I learned here for Italy I probably need to use the 330 day rule to book ff miles to Italy. I just tried to do that and came up empty handed. I had reallyy nice agent, but she said because I am doing overnight the I need to book on the 21st. hmmm I used the day calculator posted here, but looks like I was one day off no problem, will try again tomorrow.
Now what I havent read anywhere is I can get my outbound booked tomorrow, but the return is more than 330 days out so they can ONLY book my outbound tomorrow, but I need to call back at 330 days out for my return trip. which makes that almost 3 weeks out to book my return trip.
Laurie, I've never had any luck with the 330 day rule on Continental and most our miles are through them. Often, they don't release ff seats until closer to the flights, and only if they don't think the flight will sell out, at least for the restricted, cheaper mile seats. Every time, we've ended up on one of their partner airlines. Now, if you have enough miles for the unrestricted seats, it won't matter if your 330 days or not. Good luck and remember to be as flexible as possible and also to ask for all the alternatives before you commit. Oh and if you don't get an agent who seems willing to help, hang up and call back.
I just went through this experience with USAirways. I reserved outbound flight and was told they would hold this for 30 days . I called back 18 days later to make the return flight and finalize the reservation. Only to be told that the outbound reservation had expired. RRRrrrrrrrrr!
Hmmm. I've been wondering about the return leg aspect. We have enough miles for only one "free" ticket and have to buy the other one. For best availability to Rome next June on Delta, I wonder if it's best to book the outbound leg and then the return leg each 330 days out or if I could wait and get them both together. They make it so hard, it's almost not worth it. Almost, but not quite -- I'll go to quite a bit of trouble for a thousand+ dollar flight for free.
Originally posted by t-mac: Hmmm. I've been wondering about the return leg aspect. We have enough miles for only one "free" ticket and have to buy the other one. For best availability to Rome next June on Delta
It's not so much that they make it hard (Delta actually ranks highest in number of award tix redeemed) but that the demand is huge. So many people want to redeem miles for June tix to Italy, or Dec. tix to Hawaii, or similar destinations, and we all compete for the same pool of tix. That said, I was able to book a biz class RT to Italy last July on Delta five days before the flight. I had to fly Chgo-ATL-JFK-MXP-Genoa, return Pisa-MXP-ATL-Chgo, but it worked, at the time it was 90k miles. (I think it's gone up to 100k for skysaver biz, haven't checked lately).
My understanding is, yes, you have to wait to the 330 day window to get the return leg, so try to put the first leg on hold till then. Also, it's very hard to find skysaver availability on the Delta website, (skysaver is standard mileage, skychoice tix are readily available but cost double miles for coach and 250k for biz). If you call and ask for the Partner Desk, those people are great, they'll really work at finding you a route.
Download the Skyteam timetable tool from the Skyteam website; map out all your acceptable routing first, so when you call the Partner desk you can suggest options- that will save you a lot of time on the call. Still, plan on a half hour to an hour for the phone call.
You will have to pay a telephone booking fee, I think it's $10, to use the phone booking instead of the website.
Posts: 304 | Location: Chicago area and Tuscany | Registered: 26 March 2006
I am also struggling with this issue-- trying to use miles on US Airways. Rather than a 30day hold (which a reservation agent told me) the hold is only 3 days!! It was suggested to me to make a false return and rebook when return becomes available--(if routing and class same no charge) I would appreciate any strategies for business class --I can only get coach!!
Posts: 26 | Location: scottsdale AZ US | Registered: 14 January 2004
T-mac, I am trying to do like you is to use ff miles for one and pay for the other.
I will try again tonight, and then ask how long the hold is, this was on AA. I have to use a partner airline because of the airpot I am going out of, so I hope I dont run into problems like a shorter hold on the partner airline from london to venice.
I think it is luck of the draw when using FF miles. I went to Italy sept 04 and booked ff miles in June for Sept. But I was flexible because I was going to Ireland to visit friends who were there for a month then and returning out of Rome.
If my ff dont work out, Yesterday I was doing some research on Ryan air after someone posted about the cheap tickets on Ryan air so I thought If I could get to dublin or london from the states and then book something like ryan air. I cant believe the price differences going to these cities vs Italy. There was a $400 difference
This is all on Delta ... We managed to fly on 2 free biz class tix in the middle of summer 2 years ago -- by accepting a totally different country than we wanted to fly in and out of and a combination of training and flying another airline to get to and from our destinations.
We got 2 coach tix last spring into the city we wanted, but out of Vienna, not my first choice.
My main goal is to get across the Atlantic on the miles tix. I always go into it with all possible flight combos at the ready.
I read recently though that they won't hold the miles tix for more than 3 days. Seems like it used to be 2 weeks. If that's true it will make it harder to arrange the outbound and return leg separately.
