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Would one-way awards help solve DL's problems?

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Old Feb 14, 2011, 5:28 pm
  #31  
 
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Originally Posted by itsaboutthejourney
With such dissatisfaction with DL's availability, cost of awards and booking engine itself, would one-way awards help solve DL's problems?

And of course, UA & AA have them.
I love flying Delta, but find that American Airlines and United will be getting significantly increased business from our organization in the next few years because of their one way award availability.

Also, at 2,000,000 miles earned from any source on American Airlines, you are awarded lifetime Platinum status. At 1,000,000 miles you get lifetime Gold status.

Delta used to print our frequent flyer total enrollment miles on our statements. This total has recently disappeared from our Skymiles statements. If Delta recognized our loyality on all purchasing from all sources just like American Airlines, this would be another reason to justify giving Delta more business for our corporate travel needs.
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Old Feb 14, 2011, 6:18 pm
  #32  
 
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Originally Posted by itsaboutthejourney
With such dissatisfaction with DL's availability, cost of awards and booking engine itself, would one-way awards help solve DL's problems?

And of course, UA & AA have them.
YES IT WOULD! PLEASE, Delta... Get with the program...
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Old Feb 14, 2011, 6:30 pm
  #33  
 
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Originally Posted by fti
I am on a 5-month layover in MSP right now. But one doesn't need to live in a hub to make stopovers work well.
but CO is better. I am on a 7.5-month stopover in HKG right now...
ooooppp. i am not even in HK!
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Old Feb 14, 2011, 6:31 pm
  #34  
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Originally Posted by pbd456
but CO is better. I am on a 7.5-month stopover in HKG right now...
ooooppp. i am not even in HK!
That's fine. If CO can get me to MUC once in J, to EWR once in Y, and to ANC twice (booked once in Y and booked once in F - not UG'd, though I still might get UG's ANC-MSP) for 125K miles, please let me know how. I have done just that with DL recently.
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Old Feb 14, 2011, 6:32 pm
  #35  
 
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Yes, one-way awards (at 50% RT miles) would help a lot!
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Old Feb 14, 2011, 6:34 pm
  #36  
 
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Originally Posted by fti
That's fine. If CO can get me to MUC once in J, to EWR once in Y, and to ANC twice (booked once in Y and booked once in F - not UG'd, though I still might get UG's ANC-MSP) for 125K miles, please let me know how. I have done just that with DL recently.
CO allows both stopover + open jaw.
so. it is just MSP - ORD - MUC - EWR (stopover) - ORD - ANC?
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Old Feb 14, 2011, 6:34 pm
  #37  
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Originally Posted by wanaflyforless
Yes, one-way awards (at 50% RT miles) would help a lot!
But only if the stopover and open jaw provisions don't change. That is my only contention.
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Old Feb 14, 2011, 6:41 pm
  #38  
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Originally Posted by pbd456
CO allows both stopover + open jaw.
so. it is just MSP - ORD - MUC - EWR (stopover) - ORD - ANC?
DL also allows both stopover and open jaw.

Not sure how you get 2x ANC from the routing you gave. Unfortunately it is quite a bit more complicated than that. And I didn't mention that besides the 125K miles and taxes, I also paid $125 for a OW ticket MSP-EWR.
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Old Feb 14, 2011, 6:48 pm
  #39  
 
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Originally Posted by fti
DL also allows both stopover and open jaw.

Not sure how you get 2x ANC from the routing you gave. Unfortunately it is quite a bit more complicated than that. And I didn't mention that besides the 125K miles and taxes, I also paid $125 for a OW ticket MSP-EWR.
CO has zero routing restriction. i am pretty sure you can do
MSP - ORD - MUC - ORD - MSP- SFO - SEA - ANC.

the ticket is easier to find on *A than on DL.
i do take advantage of stopover + open jaw on DL as well!
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Old Feb 14, 2011, 6:55 pm
  #40  
 
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The only problem with Delta is that I don't think they care what we want.
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Old Feb 14, 2011, 7:01 pm
  #41  
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Originally Posted by pbd456
i do take advantage of stopover + open jaw on DL as well!
From your earlier post, it didn't sound like it.

