Delta FF tickets any new tricks?

[jmatias]

I'm having a harder time booking our Delta FF tickets for December 2007 than in previous years.

Living on Oahu its always a bit difficult but in the past I've had no problems with just calling in 331 days in advance.

Is there anything else to help my chances. I have the outbound flight but returning home is the problem.

Thanks,
Jen

[talkamotta]

I think that Delta just has so many FF for that day and when they are gone they are gone.

My son (Medallion Member) was able to get our flight to Hawaii (September) not that long ago. But again its September not December.

Can you work it out so you are coming back a couple days after Jan 1 maybe 6th?

I dont have any idea how they work. Our tickets have been changed 2x already. We did have direct flights and now one of them has a stop in LAX.

[Judy]

I have had no success lately in finding Delta skysaver coach tickets. Skychoice tickets are usually available, but cost twice as much. Business or First Class skysaver awards are sometimes available when skysaver coach awards are not and cost about the same as skychoice coach.
Delta recently changed its policy so that now if you can't find skysaver coach both ways, but can find skysaver coach one way and a more expensive award for the return flight, they will combine half the cost of both awards instead of charging you for the more expensive award for the whole round trip.

[JeffW]

Also check continental.com for award seats. This will show you awards available on Continental and Northwest, which you can either book individually with Skymiles, or combine with Delta awards (ie. fly CO out to Hawaii, and Delta back).

Jeff

[ronandjoan]

I just completed our Dec 2007 Hawaii trip with Delta FF.

We have had 3 weeks of timeshares reserved in Kona, Dec 1 to 22. I chose Kona this time since Delta flew there (on may in SKY which I saw last year.) Well, NOW they don't!

No problem - flying into HNL on Nov 29, will just stay in Ohau then take $39 inter island flight over.
The problem is booking both the outbound and return because of the 331 day limit for the return. Delta nicely booked the outbound and then said I could call back on Jan 25 for the return - they made a note - I calle dback in time and it worked well! They seemed very conscious of doing this often!

The one trick I used which some may not want to or be able to: yes, no SkySavers available - BUT there were Skysavers avail in 1st class - which is fewer miles than Coach skysaver and MUCH MUCH comfortable for such a long flight - so I spent the miles

[jmatias]

Well..persitence was the key.

Got Delta skysaver tickets for:

HNL - SLC Dec. 13
SLC - LAX Dec. 20
LAX - HNL Dec. 25 (on Continental)

I was waitlisted for the LAX to HNL portion on the 20th - 24th. Finally was able to get a Continental flight on the 25th.

The frustrating part was when I called tonight to ticket, the first agent told me it would be 70,000. I know a stopover is allowed but he said the computer was saying 70,000.

I called back 10 minutes later and the new agent told me its 35,000. The new computer program calculates the skymiles cost now and apparently it has some bugs. So....my lesson is to be persistent!

Aloha,
Jen