I love British Air because of being able to combine into a "family" account and it worked so well for us to/from So.Africa. OTOH, I've had really good success with AA miles to Europe (sometimes stopping off in NYC for a few days) and love being able to get 1 way tickets.

I used our UAL miles to book one way flights LAX to Istanbul then back Rome to LAX on MARINER flight in Oct. (should add I got up at 2:30am when flights opened and got exactly what I wanted) so that's worked out well too.

Like others, I have given up on Delta. They NEVER have any flights for the least amount of miles nor do they do one ways. It is just not a good fit for us so no longer even trying to accrue Delta miles. I'm sticking with One World and Star Alliance.

I do wish that the AmEx Starwood card had better redemption with UAL, it's 2:1 instead of 1:1.

Like Ted, there's always Regent Air where we use the air deviation perk which is great.

Good luck Julie. I hope your persistence pays off.