Miles for major flight delay?
Jul 5, 2015, 11:04 pm
#1
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Miles for major flight delay?
After a 6+ hour delay for mechanical issues and a 90+ minute delay as the pilot timed out I got a notification that Delta is giving me 12500 bonus miles. Is this a common amount for all the hassle we are going through or should I ask for more?
Jul 6, 2015, 6:02 am
#5
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I got 10K for a 7 hour delay and subsequent cancellation the summer of 2013, seems like they bumped their figures up.
Plus, with their new award scheme, 12,500 is actually worth much more than it was, say, a year ago.
Plus, with their new award scheme, 12,500 is actually worth much more than it was, say, a year ago.
Jul 6, 2015, 6:14 am
#6
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Really? How do you figure that miles are worth more now than they were previously? Assuming that one can find "low" availability, prices for RT TATL or TPAC BE/D1 RT award tickets have gone up by 20,000-25,000 miles.
Jul 6, 2015, 6:49 am
#7
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OP might try a search on 'compensation, mechanical' if he needs more examples to be satisfied or emboldened to ask for more. There's a big compensation thread.
Jul 6, 2015, 6:58 am
#8
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I recently got 2500 for a just-short-of four hour delay, due to mechanical. Your delay was twice as long, but, or course, the delay becomes exponentially more frustrating the longer it goes on. Five times the number of points for twice the delay seems within reason.
Jul 6, 2015, 8:06 am
#9
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I also booked an open-jaw TATL D1 award for 125k each that was pricing at over $10k for the routing I wanted (and which I'd realistically have paid about $5k for a slightly less convenient routing).
I can now book one-way awards to position for fares found in the MR/Good Deals threads.
Perhaps because I'm the one person on FT who seems to be doing well under the new earning/redemption structures, DL seems to never offer me miles as compensation for delays or cancellations...
Jul 6, 2015, 8:36 am
#10
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Jul 6, 2015, 8:49 am
#11
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I just booked a RT domestic coach award for 25k that was pricing at ~$700 cash (and which I would have paid as it was an essential trip and other airlines were pricing the same).
I also booked an open-jaw TATL D1 award for 125k each that was pricing at over $10k for the routing I wanted (and which I'd realistically have paid about $5k for a slightly less convenient routing).
I can now book one-way awards to position for fares found in the MR/Good Deals threads.
Perhaps because I'm the one person on FT who seems to be doing well under the new earning/redemption structures, DL seems to never offer me miles as compensation for delays or cancellations...
I also booked an open-jaw TATL D1 award for 125k each that was pricing at over $10k for the routing I wanted (and which I'd realistically have paid about $5k for a slightly less convenient routing).
I can now book one-way awards to position for fares found in the MR/Good Deals threads.
Perhaps because I'm the one person on FT who seems to be doing well under the new earning/redemption structures, DL seems to never offer me miles as compensation for delays or cancellations...
I have also been about to find 25k domestic r/t tickets twice since the changes, both of which were obtained within a week of travel. (ATL-SCE and ATL-BUF)
It all depends upon your perspective. I used to earn an average of 1125 for my expensive short hops. Now, I'm at close to 2000 for each leg of each trip, up 78% per trip. For us short hoppers on last minute tickets, the points are flowing much faster.
Jul 6, 2015, 9:16 am
#12
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That's a matter of how much it costs, in money or time, to earn RDMs. Whether the RDMs are worth more or less now is a different question.
Jul 6, 2015, 9:21 am
#13
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Bob H
Jul 6, 2015, 9:22 am
#14
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Jul 6, 2015, 9:53 am
#15
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For some pax, DL has made the miles harder to obtain, so on the side of getting RDM as compensation for a delay, those RDM are worth more since it would have taken more time/effort/money to obtain them through flying than it did in the past. Sort of like how a t-shirt given for finishing a marathon might be "worth" more to someone than that same t-shirt purchased secondhand at a thrift store.
Of course, the other side of "worth" or "value" is what you can exchange the currency for.
Both sides of the equation are very heavily YMMV.