SAT Lawyer

The miles theoretically required for awards at the "low" tier are palatable.

The problem is that the tier levels appear to be illusory. As an exercise, I chose ATL-GIG, looking for one seat, round-trip, in business class. The award chart for "Southern South America" indicates that the "low" price is 50,000 miles each way for what should be a total of 100,000 round-trip. But when I pick a sample outbound of January 15 and a return of January 19 -- a combination with both flights supposedly available at the "low" level according to the calendar -- DL quotes me a price of 150,000 miles. An outbound of May 28 with a return of June 9 yields an even higher cost of 200,000 miles even with both flights supposedly offered at the "low" level. So, what's the use of a three-tiered structure if the actual mileage requirements bear little or no resemblance to what is supposedly offered at each tier?

No less grim, between February and November 2009, the DL award calendar shows only 16 outbound dates and three inbound dates in business class at the amorphous "low" level. No single month has both outbound and inbound award inventory at the low level. February has one outbound date and zero returns; March and April are zeros both ways; May has three outbound dates, but no returns; June and July have no outbound seats and one return date; August has a fairly robust seven outbound dates, but no returns; September has four outbound dates and no returns; October has two outbound dates, but no returns; and November has no outbound dates with one return.