John was able to snag the Business return tongiht. It's all good! We leave Joburg on the 28th Sept and fly to Atlanta and on to Vegas. We called 3 times yesterday and they hadn't released the award seats yet. Tonight, he got them. Now we have round trip award business tickets round trip. I am very releived and will put the trip on the back burner until after the holidays. Delta came through again! :app:

Great news Judy just read this:

Delta Air Lines Inc.'s top executives, looking for a way to bolster the bottom line, are retooling the carrier's frequent-flier program, and it could mean that booking award flights -- already a daunting task -- could get even harder.

That could alienate the airline's most loyal travelers, who according to industry watchers, are already wandering.

Delta (NYSE: DAL) will implement a change Dec. 1 that will make fewer award seats available on popular flights, even for loyal customers willing to redeem double the miles to get a "free" ticket.

Delta will also start passing along a "surcharge" for miles tickets booked on SkyTeam airline partners.

Judy and John, I know first hand the relief you feel having gone through this painful ordeal myself for ROAR 1. Easy and exhilarating to book the land trip but flights are a downer. Now enjoy your countdown!

DITTO - Just got word that our Biz class Upgrade has cleared & we are now booked on the Delta JNB - NY leaving Sept. 27.

Great news, guys! It's such a relief when all these plans are settled!

Andrea

Now I am even more apprehensive. I haven't heard anything from them.

:::: chewing fingernails ::::

we just booked in on a combo of Singapore Air/South African. Seven out of eight segments are business .. need to keep calling United to get the one coach segment upgrade.

All in all, 50 minutes well spent.

Cheers, Anne

Wow! Joanna, that it harsh news about Delta and the reward tickets. We might have to switch to another credit card and not use AMEX Delta rewards. So glad we got ours for next year but it is such a challenge and even somewhat stressful. I will work on the hotel reservations for Joburg early next year. We just hope this trip won't disapoint and will be everything we have heard. Sounds so fabulous. Judy

Judy you had just posted your good news when I read Delta's news very happy it worked for you and everyone else regardless of airline - I feel same way - we are sitting on some Delta pts now but may not put anymore Amex Starwood pts into that account -

Bummer to hear about Delta but happy for all you ROARers who got in before the change. Unfortunately for us on SAMBA and GAME ! All the other airlines will probably follow...they usually do!

Joanna, none of us are not foolish enough to pay at least double the miles for Skychoice seats so this will have no impact on us. Brantacelli is jus trying to stir up the masses.

I got that from Delta alerts Marc and never looked at author - yes have read about Brantacelli on FT etc - thanks!!!!

Joanna, yes, it came from Delta. I have just been annoyed with Bantacelli's sky is falling mantra. I don't know why anyone would want to spend 250,000 miles for a ticket to Europe. I also don't expect it to be easy to get seats to Beijing for the Olympics. If Delta starts limiting seats on a "large" number of flights, then they will have a PR problem.

Sorry if my tone was strong...

You do not have to worry about me with "strong" - I would rather get it right and admit I was "off" - forget it Marc you are one big softie :hug: :hug:

got our Delta return,unfortunately we have to stay over an extra day. Wasn't going to argue. The trip cost us 120,000 ff roundtrip each so now we will have miles for ring of fire to work out flts to Chile and back from Sydney. Thank goodness I don't have to worry about that for a few months. I'm worn out from dealing with ff miles. First they want to send us to paris a day late not directly to atlanta. Its amazing how who you talk to can make a difference or just the time of day. I've never seen a calendar change as rapidly as Delta's does. second to second.

