What Good Are Airline Points For European Travel

You're talking about going in the middle of the High Season. European travel is easier to deal with earlier in the Spring. The travel world remains in turmoil with supply and demand pushing retail prices. And if a route is not running full, airlines will cut it out. I'm seeing very high prices quoted from May on next year. It's questionable if any bargains are going to come up, other than Dublin.
The problem is getting to the desired destination from Dublin on Ryanair. They don't fly everywhere everyday.

I have done 10 trips to Europe, all with FF miles with Delta. I know your pain. As others have pointed out, you are looking at high season when Delta offers little to no choices. The only times I can get summer FF seats is when I stay up till midnight the night they become available. Regarding the half day layovers, that is a game Delta plays to encourage us to upgrade to the higher mileage seats for the direct flights. I have decided to take advantage of these layovers. We have explored cities like Atlanta and NYC because of these layovers and encourage you to do the same to keep the low miles. Another trick is to fly to another city that Delta has more seats for like London, Paris or Rome and then take a cheap flight or train to your desired location. There always seems to be "green" or low mile seats in one or more of these cities if you are flexible. I hope that helps. Good luck!!

For an occasional traveler like me, FF miles are virtually worthless. I signed up for United miles in 2000. After 5 or 6 years I had enough miles for a "Saver" award, but every time I checked, I found that so many flights were blacked out that I could not put together a trip over with a trip back within my lifetime. So I waited 6 more years, and got extra miles by getting a United Explorer card, to get a "Standard" award flight. Then I meat Robin, and she wanted to go over with me, so I was back to Saver. I took me days of searching to find workable flights. I am so disgusted with United miles that I'm not going to bother with them again. When my Explorer card comes up for renewal I will cancel it, because for the annual fee, I could buy the miles I get using it. The only thing the card gives me is priority boarding, so I can find a place for my small, flexible non-wheeled carryon bag before the people with oversized wheelies, which United ignores, get on.

Thanks to all for the suggestions. The lesson is to call the minute the return flights become available and hope for the best. I will try Delta again just to see how bad the connections are. And I am going to try British Airways and Air Canada to see whether they offer options. Yes, it is high season, and the fares for summer 2014 seem abnormally high. But the time period is generally fixed because the reason for going is a Baltic cruise. The cruise line fare basically includes a $1,000 credit for one booking flights through the cruise company's air program, so saving the points for future travel is an option. But there does seem a touch of bait-and-switch if the airlines allocate so few seats to their FF programs that the use of points for large periods of the year is a hopeless challenge.

Ibooked a low cost Business trip to Paris for next June. So not all Delta miles are useless

I certainly agree that Delta seems to be the worst when it comes to being able to use the miles you have. Little availability and much higher numbers of points required. However, I did find a way to use a bunch for our Croatia trip coming up in a couple of weeks. You can use the points for hotel stays. I got us three nights in a hotel in Dubrovnik. It looked perfect, with free parking and a location just 5 - 10 minutes from the old town. However, at $300/night, it's way out of our class. Got it free. Surprisingly, the hotel choices aren't limited to big, American-style chains. Same with United. Also, getting some nights free let me feel a little splurgy for some of the other nights.
One other way to use those points: Delta (maybe others, too) lets you use miles to reduce the price of a flight @ a rate of 10,000/$100. A couple of years ago, my husband and I got to Baltimore, to attend a wedding, for about $25 each (plus a lot of points).

Here's a tip. Keep calling. I called two days ago on Tuesday and was told there was nothing. I called yesterday and was given flights, though at the cost of 112,500 points per person. However, I was told that the flights arrangements could not held for any period of time and could not at that time be booked becuase I needed to transfer points from my American Express program to my Delta mileage program.
I just called and was given flights, again at the 112,500 point per person level. But I was told the flights could be held for roughly 48 hours, though Delta as of Sept. 9 will stop the practice of holding flights, and one paying for the flights with Delta mileage points will need to have the requisite points in the Delta program at the time the booking call is made.

In March I booked US-France-Italy flights with Delta points for the end of June, peak season. So for me Delta is far from absurd or useless. However, the awards function on the company's Internet site is clunky. Better to deal with an agent on the phone. By the way, Delta's points don't expire, unlike some of the competition. Could your problem have anything to do with American Express?