Delta 2015 SkyMiles Award Chart

i thought it was illegal for Delta to announce any changes in advance... should we file a police report???
😉

any toilet pictures?

The biggest change was and continue to be one way redemptions, which make SkyMiles a lot more useable. Even at Standard I can now book a one way from NYC to HKG on Delta and then book a return via Avios or Alaska on Cathay. The ability to mix and match different awards is a big plus for users. Glad Delta made that change.

Hello Lucky,

One a separate note, I have the Platinum card from Amex and have presently listed Delta for my '$200 Airline Fee Credit'. I'm on the verge of moving away from DL to AA and wondering if it 's possible to change my statement credit to another airline starting next year?

Thanks!!

Lucky,

Any idea how this will affect their openjaw policy? Is it safe to assume openjaws are still in effect if we book a R/T ticket?

Knowing Delta , they will now just shift award availability-- so that the old saver award seats will now mostly be in the new level 2 group etc

Delta treated the F.F. as the enemy( Something as simple as fixing the booking engine they would not do because it would make it easier for f.f. to use miles )--so I do not believe they have now changed

starting award trips from Europe , the YQ IS HIGHER THAN B.A. OUT OF LONDON

Will partners still book into the low bucket though?.....

The question is what percentage of awards Delta allocates to the lowest tier of miles needed for award redemption. They can program their computers to only offer 3-5 percent for these types of awards. What is the worst aspect of Delta's changes to SkyPesos is the massive reduction of miles earned versus miles flown. JFK-SFO would currently be around 2581 x 2 = 5162 miles for a non elite, 10324 for a DL Platinum elite. A non elite buying a $400 ticket would now only earn 2000 miles and a DL Platinum would earn 3600 SkyPesos. Yet DL requires 125,000 MQMs to be earned for their top level.

Contrast this with the continued awarding of 1 mile per dollar spent on the DL AMEX cards, and one has to wonder why DL would create incentives for people not to fly on their planes but to spend on their DL SkyPesos branded credit cards.

A final insult of the new SkyPeso program is the cap of 75,000 miles earned on the purchase of a ticket, so a purchased DL Biz class ticket to SYD at $10K only earns 75K miles?

At a certain point, loyalty to an airline frequent flyer program no longer makes sense, and it is best to simply find the best valued product for the price. The international carriers like SQ, LH, CX, TG and EK offer a far superior product relative to their American competitors.

DELTA: Driving Every Loyalty Traveler Away.

@ Tara -- Yep, you can change your designated airline each year.

@ Dennis -- I don't think their stopover and/or open jaw policy will change, though no way to know for sure (yet).

@ Del -- Yes, I think that's a safe assumption to make.

Hope so! Dont want them following UA here

The award chart is exactly the same at the saver level. So the real question is will Delta release the same generous saver amount, or will the release less?

Also Lucky, will partner awards be redeemable as one-ways for 1/2 the price of a round trip? Any info or guess.

@ Greg -- That's my understanding.

should be interesting to see how this plays out

I am guessing we will see more of the new tier between saver and standard. That way, Delta doesnt have to release more saver awards and people feel better that the got "lower level" ticket.

Is there a new chart for people travelling from Hawaii to Asia and other parts of the world?

Watch partner awards go wY up.

I've got to imagine that with one-way awards available, open-jaw should still be possible. I worry about the good stopover routings that could become more restrictive.

Seems like a lot of smoke and mirrors to get some good PR about lowering the cost of most awards. I'm sure a email blast tooting their own horn will be coming soon. This new "lower" chart is only useful if there is level 1 availability, which is doubtful.

@ Beachfan -- I think it's safe to assume that they'll book into the "level 1" category.

@ EY -- They've only published the one for travel originating in the lower 48 so far. I doubt the charts for travel originating elsewhere will look much worse, given that they only represent a small percentage of redeemed miles.

You are a bit over optimistic ? (Again). The "S" in more availability in lower levels - rather than lowest level means that it is a certainty that the meager saver availability will be further reduced (otherwise Delta would have said the lowest level will have more availability).
For second lowest level is often close to standard. For domestic it is 35,000 instead of standard 40,000 and saver 25,000. So I consider it a big devaluation as I very rarely book any award except at saver. So the new second low is much closer to the former mid level.
Also it further devalues partner awards as only the saver will be available.

Sure they reduced a fair number of high end awards that most people can not afford or use anyway.

But what do you expect from Skypesos. I feel sorry for people who live in Delta Hubs...

Can u book partner First/Business with Skymiles err.. Skypesos?

@ Raj -- You can book business class on partners using SkyMiles, but not first class.

Is the 'cash and miles' only for DL metal or for partner redemptions (like avios allows for some) ?

@ Mike S. -- To the best of my knowledge it's only valid for Delta metal flights.

Same ol' Delta playing pea in the shell game. Doesn't make much difference what they do if you can't find low level space. Dollars to doughnuts, Tier 1 and 2 space will be equivalent to current Saver space, so in effect, you've got another defacto devaluation as you'll need to pony up to Tier 2 pricing to find any availability at all.

If you have one of their gold AmEx cards and you purchase a Delta ticket with it, how many points do you get per dollar?

@ The Gold Delta SkyMiles Card? You earn two miles per dollar spent on Delta airfare with it.

So on my flights from Florida to Hawaii I will only earn 8,400 miles instead of 11,500 (figuring an average ticket is $1,200). Looks like I will be doing more business with USAir and American)

I have Platinum, as I fly a lot of long hauls to Africa, and I am also a bargain hunter. This new strategy make it hard for me to get to same elite level; for instance, I already have 68K MQM (30K carried over from 2013)and still have not hit Silver yet because I have not spent enough. My conclusion; it's time to move back to Emirate or US/AA. I find that it is much easier to redeem their miles than Delta's.

Hi Lucky, I have some SkyMiles left and don't intend to use them any time soon on award tickets. What would be a good way to trade/spend them?

@ Daniel -- How many do you have?

@Lucky, not much. Just about 42k.

Ben, do you have an update on the availability of stopovers on one-way DL award tix? thinking about Tokyo-HNL (stop) - PDX. Can't even find anything at DL site.

@ colleen -- Delta doesn't allow any stopovers. Not on one ways or roundtrips.