MilesBuzz! - Further Thought on Redemption Fees

Casual reader of this board and first time posting. I know there's been a lot of chatter on here before about redemption fees for award ticket booking. Not looking to rehash those old arguments. But I noticed something interesting that hopefully hasn't been discussed on here before.

I've been attempting to book an Award Ticket flight on Delta for an upcoming weekend. I noticed that beyond 21 days out, the non-stop that I was looking at was at 40,000 miles, and the low flight (one-stop both ways) was 32,500 miles. Within 21 days, the $75 fee was tacked on and the number of miles necessary for each stayed consistent.

Then something interesting happened. Once we got into $100 and $150 redemption fee territory, the miles for the low flight dropped to 25,000 and that just so happened to be a non-stop each way.

My point is this: If Delta wants to ding you for 40,000 miles for a flight 21+ days out and then charge you a redemption fee as the travel date gets closer while the number of miles necessary remains the same or increases, then fine, I get it. But if they drop the miles necessary by 15,000 over that span, that just seems a little disingenuous and almost forces an extra fee on people (either you pay too much 21+ days out in terms of miles, or you pay fewer miles but more cash closer in). Looks like I might be one of the ones to fall into the trap that they're pushing us towards - getting the Platinum CC.

I think what you saw was random. The number of award seats at different levels, like the number of paid seats in different fare classes, can fluctuate as flight time approaches based on demand for the flight compared to what the yield management software expected. It can go either way in both cases.

Airlines want to hold onto seats, in the hope that a paying passenger will show up, until the probability of that happening gets really low. At that time they release more award (or upgrade, same logic) seats. If you're a gambler, you can wait for this to happen - knowing that it may not. If you're not, you book what you can get when you can get it.

Late redemption fees are unrelated to this. They're simply a successful effort, on the part of the airlines, to extract more money from our wallets.

I have more of a problem with the airlines that tack fuel surcharge fees onto award tickets (or any ticket for that matter). I mean, it's not like they could ever sell you the ticket without having the fuel needed to fly the plane. It's a cost of doing business and should be built into the cost of a ticket. Charge enough for the ticket so that the fuel is paid for -- but, that's just my opinion.

I have more of a problem with the airlines that tack fuel surcharge fees onto award tickets...So do I, but I think we have to change our collective mindset. We have to stop thinking in terms of "free" (i.e., no cash, I know how much we put up with to earn those miles, been there done that) awards and start thinking in terms of discounted awards. That's where the world is today, like it or not, with different airlines more or less up front about it. When we make "burn or buy" decisions we can no longer just look at the fare and evaluate it in terms of the number of miles we'd need for an award. We have to look at the difference between the cash fare and the discounted cash-plus-miles award fare. Most of us realize this at some level, but I'm not sure it's penetrated to the subconscious.