Delta's SkyMiles award changes aren't all bad... more Air France availability and a new award chart "sweet spot?"

with regards to india, you can also fly china southern via LAX to delhi (which is their only desitnation). Or virgin atlantic via london to delhi and mumbai.

@Ben -- I'm sure they will fix that loophole shortly...

How (if at all) will this affect using Virgin Atlantic miles for Air France/Delta flights? I'm hoping to use my VA miles for SFO - CDG

Hi Lucky;

Nice reporting!

However, the Delta blocking of partner awards, at least business class, hasn't been in effect for a couple of months. I booked LAX-FCO/open jaw/VCE-CDG/CDG-LAX in business on AZ and AF for next May/June. (TATL nonstops, hard to get from LA). Availability for AF was good at the Delta booking horizon. AZ less so (and not daily flights), but still got a pair on Memorial Day weekend.

Glad I got in under the wire! Thanks to you and Gary's assessment to where Delta was heading.

A "sweet spot" created because other prices increased isn't much of a sweet spot imo. It's cheaper relative to the other awards, but those all require a lot of points now.

Just when i needed to wait one more day to book a SYD-Murica award for july 2014. F.

I've actually found a lot of bus class award space to/from Europe this summer, but this new mileage increase is another annoyance. I'm not sure what value Delta is offering as justification, but as Gary said in his post, the lie-flat seats really aren't enough.

Gotta love the new American Airlines elite challenge though. I've never considered AA elite status until now.

Is AF classic award space "O" class? Because I can't get the O availability on expertflyer to match up with delta.com, unless I'm searching the wrong fare class

Thanks to Mac @ PointsPros I was able to book 4 business class for next summer round-trip using AF metal...A380 LAX-CDG. ...at the DL LOW AWARD level.

Makes it less worse, I guess... any idea if this change will also apply for the formerly limited Virgin Atlantic upper class availability as well?

@ David O -- Shouldn't impact it at all. Virgin Atlantic miles can't be redeemed for travel on Air France, though they'll continue to be redeemable for travel on Delta.

@ beachfan -- There weren't doing a lot of blocking and I could be going crazy, but I do see some change between now and a few days ago in terms of west coast to Europe availability.

@ Travel Summary -- We've gotta make the best of what we got! 😉

@ Joe -- Yes it is. When you're looking at availability on Delta's website be sure you click "Search By Schedule" and not "Search by Price" if you want the Air France space to show up.

I see that business class is available but it looks like economy is blocked on the delta site. But I can see the economy seats on EF and the Air France website.

We don't know what this means yet -- remember that the best match between Delta and Air France availability has been 10-11 months out, and this was true for last summer when the mismatch first began. (This is a period where the Air France program does not yet have access to Air France seats!)

We need to wait and see how this holds up after a few months.

Can you provide a link to your friend Mac?

@ Rob -- Do you have a specific flight you're looking at?

@ aegt123 -- His email is mac ~at~ pointspros -dot- com.

One positive that seems to have happened is that availability on KLM/AirFrance has opened up again. I'd deal with the devaluation if there were simply more award seats open to DL fliers.