redeeming Delta miles

[JB&JLG74]

My husband and I have never redeemed airline miles, but finally have enough for a flight. We want to be on the same flight and each have enough miles in each of our accounts to do so, but neither of us have enough miles to obtain 2 tickets from one account. How do we do this? Must we use two computers, submit simultaneously, and cross our fingers? Is it possible to request two tickets and "pay" for them from two accounts at check out? Or put one on hold until the second is obtained? Any tips are appreciated. Thanks.

[Gardyloo]

My husband and I have never redeemed airline miles, but finally have enough for a flight. We want to be on the same flight and each have enough miles in each of our accounts to do so, but neither of us have enough miles to obtain 2 tickets from one account. How do we do this? Must we use two computers, submit simultaneously, and cross our fingers? Is it possible to request two tickets and "pay" for them from two accounts at check out? Or put one on hold until the second is obtained? Any tips are appreciated. Thanks.

Option 1 - Log in to one of your accounts and start a booking for two seats even though you only have enough miles in that account for one seat. If it shows availability for two, that means there are two seats open for redemption on that flight.

 

Log out and then log back in but this time proceed to book one seat and go all the way to the end. Then log in on the other account and repeat the process. If this is done one right after the other you won't have any problems. Seats go fast but not that fast.

 

Option 2 - Phone Delta and make the bookings on the phone. The agent will happily draw from both accounts, but you'll have to pay a phone booking fee, probably $25 per ticket or some such (not sure with Delta.) This might be the easiest approach.

[Twickenham]

Does Delta charge a fee for phone reservations? Even so, I would probably just cough up the fee and book it by phone.

 

Had the same situation with Aeroplan miles and our trip to Europe next summer - both MamaTwick and I had enough in each of our accounts' to reserve our own ticket, and so called in and had the nice call centre chap book it all for us - even added a note on our reservations that we were travelling together in case of IRROPS (especially appreciated as our itinerary is a bit unusual - YQB-YUL-IST-BCN, rtn DUB-EWR-YUL-YQB).

[waterbug123]

Does Delta charge a fee for phone reservations? Even so, I would probably just cough up the fee and book it by phone.

 

 

Yes, it is $25.

 

OP: A Delta phone agent can certainly make sure you get both tickets purchased before availability sells out. I don't honestly know if they can book both on the same reservation but pull the miles from 2 different accounts, or if it will be 2 separate reservations. I do know there is no way to book both on one reservation but pull from different accounts if you do it online. There is no real reason to be on the same reservation though, except that if there are problems on flight day you could get rebooked separately.

[frugaltravel]

My advice: Save the $50 phone fee ($25/ticket) and book online yourself. If for some reason the second ticket sells out before you book it, you can always cancel the first reservation within 24 hours for no charge then call. But, as Gardyloo said, seats rarely go that fast.

[TMLAalum]

We've been very lucky with our separate ff accounts booking simultaneously (after doing an initial dummy booking using just one account to be sure 2 seats are available). Having 2 reservations hasn't been a problem except for the time DH got a 1st class seat from ORD-CLE on the final leg of our AA flight home from Shanghai and I didn't:(.

[alcpa1]

We recently did two bookings with separate ff accounts. One itinerary was booked and the second which showed available, was denied. We called and the agent was able to book and also waived the $25 fee.

You can also have IT intercede if multiple seats show availibility but are unbookable for the same ff miles. The fee is never charged by Delta when it is an IT issue.

Our reservations are linked but the flights are so far out I am not holding my breath.

As usual, monitor your flights.

[frugaltravel]

Our reservations are linked but the flights are so far out I am not holding my breath.

 

"Linking" reservations means very little. It is a note ("OSI" in airline parlance) that there are people in two reservations traveling together. But unless the airline personnel closely and carefully read your reservations, they will not even notice this information.

 

Even with reservations being "linked", it is very possible that when schedule changes occur that the passengers are rebooked onto different flights. It definitely can happen (and has happened to me). A call to the airline usually solves the problem, but you must be proactive (even if all passengers are on one reservation you need to be proactive in checking reservations).

[plane2port]

Consider booking two sets of one-way tickets. We do this often when we don't have enough miles in a frequent flyer account for two round trip tickets. For example, last year we booked one-way to Europe on US Airways (with American Airlines AAdvantage miles) in business class. We returned on Lufthansa in economy (on United MileagePlus miles).

 

If the logistics are too much, go ahead and talk to a Delta agent and pay the $25 fee. Let us know how it works out!

[frugaltravel]

Consider booking two sets of one-way tickets. We do this often when we don't have enough miles in a frequent flyer account for two round trip tickets. For example, last year we booked one-way to Europe on US Airways (with American Airlines AAdvantage miles) in business class. We returned on Lufthansa in economy (on United MileagePlus miles).

 

If the logistics are too much, go ahead and talk to a Delta agent and pay the $25 fee. Let us know how it works out!

 

If it is an international flight with Delta miles, Delta tends to charge "international origination surcharges" that are pretty steep. So two one-way tickets would cost a lot more than one round-trip ticket.