I've just been testing for possible FF usage next month for a 2011 trip to So. America, multi destination..........MIA/SCL and EZE/JFK.

Does Delta treat both flights as oneway, hence, using double mileage requirements. That's what I'm getting.

We've used FF miles for Cont. and AA in the past, both multi destinations, with basis RT mileage charged.

My question is--is it at all possible to get ff on Delta? I am waiting for seats to open for Delta 12/10 to Buenos Aires to see the penguins, and I don't know if they will ever open up

Hi Diane, suggest you private message
peteropny (lct member) who is (IMO) super smart
on all airlines ff programs. Or you can
email one of the top 3 world's ff experts, Gary Leff his email is: gleff@gmu.edu...good luck

I've used Delta with open jaw flights a number of times from all kinds of destinations using miles. Flying into Nice and out of Heathrow, Flying into Paris, Flying into Rome and out of Venice, Flying into Stockholm and out of Heathrow - Into Istanbul and out of Athens.

It takes several calls sometimes but I always seem to get the schedule I want. It's not always on Delta but the partner airlines.

Thanks Kathy--

I have to use Delta, not partners, because I get Delta through Midwest Express

Thanks Wes--I didn't see your message on the first go around

hope you're enjoying your second honeymoon

Sorry if I hijacked the thread. It was not my intent

Diane - that doesn't matter for international. They would put you on Delta and then transfer you to whatever partner/carrier worked for you.

When I did this to go to Salzburg, they would only get me as far as Frankfurt with miles (Northwest was then Midwest's partner), and then I had to arrange and pay for Lufthansa to get me the rest of the way.

Well, here's what I learned after finally speaking to someone at Delta who knows the "ropes".

My requirements will need FF miles as follows:
* MIA/ATL, 25,000 miles;
* ATL/SCL and EZE/ATL, usually 90,000 miles;
* ATL/JFK, 25,000 miles.

So, even though it's one ticket, there are three FF charges, and, the tickets I assumed we would get at 90,000 miles will each now require 140,000 miles.

The current cost of this tickey is $1813.

This sure sounds like a lot of miles required ?? I've looked into flying RT, CA to South Africa for similar miles. I guess it will all come down to availability and I'm not so familiar with Delta's program.

I think what may be happening here is that your itinerary is not complying with open jaw rules. I have not used Delta FF , but in Continental you can do an open jaw only if your beginning and end point are the same (for example, if your routing was MIA to SCL, Eze to MIA) or if your beginning and end point are different , but if you are flying into and out of same city (for example , if your routing was MIA to EZE, EZE to JFK).

Again, I don't know if Delta follows this same rule, but up to a few months ago Delta and Continental were partners and my understanding is that they ahd the same open jaw rules.

Dooley, I had a similar problem with Delta last year when I flew to Africa (JNB) for a cruise, and flew home from South America (RIO).

I'm not sure about the open jaw rules, as my beginning and end points were the same. But since I was traveling to and from two different zones, I was charged full RT points each way. It was a lot of points, believe me. The same thing happened to other lct people on the same cruise.

Maybe Delta allows 2 one ways like AA does when there's different zones ?

Maria, you are correct. As many times as I've used FF miles, they were always to/from, or versa, the three NYC airports, even though most often the other location was different.

I'll get around this by booking RT MIA, for 90,000, possibly 60,000 or 75,000 miles, when the time comes.

Thanks!

Delta FF awards are out of control.. I cannot believe what they are charging for example Bos to Las, 80k per ticket for first class.. Since the merger the awards have skyrocketed... They dont even have non stops to FLL from Bos anymore, and there routes just do not seem that good to me. Figures its the only airline I have status with and they have a huge terminal in Boston...I tried one way awards and keep getting charge for roundtrip... We dealt with the open jaw for Game/Samba and got wacked with points....

