Help me book my flights

My cruise sails on july 13th 2015 . I will probably arrive in Alaska a week before to do the land portion. We are a family of 4 flying from Detroit to Anchorage or Fairbanks and departing from Seattle back to Detroit. I'm trying to use my frequent flier miles but they are scattered all over and I don't have enough in one airline to book 4 tix. Help me book free/cheap flights. I'm willing to book 2 tix on 2 separate flights if need be.

I have the following miles with various airlines.

US Air - 35,000 in mine and 35,000 in my husband's

Delta - 49,000 in mine and 31,000 in my husbands

United - 64,000 in mine and 12,500 in my husbands

American Airlines - 26,000 in mine

Is there anyway they will let you swap miles through affiliation between the airlines

Is a talk ask with those points

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Is there anyway they will let you swap miles through affiliation between the airlines

 

Is a talk ask with those points

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

As far as I know I cannot swap miles. Yeah, it's a tall task but I've faith in you guys :D

Tough to do right now. ANC and FAi are Apples and Oranges. What day DO you want to depart DTW? UA and DL schedules aren't even open yet for your "guesstimated" dates. When/will you US and AA points be combined

You're a little too early and not providing us enough information. Only thing I would guess right now is that 4 "open jaw" tickets could run you north of 3 K.

Tough to do right now. ANC and FAi are Apples and Oranges. What day DO you want to depart DTW? UA and DL schedules aren't even open yet for your "guesstimated" dates. When/will you US and AA points be combined

 

You're a little too early and not providing us enough information. Only thing I would guess right now is that 4 "open jaw" tickets could run you north of 3 K.

I know that the fares haven't opened yet. The reason I'm doing this now is that if I can book tix using partner air miles or sign up for one of the reward credit cards that give bonus miles, I will have time to book the tix. It's not so much as to what date I want to actually travel but more of like how can I combine these scattered miles for a tix. Booking Alaska tix with reward miles shouldn't make a diff. whether it is to Fairbanks or Anchorage. I think they both would cost the same reward miles, I could be wrong but that is what I think.

To surmise your question, at this point I'm looking for ideas as to how I can make most of what I have and what I could do to add more miles to any one or all accounts to get free tix.

I have the following miles with various airlines.

 

US Air - 35,000 in mine and 35,000 in my husband's

Delta - 49,000 in mine and 31,000 in my husbands

United - 64,000 in mine and 12,500 in my husbands

American Airlines - 26,000 in mine

You have two different different issues here. One is trying to combine miles from two accounts on one airline. The other is with having miles in separate programs. Let's start with the second issue. DL and UA miles are pretty much locked into those programs. It might be possible to move them (and I have not researched this lately), but the conversion rates and costs would probably negate any real value. AA and US will eventually be combined into one program - best to keep abreast of of those timelines by following some FF mile blogs; try Boarding Area.

Now, within one program you may have some success. Various airlines will offer the ability to transfer miles within the program between accounts, but this is sometimes a time-sensitive offer, and it comes at a cost. So you would need to crunch the numbers to see if it makes sense to do the transfer. Often there are bonus miles attached, which can alter the calculation. The airlines will often call this "gifting" miles. Costs can run as high as $0.03 per mile for the transfer, which makes it prohibitive.

You'll need to keep an eye out for transfer opportunities, crunch the numbers to see what might work for you, then make any swap that seems to work.

You have several United miles. There are 50 K sign up bonus from Chase with 5K for additional user ($2000 in 3 months spend to trigger) on United explorer plus card. There is also a Chase sapphire preferred card with 40K after $3000 in 3 month spend. Dump all the points into the United account in one name. Buy the tickets with the miles and place a name on them. (example: I had enough United miles from a trip to China to get one way to Hawaii and hubby had points for another one way ticket back from Hawaii and that was ticket for me and we paid a sale rate price for his roundtrip ticket). Might also keep an eye on Alaska Airlines as they have some really good fares especially on sales seats. Use the Sapphire Chase card to "erase" the cost of the ticket. Good luck. Read the sticky on buying tickets and watch for a good deal or spend like crazy to earn a "free ticket". As always with credit card deals know what the rules are and be sure to pay off monthly or the "free ticket" ends up costing you too much in interest.

I believe that at some point those US Air miles will become AA miles.

US Air - 35,000 in mine and 35,000 in my husband's

Delta - 49,000 in mine and 31,000 in my husbands

United - 64,000 in mine and 12,500 in my husbands

American Airlines - 26,000 in mine

Various airlines will offer the ability to transfer miles within the program between accounts, but this is sometimes a time-sensitive offer, and it comes at a cost. So you would need to crunch the numbers to see if it makes sense to do the transfer. Often there are bonus miles attached, which can alter the calculation.

Following up on what Flyertalker said, keep your eye on any offers that might come your way from Delta. You have 49k miles and hubby has 31k. Combined, you have 80k miles, which could be enough for two "standard" round trip award tickets. As he said though, there is a cost to transfer his miles to your account, but depending on the offer and any potential bonus miles awarded for doing so, it might be worth it.

Of course, it will depend on whether "standard" award tickets are even made available for your travel date, or if you find only "peak" awards. Worth keeping an eye on any email offers you might get though.

Yes at this point Delta seems to be my ideal choice. I'll sign up myself and hubby for Delta credit cards to get bonus miles. That should bring us pretty close to 3 if not 4 free tix. Thanks all for your tips and suggestions.

Following up on what Flyertalker said, keep your eye on any offers that might come your way from Delta. You have 49k miles and hubby has 31k. Combined, you have 80k miles, which could be enough for two "standard" round trip award tickets. As he said though, there is a cost to transfer his miles to your account, but depending on the offer and any potential bonus miles awarded for doing so, it might be worth it.

