Delta Skymiles

[oldman]

Last night at midnight my wife and I were on the phone (home phone and two cell phones, actually) with Delta attempting to get skymiles seats for a trip for the family to Hawaii for next summer. I was on the computer too, to monitor when the new seats became available. I have been using Delta frequent flier miles/skymiles to take the family to Hawaii for vacations over the past 16 years and never failed to get seats. Apparently, at least at the 331 day point, Delta is no longer releasing skysaver seats to Hawaii. The only seats that became available were Skychoice seats (twice the amount of points!) and I didn't have the requisite amount of points to cover six seats. Pretty disappointing! I'll have to use all my miles for some skychoice seats and purchase the others or see if anything becomes available while we are on the waitlist. Has anyone actually had success while being waitlisted? I guess its time to start collecting some other airline miles if Delta is going to be so restrictive with skymiles!!!!!

[Ann-Marie]

We just flew Delta First class frequent flyer to Hawaii. What are skychoice seats?

[Dave M]

As stated in the post, Skychoice seats are much more readily available and cost twice as many FF miles.

[Fletcher921]

Maybe try using your points on one of their partner airlines?? I think they partner with Alaska, Northwest and Continental.

From San Diego, we usually use our United miles to book Aloha or our American miles to fly Hawaiian.

Delta is driving me crazy also with their lack of allotted seats.

[oldman]

No seats were available on Continental, NorthWest, or Alaska either. Unfortunately Delta no longer partners with United since they had seats available.

[Judy]

I read somewhere, (I think it might have been an e-newsletter from farecompare.com) that Delta is one of the airlines that focuses on providing upgrades to its frequent fliers, rather than free coach seats.

My experience with Delta is that I can almost never get a skysaver coach seat anywhere I want to go. Their new online award seat calendar usually shows me almost no availability until close to the flight date. Unfortunately by the time skysaver award seats are posted, the "last minute" booking fee is in effect. The last time I checked it was $100 per ticket

Business and first class skysaver awards are often available when coach skysavers are not, and usually cost the same as skychoice coach.

[SherryS]

I attempted to get two 35,000 mile seats to Hawaii using NW miles for a trip planned for Feb/Mar. 2008. NW did NOT release any 35,000 seats and neither did Delta. I got lucky in that Continental did release o few seats for midweek travel for my departure, but seats were released a few weeks after NW and Delta. Two weeks after getting my departure seats, I lucked out and got a Midwest Airlines (also NW partner) for our weekend return. Three other years I was able to get NW 35,000 seats (or Delta). I have now changed my loyalty to American and am also using their credit card (United is another possibility)! If you want to get Hawaii FF tickets for 35,000 miles, switch airline loyalty!

[JeffW]

Make sure you check for Skysaver First class. Although they cost more than SkySaver coach, if you'll be using that many points, it's a better deal than going SkyChoice coach. Also, don't forget to look for split itineraries:

- ie. coach going out, first class coming back
- Saver one way, Choice the other
- Delta one way, Continental or Northwest another.

Basically, every possible combination.

Jeff

[Carolinian]

I have still had relatively good luck with DL to Europe in high season. Starting early, there seems to be little problem. With a late request, the best Sky Team partner to Europe is Air France, which seems to hold on to more inventory longer and puts it in the pot late in the game.

[talkamotta]

I have almost 100,000 ff w/Delta. Thought that would be enough for us to go to Hawaii next year. No ..... Now it will have to be 140,000 or not.

I took the advice and signed up for the United credit card. I already had 15k for our trip to Aust/NZ and now I might have half what I need if I can get the skysaver version.

You make a plan, think you got it down good, and then they change it. You have to be on top of this. Keep reading things on TUG. I mean if it werent for you all, I would be up a creek.

Its like a full time job. Its a good thing I get paid while I do this. How do you all keep up with this?

[grest]

Keep calling...as with RCI, sometimes the representative you get on the phone works a little harder to find a way. Good luck.
Connie

[Flo]

I was successful by trying alternative airports-but I researched it myself onlineas the Delta rep on the phone was less than enthusiastic with exploring all options. When I found the flights I wanted-I called Delta to book it.

[jtridle]

I had no problem getting two tickets using skysaver miles to Grand Cayman on Delta. I got the tickets several months ago. Course it was for going there in September, very low season. What irked me was they were going out and back on a Friday. Delta cancelled their Friday flights to and from Grand Cayman but didn't bother to call and tell me. They unilaterally put them on a flight from Atlanta to Cayman before they actually arrived in Atlanta from Omaha. Go figure! I just found out all this by accident yesterday when I looked to see if there were any itinerary changes. We scrambled yesterday and found a way for them to get down there on Delta but they have to go Thursday to Thursday which doesn't fit with the timeshare Friday check-in so have to buy another night's lodging.

[DTLE949]

Originally Posted by Fletcher921

Maybe try using your points on one of their partner airlines?? I think they partner with Alaska, Northwest and Continental.

From San Diego, we usually use our United miles to book Aloha or our American miles to fly Hawaiian.

Hi,
How do you do it?
If I have United miles and want to book Aloha, do I call United or Aloha? Thanks in advance for your response.
Trang

[tashamen]

Originally Posted by jtridle

I had no problem getting two tickets using skysaver miles to Grand Cayman on Delta. I got the tickets several months ago. Course it was for going there in September, very low season. What irked me was they were going out and back on a Friday. Delta cancelled their Friday flights to and from Grand Cayman but didn't bother to call and tell me. They unilaterally put them on a flight from Atlanta to Cayman before they actually arrived in Atlanta from Omaha. Go figure! I just found out all this by accident yesterday when I looked to see if there were any itinerary changes. We scrambled yesterday and found a way for them to get down there on Delta but they have to go Thursday to Thursday which doesn't fit with the timeshare Friday check-in so have to buy another night's lodging.

