Book airline first?

[ncbyrne]

We finally have enough Delta Sky Miles to purchase two airline tickets. We are just beginning to plan our Sept 2002 trip to WDW. I've never used free sky miles to purchase tickets and I'm not sure how they work. Would you recommend booking our air fare first and then searching for the best resort deal?

 

[NancyIL]

Call Delta to find out the earliest date you can reserve your flights using FF miles. On American - it's 330 days before the travel date. Since you probably won't be able to reserve the outbound flight until some time in October, I'd get the hotel nailed down first. If you reserve your seats as soon as they become available - you should be able to get the dates and flights you want.

 

[Bete]

Get in the know before making a decision. Make sure you know all the rules about your free air tics. I've noticed a significant down turn in tic sales from Delta for this October by comparison to last October. A year later and I saved $85 per tic for our trip this October.

I'm starting to feel pessimistic about the economy and vacations next year. In some ways that will put you in the driver seat for your trip. You can always call your resort with a couple of dates without booking to check availability.

I don't think you need to be in a hurry here. Gathering info from various sources might be good to do right now.

 

[sc2001]

Any time I have used air miles to get a free ticket I have had them "hold" the seats for me while I check hotel availability. They will usually hold the seats for 24 hours or so, and that gives you plenty of time to reserve your hotel. I don't know about Delta, but USAir lets you change your flights anytime in the next year without penalty as long as you do not change your arrival or departure locations.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

Our tickets for this upcoming trip are purchased with Delta Frequent Flyer miles. When we decided to add 2 days, I called first to see how much it would cost us to change the flights.
While the tickets were non-refundable (I couldn't get the miles back) they were changeable for no cost at all. So I just told them the new flight that I wanted and they mailed out new tickets.

Check with Delta when you make your reservation....but if it's true for your situation it sure does give you a little more "working room" with the hotels.

 

[Lewisc]

Fares from NY to FL are freqently discounted (sometimes as low as $130 R/T or less). Some people prefer to use their FF tickets for destinations that aren't as heavily discounted.

 

[NancyIL]

I don't know about Delta, but American will put FF reservations on hold for a month at a time.

I had a dickens of a time getting 5 FF seats on the flights I wanted when I made reservations in January for travel at Thanksgiving! However - having been ticketed since Feb. - I recently changed my return flight to 2 days later without any problem or penalty.

I agree with Lewis about saving miles for the more expensive routings. In our case, my DH has lots of FF miles, and we're doing a stopover on the way to Orlando. The great thing about FF tickets is that you can fly open-jaws: into one airport and out of a different one, as well as the ability to make a stopover along the way.