Of course, it will depend on whether "standard" award tickets are even made available for your travel date, or if you find only "peak" awards. Worth keeping an eye on any email offers you might get though.

UA will allow you to receive only 25,000 transferred miles from any one account per year. To transfer 25,000 miles from hubby's UA account into OP's would cost $395, which IMO, is ridiculous.

Yes at this point Delta seems to be my ideal choice. I'll sign up myself and hubby for Delta credit cards to get bonus miles. That should bring us pretty close to 3 if not 4 free tix. Thanks all for your tips and suggestions.

I am not a DL flyer, but I read over and over again about the difficulty of finding mileage tickets using DL Skymiles at the lower mileage award levels.

Remember to look at billing one ways instead of round trips. You may have to split the family up on different flights or airlines.

I am not a DL flyer, but I read over and over again about the difficulty of finding mileage tickets using DL Skymiles at the lower mileage award levels.

 

Yes, as I mentioned, it can be hard to find low mileage awards, particularly to vacation destinations during peak season (i.e. Alask during July, which is what the OP needs. Nonetheless, with bonus miles and possibly taking advantage of an offer to combine her miles with her husbands, even if they have to use more miles they might be able to get at least a couple of the tickets they need for their trip.

My cruise sails on july 13th 2015 . I will probably arrive in Alaska a week before to do the land portion. We are a family of 4 flying from Detroit to Anchorage or Fairbanks and departing from Seattle back to Detroit. I'm trying to use my frequent flier miles but they are scattered all over and I don't have enough in one airline to book 4 tix. Help me book free/cheap flights. I'm willing to book 2 tix on 2 separate flights if need be.

 

I have the following miles with various airlines.

 

US Air - 35,000 in mine and 35,000 in my husband's

Delta - 49,000 in mine and 31,000 in my husbands

United - 64,000 in mine and 12,500 in my husbands

American Airlines - 26,000 in mine

I think it's exceedingly unlikely you'll find 4 reward tickets on the same flight; but you might be able to get two.

But here's a strategy for you, using the fact that Alaska Air is a partner of Delta and American. Also, I would expect the US Air/American accounts to merge shortly.

Ticket: Open Jaw DTW-SEA-ANC/FAI / (YVR-)SEA-DTW on Alaska Air. Don't book them as two one ways, make it an open-jaw (Multi-city) ticket

Ticket 1: Delta Miles (Alaska Partner)

Ticket 2: American Miles (Alaska Partner)

Ticket 3: paid ticket on Alaska

Ticket 4: get an Alaska Air credit card ($99/year) and use the $100 companion certificate to get the 2nd ticket. $200 is still going to be less than a paid ticket.

I think it's exceedingly unlikely you'll find 4 reward tickets on the same flight; but you might be able to get two.

 

But here's a strategy for you, using the fact that Alaska Air is a partner of Delta and American. Also, I would expect the US Air/American accounts to merge shortly.

 

Ticket: Open Jaw DTW-SEA-ANC/FAI / (YVR-)SEA-DTW on Alaska Air. Don't book them as two one ways, make it an open-jaw (Multi-city) ticket

 

Ticket 1: Delta Miles (Alaska Partner)

Ticket 2: American Miles (Alaska Partner)

Ticket 3: paid ticket on Alaska

Ticket 4: get an Alaska Air credit card ($99/year) and use the $100 companion certificate to get the 2nd ticket. $200 is still going to be less than a paid ticket.

Thanks Scottbee. Will look into the way you planned it out.

Just be aware that the same award tickets you see available on Alaska's webpage using Alaska FF miles, may not be available on AA's webpage using AA miles or on DL using DL's miles.

You already have great advice from others. I will only add that starting in 2015 Delta will allow one-way awards for booking a flight with miles. American already does. If you don't have enough miles for both of you to book open jaw for both legs, consider waiting until January and booking two one-way flights.

You already have great advice from others. I will only add that starting in 2015 Delta will allow one-way awards for booking a flight with miles. American already does. If you don't have enough miles for both of you to book open jaw for both legs, consider waiting until January and booking two one-way flights.

Will waiting till Jan to be too late ? Jan. works better also because AA and US merge their miles but for a flight to Alaska in July I've read that I should book right when the schedule opens.

Will waiting till Jan to be too late ? Jan. works better also because AA and US merge their miles but for a flight to Alaska in July I've read that I should book right when the schedule opens.

Actually, that's not the way it works. Airlines use extremely sophisticated "yield management" (aka "revenue management") computer programs to decide when to release seats into award inventory, based on how flights are selling, historical load factors, competition on the route, operating costs and operational factors, and many other factors and data. This process is continuous, from 330 days out up until the last hour. Seats may appear in award inventory, then vanish, then come back, then vanish again. The computers never sleep - they will adjust fares and seat availability daily, sometimes more often.

Look at it from the airline's viewpoint. They want to sell those seats for cash, as much as the market will bear (no more price regulation, right?) But they also don't especially want them to fly empty; once the door closes the "marginal value" of the seat falls to zero. So the computers juggle the data to let award passengers fill only the seats that would otherwise go unsold. By letting mileage customers use them, the airlines wipe so many unredeemed miles off their books ("contingent liability" is the term) which helps the financial statement.

So the early bird doesn't get all that many worms. It's typical (in economy class, much less in premium classes) for an airline to release one or maybe two seats at most (often none) into award inventory right off the bat (330 days) but then they'll continue to release MORE seats as time passes, based on those computer programs. I haven't checked, but I'm willing to bet that if you wanted to fly to Alaska tomorrow or a couple of days from now, there would be mileage seats open, the computers having decided that they're not going to sell for big last-minute bucks in the meantime.

Patience - January is FINE for summer mileage seat bookings.