were earned BIS (*) not from partners

YMMV

(*) Butt in Seat

[Judy]

You might want to try for international flights with those 40K miles, even if you have to add some to get up to the reward you want. I've had much better luck with Delta award seats internationally than domestically. Of course it will depend upon where you want to go and what time of the year. I understand that summer to Europe is almost impossible.