Would one-way awards help solve DL's problems?
#31
Join Date: Dec 2007
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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.
#32
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#33
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#34
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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.
#36
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so. it is just MSP - ORD - MUC - EWR (stopover) - ORD - ANC?
#37
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#38
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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.
#39
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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!
#41
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From your earlier post, it didn't sound like it.
Sounded like you were making an argument for CO vs. DL in that regard.
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.
Sounded like you were making an argument for CO vs. DL in that regard.
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
#42
Join Date: Feb 2003
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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 .
#43
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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 .
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 .
#44
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 4,115
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.
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
#45
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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.