FV

Frank you and I have talked about Delta it is soooo bad - we built up pts yrs ago as best airline to get out of Jacksonville when Tony was traveling - at their mercy now - not putting any of my SW pts into Delta any longer - however wiped out my acct for TUT and looked other day I have 39 thou remaining no idea where they came from and need to go and look!!!! something wrong!!! I envy the AA flyers - I had sat on US Air PTS for ages (yrs) never able to use - darn if I didn't get 2 seats coach in Oct - you never know

USAir/Star Alliance not any better, at least to and from Europe for TUT for me. They have just upped the ante to get award seats. Started awhile ago, agent told me US can't "talk" to Lufthansa on computer, which also flies there. Now, no seats available in either class for "low peak". Anything I could get would be 250-350K miles. Don't have that many!

Dooley, FDV is one other person I was telling you about who paid mega-points for flights for SAMBA

I am truly thinking about switching to AA, since at least I can get direct flights to Miami and west coast without stops... Also what I like about AA is with there credit card you can earn lifetime status by just spending. Within a few years could become lifetime Gold from purchases without flying... Would fly also, but the awards just seem better... Paid 62.5k each ticket one way for Bos to Syd.... Cannot even get to Vegas in First class unless its an off peak award... with Delta... for that amount of points....

FV

Still waiting for Delta to make a change on my TUT flights, to my advantage, so I can change them - last time I called and wanted to change return from Venice (and intro to Athens) they wanted another 50 thou PP pts - stinks!

Called Delta Skymiles and had no problem booking flights to/from LAX to SYD with miles. I even was able to book return from AUK. The problem was that they had to route us via Seoul which added a 10 hour leg to the flight. Korean Air is their only partner in that part of the world.

How many miles was it for your roundtrip?

120K miles each RT - but who wants to sit on a plane for an extra 10 hours

I don't like working with any of the airlines but I do think AA is the best for the following reasons:
1. Once you're ticketed you can change your dates without paying any fee (Delta charges even if it's exactly the same routing)
2. AA has one way f.f. tickets so you can book the outbound flight and wait until your return dates are in the computer OR you can book the return on a "fake" date knowing you can change it to the corrected date once the return dates is in computer.
3. You can do stop overs coming and going PLUS do an open jaw (Delta says you can do either a stop over or an open jaw but not both)
4. By doing 2 one way f.f. tickets you can return into a different airport than you originated from.
5. You can earn lifetime Gold by using credit card miles earned (transferring those f.f. miles) unlike other airlines that say you must have FLOWN the miles (1,000,000 = lifetime Gold). Tom is lifetime Gold and he didn't fly all his miles.
6. AA allows you to put f.f. reservations on hold long enough to transfer Starwood points (for example)
7. When you talk to an agent, they're American (or at least not in India) !

Thats pretty good kathy, I would assume thats biz class? like you said the 10 extra hours can really be a bit of torture. I have quite a few Delta miles and opted for the AA/Quantus route just because I know the way I get at the end of a trip.....Just want to get home...

FV

We're not going to use miles unless I can partner with ANZ or Quantas or Virgin and fly nonstop. LAX is the gateway for all of them anyway. We use Amex miles but I have enough Delta miles for half a ticket

Sorry about the late response:

dooley - I think your original itinerary was more than an open jaw - since you wanted to end up in a different city from where you started - I think the alternative you came up with works best open jaw starting/ending in ATL - and just buy a one way ticket to NYC afterwards.

Diane - Delta has gotten very stingy with "low" priced award tickets especially in Business class - they're actually more likely to release the "cheap" seats closer to departure than when the schedule is loaded at 331 days. You would be limited to Delta with your Midwest Express miles (it will at least have to be Delta codeshares - and not simply a partner).

Olivia - I think you've also run into the problem with US instituting a 3-tier award structure which started on 1/14/10.

Kathy - Air NZ is Star Alliance so would partner up with United / USAirways but their Business Class award is probably the hardest award to get anywhere. Qantas is oneworld and partners with American. Virgin is pretty much independent. My suggestion for you to use DL miles would be to do a RT award to SYD from LAX and just buy the one-way AKL back to SYD to catch the flight back to LAX - going through ICN makes little sense.

Thank you

Thanks, Peter. I am just going to use the Regent Air, I think and save the miles for another trip.