We just booked to roundtrip FF tickets to Florence for September. We are flying Delta to Milan via Dusseldorf, then Alitalia to Florence. Then we have a direct flight home from Venice. My husband spent 45 minutes on the phone with the Delta partner desk every night for over a week. Finally one night a routing opened up. We are waitlisted for a direct ATL to MXP flight, and I call almost every day to try to get Business class instead of coach. The moral is, just keep calling, be somewhat flexible on days (we are flying one day earlier than originally planned, and be flexible on routing-we were originally offered a flight Atlanta-Kiev-Milan-Florence!! To pay for a ticket was about $1000 each, so for $2000, it was well worth the hours of effort it took. Now for my 23 year old daughter, it was a different story - she is joining us for a week, and is taking time off from work, and isn't really flexible on days, plus, as she is flying alone, I didn't want her to have to deal with possible missed connections, or hours alone waiting for a connecting flight, so I shopped a lot for the best flight for her and then bought the cheapest ticket I could find for the best schedule. I didn't even try for a FF ticket because I just wasn't willing to be flexible. Debbie
I have never booked frequent flier tickets so far in advance and we have used them several times. Whether they are available or not is just the luck of the draw it seems. I probably book them around the time I would a paying flight, 3 months ahead of time or so. We did try and use most of our miles (Northwest) as it seems it was getting awfully hard and we thought we should use them up. They do have more available closer to the flight date if seats are not selling well, I think. So it changes all of the time. When I want them, I work the internet every day and call the airlines when things look promising. You must also catch the right person wiling to help, that is for sure.
I read recently though that they won't hold the miles tix for more than 3 days. Seems like it used to be 2 weeks. If that's true it will make it harder to arrange the outbound and return leg separately
Continental was willing to hold them for two weeks a few months ago when we were in the midst of booking our Israel trip.
When I booked my Paris trip, they also were going to hold them for longer than three days (can't remember how long) but after five days, I'd be within the three week window of the departure, so they suggested I book before then in order to avoid a surcharge for booking to close to the flight.
well I got a flight out booked not my ideal, its tentative. funny the problem is with London to Venice. I am new a this so see what you think and if I need to try to change or more importantly question this.
ok I leave Sacramento to Dallas to London, arrive 8:30 am, they say they dont have a flight from Gatwick until late in the eve so I booked the next day from gatwick
I think my husband would love this because early on he said if only we could have a day in London.
This is only my 2nd trip with the jet lag. We got to ireland, wandered for a few hours, slept like 5 hours got up and wandered the late eve for a few hours is this worth it??
this should be a different thread, but is this something like this doable? We would have to leave the following morning early the flight is at 8:30
the agent made it sound like there was only 2 flights a day leaving gatwick to venice on AA.
I have until the 6 the of July to confirm and then she said I still need to extend my reservation which she has in the computer and will be no problem for my return flight
At first I would have been, no I want to get to my destination but actually, I like what you did, pushing the connection off the entire day. I think the idea of a day in London sounds like fun. I call them larks when we talk about them, short unexpected trips, more like dreams than a vacation (or in this case, part of a vacation).
Here's a question I have for you though...are you checking bags? Can you check them all the way through to Venice and just have a carry-on for the London overnighter or were you just doing carry-on's the entire way any way? Also, what happened with your return leg? Are you waiting to book that?
Thanks Kin for telling my I am not too crazy to stay overnight in London. I will be checking bags, that is a great idea if they let me ccheck them all the way but then what happens to my bags in the the mean time? is this more apt to get lost? I really dont think I can do a a 17 day trip with carry on, I have been fascniated reading the packing heavy thread and in awe of how people pack light and How would i get that wine back I want
I cant book my return until July 6, but they will hold this outbound until then
Laurie, those were my same questions. If you could book all the way through - where does it sit. But if you can't, then you have to claim your bags, for your overnighter and check them through security the next day. A bit of a downer, but definitely doable.
f you could book all the way through - where does it sit. But if you can't, then you have to claim your bags, for your overnighter and check them through security the next day. A bit of a downer, but definitely doable.
Actually, we have done the same thing--through Frankfurt. Flew United there, spend the night at the Sheraton Airport Hotel and the next day on to Madrid via Lufthansa. I called ahead of time and arranged for them to keep the bags there and onto our plane next AM--worked fine.
We often do a similar thing on the way home going through Amsterdam. We check our bags all of the way home and take a flight from Venice to Amsterdam, getting there in the afternoon. We stay overnight, using our carry ons and go back to the airport in the morning. Even if you could not check your bags all of the way through, maybe a locker would be worth it so you don't have to mess with them. The only time we were not allowed to do this is right after 9/11. We have never lost our bags. However, we are taking less of a risk as this is our way home, instead of the beginning of the trip so I could understand why not seeing your bags would not appeal to you as much.
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