Delta Miles - can't get reservation

Hey, y'all - I'm afraid I know the answer to this,
but just in case some more experienced
person has an angle...can give me some hope...

I tried to make a reservation to Missoula, Montana
using miles I had salvaged before they expired,
in the form of a travel certificate, which has
to be exchanged for a ticket.

To my consternation, the reservationist (Delta)
said there were no "miles" seats to Missoula
until NEXT MAY!!!

She said there were plenty of seats, but just
no seats for my travel certificate from "miles".

That sounds extremely fishy! Next MAY!!!
They must allocate a very small number of seats,
like ONE, for "miles" redemption.

Is there anything I can do, or anybody I can contact
in the hierarchy, other than a line reservationist?

I had to be there mid-March, so had to cancel plans, since I can't
afford to buy a new ticket. I could possibly revive the plans
if I could redeem the certificate for my time-frame.

To add insult to injury, if I want to put the miles back into
my inventory, I have to pay $100! What the hell can cost them $100
to process this request? Straight question, for anyone who
happens to know the procedure.

Thanks for any help on this ...grrrrrrr!

--

Traveler

wrote in message . ..
Hey, y'all - I'm afraid I know the answer to this,
but just in case some more experienced
person has an angle...can give me some hope...

I tried to make a reservation to Missoula, Montana
using miles I had salvaged before they expired,
in the form of a travel certificate, which has
to be exchanged for a ticket.

To my consternation, the reservationist (Delta)
said there were no "miles" seats to Missoula
until NEXT MAY!!!


I'm not familiar with using a certificate as opposed to
converting the Delta mileage directly to a ticket, but
the latter is now possible through the Delta WWW site. In
other words, you can look up yourself whether there are
seats available (on US & Canada routes only). Have you tried?

Delta has been known to treat its Sky Miles members
rather miserably, but my wife has just redeemed
her 50k miles for a free ticket on AF from Florida to a
remote European country, with less than 14 days left before
the departure. So, there are no rules.

jrk01

Hey, y'all - I'm afraid I know the answer to this,
but just in case some more experienced
person has an angle...can give me some hope...

Well, It's kinda grim. Only a limited number of seats are allocated for FF mile
users. That is subject to change by the airline's revenue management
department, but there is nobody you can call and complain to that would do any
good.

They COULD open up more FF seats if revenue sales aren't good in order to fill
up the aircraft a little more but that's a big IF.
Also someone already holding FF seats COULD cancel and throw those seats back
into inventory but that's kind of unlikely also. Here's my suggestions:

If you have the extra miles use them to get unrestricted FF seats. Costs about
twice as much in miles but there is no capacity control on those seats so as
long as there is a coach seat left on the plane, you can use the miles to get
it.

Try a different but nearby destination such as Billings or Great Falls or
Helena or anyplace near where you want to go and then rent a car and drive to
your actual destination. If your willing to drive up to say 4 hours then draw a
circle with a radius of about 200 miles on a map surrounding your destination.
Then check to see if you can use miles to fly into any city within that radius.
It doesn't have to be in the same state.

Last suggestion. Keep checking with the airline. Things change, routes change,
types of aircraft change, and anything can happen. If your looking to go next
March you still have time for good stuff to happen.

Jerry in LAS

In article ,
wrote:

I tried to make a reservation to Missoula, Montana
using miles I had salvaged before they expired,
in the form of a travel certificate, which has
to be exchanged for a ticket.

To my consternation, the reservationist (Delta)
said there were no "miles" seats to Missoula
until NEXT MAY!!!

Call them again and ask to check for FF seats on Northwest. Now that
Delta and Northwest have a FF partnership, you should be able to use
your DL miles for award travel on Northwest.

I had to be there mid-March, so had to cancel plans, since I can't
afford to buy a new ticket. I could possibly revive the plans
if I could redeem the certificate for my time-frame.

I checked a few dates in mid-March, and Northwest has FF availability
to Missoula (via MSP) every day. Delta will book a FF award on NW
for you using DL miles, but you need to ask for it and specifically
mention Northwest.