A few minutes ago, we snagged Biz (SAA & Lufthansa) for four of the six segments (the important long ones). We'll keep trying to get Biz on the domestic United legs but will manage if those don't come through. At least we have the Economy Plus seats available for the United legs. Thank god (and the pathetic Regent loyalty program) for that free hour of phone time, most of which I used over the last couple of days talking to nice United agents in India to get the seats. If I hear "Have I met your traveling needs today?" or "I'm sorry that I have not met your traveling needs today." one more time, I will have to throw myself in front of the nearest bartender and guzzle a bottle or two of single malt scotch. (Oh yeah, as I recall, that's what I did last night here on Voyager!!) This all-inclusive deal is quite pleasant. Now I can enjoy the rest of CROSS without having to make calls to United twice a day trying to get seats to South Africa. It's been a real nuisance having to stay sober enough to understand the Indian agents' accents. I was so happy to get the seats today that I allowed the lady to go through her whole script about the restrictions, etc. without telling her to wrap it up. They get quite disconcerted when one does not wish to hear the script concerning baggage limitations, fees for routing changes, weather in Bombay (oops, Mumbai), and whether I want to rent a car from Hertz while I am moving from one game park to the other. Enough of this drivel for now - cocktails in the Observation Lounge await. After dinner tonite, we're back into Barcelona with Kathy & Frank to see flamenco. With my mind happily filled with thoughts of CapeTown & cheetahs and (for tonight) castanets and clicking flamenco heels, I close. Cheers, Fred

Freddie, so happy you got your flights for ROAR on the Voyager. I will likely be going through the same thing on the phone from the Mariner next month for our SAMBA/GAME one way flight! I hope I'm as lucky as the rest of you have been!

Congratulations to all of you! It is such a good feeling when you can accomplish anything with the airlines these days, no less from a ship.

Enjoy Barcelona CROSSers!

Freddie- Ole! The castanets sound much sweeter knowing you and Pat will be communing with the cheetahs, thanks to Mileage Plus.

We are also confirmed on 7 out of 8 legs in business. Unfortunately, the one coach allotment is the looong FRA-CPT leg. Never fear; I have adequate motivation to call United every day until there's an opening in I class on SAA. We arrive Capetown early on Sept. 17; departing JNB on Sept. 27 per current arrangements.

Cheers, Anne

Freddie, I know that you're busy sailing and having fun and all that but I have a question about United ff. Did you have to wait for the return date to become available before making any of your arrangements or were you able to talk United into holding the outbound until the return was available?

I Have to go through the same thing with GAME/SAMBA and I'll be somewhere in the Pacific on LAMB (like Marcie). We would be trying for Tucson to Johannesburg and Rio to Tucson (although we are reserved on the ship all the way to FLL and may stay on if air becomes a hassle.) Anyway, I'd appreciate your advice.

YES!!! We are confirmed all the way, now, Delta BE! The agent and her supervisor did their best to change our outbound to Mem/CPT but couldn't get it to "take". She suggested I call back in a week or two, to see if it would work by then.

Oh, that's such a relief, I was so sure I had waited too long to get that return flight booked.

Donna - United will not ticket the trip until both the outbound and inbound are available. Therefore, we grabbed the outbound the day the schedules for Sept. 12 were loaded and were given 72 hours to ticket the return. Just before the 72 hours expired I made inbound reservations for Sept. 14 (the evening of the day we will arrive in CPT). That allowed United to ticket the round-trip. Then, a few days ago, when the schedules were loaded for our real return date (Sept. 28), I changed the return to that date. It's a nuisance but the only way to do it on United, as far as we can determine. When I did the original return, the guy in India said it seemed sad to fly all the way from Seattle to South Africa and only stay for 12 hours!! Hmm, how do you say "clueless" in Hindi? Fortunately, the next agent I talked to understood the little trick and agreed to issue the tickets. Good luck. Cheers, Fred

Freddie, that's exactly the information that I needed. Now, I have a clue how to play this game. Thank you, Thank you, for taking time out from your fun-loving cruise to help me out.

Freddie, I believe all the help and advice you just gave deserves another single malt scotch!

One more question, Freddie. When you switched from Sept. 14 to the date you actually wanted (Sept. 28), did you have to pay any type of penalty, either in points or $?