Earlier I wrote about how Delta SkyMiles jacked up business class award costs for travel between the US and Europe. Previously they charged 70,000 SkyMiles for a one-way business class award, while after the change they charged 86,000 SkyMiles one-way. Rather bizarrely they charge 85,000 SkyMiles for travel on a partner airline, so it's now…
Continue reading: Delta SkyMiles Increases Partner Award Costs As Well
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Been flying Delta since '93. Skymile Award costs fluctuate wildly throughout the year like airfares. Be patient and flexible and lower awards will appear periodically throughout the year. There is no rhyme or reason to the awards Past experience has shown that sometimes partner airlines are cheaper, and sometimes not. For example, snagged two Business Class RT tickets from MSP to LHR for October travel dates for 110,000 miles each. Unfortunately both legs included the DL 767-300 product which is far inferior to the A330 reverse herringbone design, but for 110,000 miles RT, who's to complain.
Bank points are going to become better uses for some Business class rewards (depending on location ) Just WOW these increases are getting a little crazy.
So there really is NO point in applying for Amex cards with Delta points as they become worthless as you earn them!
there is a sweet spot for new pricing. EU-Australia is just 90k in J, usually route through Asia or Europe to SE Asia for 80k in J
UK to India is 65K for business class.
I am sure they will mess the 'sweet spots' up as soon as they spot them on all the usual websites.
Unfortuntely, it's sad seeing Delta destroying any value associated with its miles. In the end, the ones that are really punished here are the loyal customers that flies Delta a lot and that see the value of their loyalty finished time and time again.very sad.
For the quarter ending June 30, 2017, Delta's NET income was $1.22 Billion. That is over $1 billion in NET income just for that quarter.
With such massive profits, why would they continue to scr_w over their loyal customers? Answer: because they can and there must be a few people in management who enjoy hurting people. These people get a kick from making it harder and harder for Skymiles holders to redeem their miles for a flight. The fewer people are able to redeem their skymiles, the happier these management people are. They probably read the blogs and laugh with glee seeing Skymiles holders get frustrated. The only consolation is that karma will get back at them someday for what they are doing to innocent customers.
I’m still finding some steals on DL using VS Flying Club miles. These are great values if you live near a Delta hub.
Remind us again why you’re switching to Delta over say, United or Alaska again?
These prices to CMB are high because of the routing through SVO. You can build the iterary through Asia for 95,000. Still a Mother F****** rip off considering American is 110K in FIRST class and United is 90K in biz class but has much much much better partners. Both do. Also watch what happens to the price within 21 days. OUCH. In fact with American and United you can often find saver awards close to departure. DL raises prices closer to departure in miles EVEN if the cost of the ticket drops.
Delta, AA, United all the same. I'd say to stop peddling airline credit cards, but even better thing to do is to stop spending on them.
Loyalty to Ultimate Rewards, TYP and MR only.
Lucky, how long until you're pimping the Delta cards again telling us how awesome they are?
So Delta partner award to South Asia have been 120k when flown 100% with a partner. If you flew Delta across the Atlantic and then a partner from EU to India it was 97.5k. When they adjusted the US-EU to 86k and then moved it back to 70k, the South Asia flights didn't move back to 97.5k. Really crazy what they are doing given you can fly JFK-DXB for 85k (partner or mixed DL/Partner) and even JFK-SIN is much cheaper than 120k. Don't know why DL is singling out India. Especially since US-India J class tickets are not super expensive. Btw they also increase coach to 50k.
@Willem well he doesn't fly United because he can't earn miles through their program anymore. And the Alaska argument is silly, they don't fly enough places/times.
That's like people in the south saying the only airline they'll fly is Southwest... ok great have fun at mostly non-major airports in the US and Central America... serious travelers need more options than JetBlue, Alaska, or Southwest can offer, unfortunately.