Originally Posted by pbd456
CO allows both stopover + open jaw.
Sounded like you were making an argument for CO vs. DL in that regard.

Originally Posted by gmid2006
The only problem with Delta is that I don't think they care what we want.
I would agree with you. But that doesn't mean I can't use them and their offers/rewards to my advantage. Currently I can charge $12K on one of my credit cards and get two trips to ANC and one to another domestic destination using Delta. I picked ANC because I love going there, but basically pick any three destinations to fly RT to. Very hard to do with most (any?) other programs. Yes, it takes a ton of work. Yes, I need to be flexible and persistent. Yes, it really helps to be PM. No, most people wouldn't take the time and effort. But for me, it is worth it.

Last edited by fti; Feb 14, 2011 at 7:11 pm
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Old Feb 14, 2011, 8:18 pm
  #42  
 
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Originally Posted by fti
As said before, if there was a choice of either o/w or stopover/open jaw, it is a no brainer to me to keep things just as they currently are.
Not a no brainer. I get FAR more use out of one way tickets than I do from stop-overs. Open jaws are by definition available with one way tickets as that's what they are, so that part is irrelevant. In fact, these would improve as you could do open jaws between two regions, which you cannot do today on DL.

A stopover at most usually just runs you another one way intra-region ticket (i.e. 10k or 20k). That's a small premium on an occasional ticket to gain the flexibility from one way tickets. IMHO of course .
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Old Feb 14, 2011, 8:28 pm
  #43  
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Originally Posted by HeadInTheClouds
Not a no brainer. I get FAR more use out of one way tickets than I do from stop-overs. Open jaws are by definition available with one way tickets as that's what they are, so that part is irrelevant. In fact, these would improve as you could do open jaws between two regions, which you cannot do today on DL.

A stopover at most usually just runs you another one way intra-region ticket (i.e. 10k or 20k). That's a small premium on an occasional ticket to gain the flexibility from one way tickets. IMHO of course .
Yep, and my opinion is that stopovers combined with open jaws are far more valuable than one way awards (I mentioned a couple of examples above). Very few people on this forum appear to use the powerful stopover/open jaw combination on DL to its full effect (in fact most don't even know it exists - check another thread I started last week). Fine with me. If they did, DL would probably stop the option anyway.
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Old Feb 15, 2011, 6:10 am
  #44  
 
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Originally Posted by fti
Yep, and my opinion is that stopovers combined with open jaws are far more valuable than one way awards (I mentioned a couple of examples above). Very few people on this forum appear to use the powerful stopover/open jaw combination on DL to its full effect (in fact most don't even know it exists - check another thread I started last week). Fine with me. If they did, DL would probably stop the option anyway.
I know what they are, and I definitely use them - UA's 'either/or' stopover/jaw rule used to annoy me greatly. When AA made this change, I initially had the same feelings as you're expressing here. But once AA and UA went to full one way awards, the dramatic impact of that was frankly overwhelming. It just opened up all sorts of different options that made award travel so much easier.

Combining carriers for award tickets, combining awards with cheap paid legs, multi-leg trips, waiting out better routings leg by leg/carrier by carrier, etc. Booking an award is a totally different game for me today thanks to one ways, and at most it has cost me an occasional extra intra-Europe 10k award to regain a stopover.

Just don't under-estimate how liberating this change could be. I wouldn't change the AA program back for the old stopover rules. Though, hat's off to UA . There is no reason this swap has to be an "either/or".

To be honest, the bigger problem with DL would be the fuel taxes on return legs/segments in Europe.

Last edited by HeadInTheClouds; Feb 15, 2011 at 6:30 am
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Old Feb 15, 2011, 7:12 am
  #45  
 
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Originally Posted by fti
Yep, and my opinion is that stopovers combined with open jaws are far more valuable than one way awards (I mentioned a couple of examples above). Very few people on this forum appear to use the powerful stopover/open jaw combination on DL to its full effect (in fact most don't even know it exists - check another thread I started last week). Fine with me. If they did, DL would probably stop the option anyway.
I missed the original thread, thanks for the reminder. This is going to make next redemption maddeningly complex to book but so rewarding.
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