I have a grand total of ZERO Delta FF miles, but 60K plus on China Air, which supposedly allows me to book travel just about anywhere Delta flies (SE Asia excepted).

Hmmm, the questions: How's Delta about reward travel? They say as long as there's a seat on the plane, it's YOURS with a reward cert.? Blackout dates? South American partners?

Thanks in advance for the input.

Oh, and one more thing... Does Delta have nice lounges, and do they give reciprocal access? I finally got China Gold status with my last trip.

I find that Delta has limited seats when booking ahead. It's one reason I switched to AA. I tried on a couple of occasions to book seats to CR from Boston, only to find out that I either needed to book waay ahead or close to my trip when they make more seats available. Obviously where you go, the day and time you fly will make a difference.

You will have to call your primary airline to make arrangements for the award travel.

Delta's website shows availability of award travel seats (within the U.S.), and punching in a whole range of dates over the next year made it pretty clear that getting a free ticket for their advertised mileage level would involved a LOT of luck. Personally, I could find a ticket outbound, but there were no return flights available. Of course if I wanted to use 50K miles instead of 25K for a free domestic ticket I could travel anytime I wanted. Very disappointing.

Update on Delta!!! I am a frequet visitor to Lima, Peru and delta is not a good option for me. I get better deals on LAN out of LA. But I just cashed in 35,000 ff miles on Delta for a round trip from the east coast to Lima for my brother. Hell of a deal!!!!!!! I hope my knowledge of the ladies convinces him that Peru is one hell of a destination for us decerning travellers!