Delta news hub post: "SkyMiles members enjoy record redemptions in first quarter"
Apr 29, 2016, 11:08 am
#1
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Delta news hub post: "SkyMiles members enjoy record redemptions in first quarter"
Was looking through the news section on the DL web site to see if there was any other stuff from yesterday/today's announcements and saw:
http://news.delta.com/skymiles-membe...-first-quarter
1. Macro/aggregated behavior always interest me (e.g. one of the LV buffets used to have TV screens with videos/factoids to entertain people waiting line and one of them was like, how many pounds of prime rib they go through in a day). 2.2 million sounds like a lot, but then Delta has a lot of customers. One every 3.5 seconds!
2. Obviously this comes with marketing spin -- my first thought was "everyone's rushing to cash them in before they get devalued even further"
-- but not sure how that squares with the second part I quoted. Clearly the award levels have gone up and there's dynamic pricing now; could the effect of the sales be that strong? Lies, damn lies, and statistics -- would like to see the numbers behind the calculation here.
http://news.delta.com/skymiles-membe...-first-quarter
Members redeemed miles for more than 2.2 million Award trips in the first three months of the year, or about one Award every 3.5 seconds [...] Even better for SkyMiles members, the average mileage redemption amount per ticket was down approximately 10 percent versus last year.
2. Obviously this comes with marketing spin -- my first thought was "everyone's rushing to cash them in before they get devalued even further"
-- but not sure how that squares with the second part I quoted. Clearly the award levels have gone up and there's dynamic pricing now; could the effect of the sales be that strong? Lies, damn lies, and statistics -- would like to see the numbers behind the calculation here.
Apr 29, 2016, 12:08 pm
#3
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To me award levels have clearly decreased in recent months with some awards available for as low as 3,500 miles one-way. Increases in the past year are not clear to me.
Last edited by Beckles; Apr 29, 2016 at 1:00 pm
Apr 29, 2016, 12:10 pm
#4
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Purely anecdotal, but we've upped our redemptions. 10K one ways and 20-25K r/ts domestic on low-competition (ie high-cash) routes is working for us. It is actually the main reason I bank miles at all, for domestic trips that price out stupid in paid classes. Of course there are times when that also means a bumped up redemption rate, but surprisingly not as much as one might expect.
thesaints: maybe. But I used 8K pesos to Pay With Miles a V fare up to F, and collected 150% MQMs. So there can be a benefit to status qual to redemptions in some cases, besides just enjoying a fairly cheap FCM of course.
thesaints: maybe. But I used 8K pesos to Pay With Miles a V fare up to F, and collected 150% MQMs. So there can be a benefit to status qual to redemptions in some cases, besides just enjoying a fairly cheap FCM of course.
Apr 29, 2016, 12:58 pm
#6
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One way awards are relatively new and would almost certainly lead to an increase in the number of award tickets and a decrease in the number of miles per ticket. One way awards are certainly a customer-friendly and overdue feature, but I expect they on their own could easily explain a 10% reduction in the miles per ticket without indicating that members are getting 10% better value per mile (as the statistic was presumably intended to imply).