The exact same thing happened to us last year with Delta going to SXM, and changing the schedule so they supposedly didn't fly there on Saturdays. They eventually changed the schedule again so that they did fly on Saturdays - but by then it was too late as I had already requested the FF miles back in my account (no charge) and booked on American.

But I have had good luck booking first class, as Jeff suggested - used 45K miles to fly to Palm Springs first class during spring break last year which was so worth it!

[SherryS]

DTLE949: You must call the airline that you have the miles with.....In my case, I called NW and specifically asked them to check with all their partners. You must call United and ask for their partner availability. If you get an "uninterested" agent, call agin until you get one who seems friendly and is willing to check everything (including alternate airports AND ALL partners). It helps to be cheerful, but persistent!!

[oldman]

With the general concensus being skysavers are rare for prime seats, and four first class skysavers coming open today, I grabbed the four first class seats! Now that I'm nearly out of Delta Skymiles I'll have to hunt down two more "cheap" tickets for the other two seats that we need. Thanksfor all the feedback. Now I need to decide whether or not to change my frequent flier loyalties - seems necessary!!!!!

[Dani]

Personally, I am not too happy with Delta's frequent flier program these days. Ever since they went to Sky Saver and Sky Choice rewards, the pickings have IMHO been very slim. So much so that I am trying to switch to using credit cards and promos that give AA miles. I find that AA has much better frequent flier availability. w

The suggestion to search for Skysaver First class seats instead of purchasing a Skychoice Coach ticket is a good one. Earlier this year I looked for a domestic Skysaver seat to no avail. Only SkyChoice seats were available for 50,000 miles in coach. I was however able to obtain a first class Skysaver seat for 45,000 miles for the same flight!!!

[tashamen]

Originally Posted by Dani

Personally, I am not too happy with Delta's frequent flier program these days. Ever since they went to Sky Saver and Sky Choice rewards, the pickings have IMHO been very slim. So much so that I am trying to switch to using credit cards and promos that give AA miles. I find that AA has much better frequent flier availability.

I have come to the same conclusion. AA now offers an American Express card that earns FF miles - I believe they used to offer MC or Visa only (I forget which one), and I am planning on switching from my Delta Skymiles Amex to the AA Amex.

[oldman]

The only American Express/AA card I found was the corporate (mid-size business) card. Is there a personal AMEX card with AA rewards?

[Dave M]

The personal AmEx card is the one pictured in the middle at this link.

[short]

I can appreciate that most people like to find skysaver tickets to use to make their miles go farther but I have purchased 4 skychoise tickets in the last 2 years. All have been trips over holidays when tickets were going for $ 800 plus. Once you decide to do skychoise you can pick the best routing and best departure times without being stuck with odd routings and different dates than you really want.

My Ax card is the most prolific mile earning card I have ever had. I will be earning 50k+ bonus miles on 50k spending. I am expecting to make Silver on 5k flying. Getting 2X times miles for the year compared to other cards makes sky choise a reasonable option if I need it.

One of the few advantages to having Silver elite status is a somewhat greater availability of Skysaver seats. This will not help me if I want to fly over the holidays and book tickets 30 days ahead but maybe some other trips.

Short

PS. My estimate of miles earned does not include a recent offer of 10k bonus miles if I fly 3000MQMs by Sept 15th. I'm on the fence with this one as I don't have any plans at the moment and find mileage runs an inefficient use of my time. This offer might be from Delta but is a result of having a Ax card.

[oldman]

Thanks for the link, Dave. The previous comment regarding double points with Delta is a good point to consider if it turns out that other airline mileage programs do not, or rarely, do likewise.

[Dani]

Originally Posted by tashamen

I have come to the same conclusion. AA now offers an American Express card that earns FF miles - I believe they used to offer MC or Visa only (I forget which one), and I am planning on switching from my Delta Skymiles Amex to the AA Amex.

Exactly....I just got the AA/Citibank Amex...there is currently a 40,000 mile promo on AA's site. 20,000 miles with the first $750 purchase, 10,000 miles for 10,000 in spending the first year and 10,000 miles for 10,000 in spending the second year. It's a great deal. I think you can also sign up for the Citibank/AA and Business Citibank AA and also get the same deal.

I still keep my Delta Amex, but frankly, they have not targeted me for a double mile promo in awhile. The past few years, it seemed as though Delta Amex/Amex Gold had a double or triple miles promo every month. Now...the promos are less frequent. I also recently found out that I can book flights with almost any airline through Amex Travel with my Membership Rewards points, so I am pretty much done with transferring my Membership Reward points to Delta. From here on out it's strictly Starwood Amex or Citi/AA for me until Delta makes more frequent flier seats available for a reasonable amount of points.

[ajsmithtx]

Originally Posted by oldman

Has anyone actually had success while being waitlisted?

I was also on the phone with Delta at midnight just as you were, I received the same answer. We have our FF flight from Alabama to Atlanta, but are currently waitlisted on the flight from Atlanta to Hawaii. We were waitlisted for our flight to Hawaii for Jun 07, but eventually we got the flight we needed to get to Hawaii.