Using Delta SkyMiles for 2 and booking for 7?

[maryj11]

I was wondering how to do this. I’m going to be booking for 7 family members . Two of us have skymile points to use. When I click book for 7 then do I click the option Miles/cash?

 

[RuntheMouse]

I would think about booking the 2 award tickets separately from the other 5. I believe you can call customer service and have them note you are traveling together. The miles/cash option is a poor way to redeem your miles.

 

[sam_gordon]

I would think about booking the 2 award tickets separately from the other 5. I believe you can call customer service and have them note you are traveling together. The miles/cash option is a poor way to redeem your miles.

This is exactly how to do it.

We have a party of seven travelling.
Reservation #1: Four of us paying Cash (and three of those used eCredits).
Reservation #2: Two using points
Reservation #3: One using points.

Then call to "link" the reservation (of course there's no way to see the "link" as a customer, but I'm assured it's there).

The points we had were enough for three people, but "owned" by two different people.

I even called Skymiles to make sure there wasn't another option I was missing.

 

[EACarlson]

Miles and cash is the only way to do it all on one reservation, it's going to give you one cent per SkyMile used. The most cost effective way is to book award tickets for who you can and cash tickets for who you can't. You can call in and ask them to link the reservations, but that's only going to help if someone actually looks at the reservation, it won't help if it's system generated changes.

 

[_19disnA]

If the 2 people planning to use Skymiles are in the same household (i.e. husband/wife), I would book that as one reservation and let everyone else book their own. Less complicated on how things get paid for. Are all 7 traveling together from the same airport? Miles/cash is a good option if you either don't have enough miles for 2 'free' tickets and/or don't travel that often to accumulate more miles.

I can't see any advantage to 'linking' all 7 reservations together unless that helps you with something like a cancelled flight/bad weather/etc. I assume you would choose your seat assignments at the time of booking and only on their wide body planes are there enough seats in a single row for your entire party. Traveling from anywhere in Ohio to MCO probably will have planes with a max of 6 seats across a single aisle. No idea if 'linking' them together helps with seat assignments or not.

 

[Deb1993]

Hi - I just did 6 and did our miles tickets separately.

 

[EACarlson]

I can't see any advantage to 'linking' all 7 reservations together unless that helps you with something like a cancelled flight/bad weather/etc.

Theoretically it helps with IRROPS, but that requires you to call in, have a rep note that they are linked and then be able to do something about it. The only time I've actually seen it useful is when the split in PNRs causes a minor to appear to be unaccompanied.

 

[maryj11]

Hi - I just did 6 and did our miles tickets separately.

Did you use your delta account or did the others have their own account?

 

[maryj11]

I would think about booking the 2 award tickets separately from the other 5. I believe you can call customer service and have them note you are traveling together. The miles/cash option is a poor way to redeem your miles.

Why is it a poor way to redeem? Why do we even have to note traveling together? We will choose seats

 

[maryj11]

If the 2 people planning to use Skymiles are in the same household (i.e. husband/wife), I would book that as one reservation and let everyone else book their own. Less complicated on how things get paid for. Are all 7 traveling together from the same airport? Miles/cash is a good option if you either don't have enough miles for 2 'free' tickets and/or don't travel that often to accumulate more miles.

I can't see any advantage to 'linking' all 7 reservations together unless that helps you with something like a cancelled flight/bad weather/etc. I assume you would choose your seat assignments at the time of booking and only on their wide body planes are there enough seats in a single row for your entire party. Traveling from anywhere in Ohio to MCO probably will have planes with a max of 6 seats across a single aisle. No idea if 'linking' them together helps with seat assignments or not.

Yes I know the planes only have 3 seats each side. Someone will have to sit alone.

 

[EACarlson]

Why is it a poor way to redeem? Why do we even have to note traveling together? We will choose seats

It's a fixed redemption rate of 1 cent per mile. I usually get 1.4-1.7 cents per mile redeeming for award flights, on occasion, I've gotten as high as 3.9 cents per mile. That was a trip MSP-MCO.

 

[RuntheMouse]

Why is it a poor way to redeem? Why do we even have to note traveling together? We will choose seats

See the response below. You don’t have to note you are together, just an option in case of equipment changes, minors traveling or weather issues. Makes it potentially easier to rebook your travel group.

It's a fixed redemption rate of 1 cent per mile. I usually get 1.4-1.7 cents per mile redeeming for award flights, on occasion, I've gotten as high as 3.9 cents per mile. That was a trip MSP-MCO.

 

[sam_gordon]

Yes I know the planes only have 3 seats each side. Someone will have to sit alone.

Not necessarily.
Book A, C, D, F in one row. That's two windows and two aisles. If the middle stays empty (doubtful), you get extra room. Even if someone sits in the middle, either the aisle or window offer them their seat and two members of the traveling party are together.

In either the row in front or behind, book A, B, C or D, E, F.

Everyone is now "with" a member of the traveling party.

 

[Deb1993]

Did you use your delta account or did the others have their own account?

Used my account and put their sky miles number for DH and 4 older teens.

 

[fly girl]

Why is it a poor way to redeem? Why do we even have to note traveling together? We will choose seats

I could be mistaken, but I am thinking you are looking at miles/cash as 2 separate things. Using miles on your 2 tickets, and cash for the other 5. Miles/Cash doesn't work that way. It works by using miles and cash together to purchase 1 ticket. Agree with PP, it usually is not the way to do it as you won't get the best bang for your buck with the miles. I don't think I have ever seen a good deal on a miles/cash ticket before. I am sure they exist, but I have yet to find that illusive unicorn.

Hope that makes sense.

@sam_gordon steered you correctly. Purchase 5 tickets with cash, and the other 2 using the miles. Call or Message Delta and ask them to link all 7 together. They will.

 

[Mirabell Rose]

You can get the miles only tickets for a 15% discount off the normal miles if the sky miles member you are booking for has the Delta Amex. But if you have that card, only those on the same reservation get the free checked bags.

 

[Mirabell Rose]

And despite paying to be able, and picking seats together does not keep you together if you are on different reservations. My experience with Delta since the pandemic and the rule change that they have to seat kids with parents even if they didn’t pay for a seat assignment, has been multiple flight changes and thus seat changes by Delta between booking and flight, and they have separated us when not on the same reservation - even if I called and ‘linked’. Sometimes this has been when we have gone to board being when we were notified. They like to state that their ‘carriage contract’ does not guarantee seat assignment.