Already Live: Mileage Redemption Increase
 

(At this point, my kind of humor is gallows-style. Hence, I'm using ":D" instead of my usual ":rolleyes:")

Where's the press release, DL? Edit: DL's official announcement is in post #6.
Here's what I've figured out:

* BE low awards between USA and Europe will cost 125k (up from 100k) round-trip for travel starting 6/1/14.

Test cases:
100k :) 5/14/14 DL18 DTW-LHR; 5/21/14 DL19 LHR-DTW
125k :D 6/2/14 DL18 DTW-LHR; 6/10/14 DL39 LHR-ATL DL1513 ATL-DTW


* BE low awards between USA and Asia will cost 140k (up from 120k) round-trip for travel starting 6/1/14.

Test cases:
120k :) 5/7/14 DL173 JFK-NRT/MNL; 5/21/14 DL172 NRT/MNL-JFK
My JFK-MNL-JFK BE award travel this December. :p (Redeemed a few months ago.)
140k :D 6/11/14 DL173 JFK-NRT/MNL; 6/25/14 DL172 NRT/MNL-JFK


* BE low awards between USA and Australia will cost 160k (up from 150k) round-trip for travel starting 6/1/14.

Test cases:
150k :) 5/7/14 DL17 LAX-SYD; 5/21/14 DL16 SYD-LAX
160k :D 6/11/14 DL17 LAX-SYD; 6/18/14 VA1 SYD-LAX

* BE low awards between USA and South Africa will cost 160k (up from 140k) round-trip for travel starting 6/1/14.

Test cases:
160k :D 6/3/14 DL5 JFK-LHR VS601 LHR-JNB; 6/16/14 VS602 JNB-LHR 6/17/14 DL2 LHR-JFK
140k :)
My DTW-LHR-JNB-LHR-DTW BE award travel next May and June. :p (Redeemed mileage a week ago. Whew! Just beat the devaluation.)

* BE low awards between USA and South America will cost 125k (up from 100k) round-trip for travel starting 6/1/14.

As reported by Rylan.


Enjoy the enhancements!!! :D :D :D :D

...and has availabilty increased, or is this just another Delta Devaluation for which they are justly (in)famous?

Europe-Asia in business went from 120k to 140k overnight while I was waiting for a flight to clear... :mad::mad:

Hey guys, being the worst doesn't come easy. They have to keep trying to stay at the bottom of the pile successfully.

On the bright side, that's a lot of notice.

Looks like LAX-SYD prices at 160k. I can live with that I guess.

Changes to BusinessElite Mileage Redemption and Award Hold policy
 

Today we will make updates to delta.com in two content areas that you’ll be interested in, so we’re posting here as a heads up.

BusinessElite® low mileage redemption:
Many of you have experienced first hand our significant investments in products over the past several years. In June 2014, we will be the only U.S. carrier to offer full flat-bed seats with direct aisle access in Business Class across our entire wide-body fleet. Our premium cabins will also soon offer new, on-demand in-flight entertainment options and we are in the process of adding in-flight Wi-Fi on our long-haul international aircraft scheduled to be complete by 2015. We've also partnered with premium brands Westin and Tumi on new bedding and amenity kits and we're introducing new dining options.

As a result, we’ve recognized the need for adjustments to our low mileage redemption levels for select international Award Tickets in BusinessElite. The mileage redemption adjustments are effective today for Award Travel on or after June 1, 2014. Please check our Award charts for updated mileage levels later today.

Award Hold policy change
We will continue to offer our 24-hour Risk-free Cancellation option for Award Tickets, but will discontinue our Award Ticket hold option. More than one million Award Seats per year are held by members who don’t use them which negatively impacts other members’ Award Seat access. The new policy will be effective for Award Ticket reservations made on or after September 9, 2013, and at that time, Award Seats may no longer be held without ticketing.

We’ll be checking back periodically for your comments or clarifications if something isn’t clear.

And thats just the low... I can just imagine how much the mid and high are going up.

So far for BE we have as of 6/1/14:

US-EU
low 100k->125k

US-Asia (both north and SE)
low 120k->140k

US-Australia
low 150k->160k

US-South Africa
low 140k->160k

US-South America
low 100k->125k

I see no changes to US-Caribbean/Central America/Mexico so seems to be only routes with 'real' BE.

Mid and high level is key, since low is seldom available...

Looks like Coach will still have 25k low domestic. Interesting that only BE is getting the bump up.

Has been officially announced

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...ld-policy.html

So they can fix the Award calendar with ease to bump up the values but still can't seem to fix the search feature :rolleyes:

Hahahahaha - there are no low-level redemptions for business class - time to put this canard to bed.

Hey Dwayne, care to speak to the "award calendar"?

I thought not.

Not true, if you fly partners on an award this just hit you hard too. Mid level looks to be the same on searches I just did US-EU. Sure enough 125k for LAX-CDG... wow that sucks.

An award deval is never good.

Oh boy. Will this affect already-ticketed DL reservations in BE if, as a PM/DM, I choose to make changes to that existing reservation?

Stupidly they haven't updated .com yet

I have not had much success in getting partner awards, and based on many threads on this board, this is not uncommon.