rstrodes

Is there any specific cadence to when Delta offers a sale on award flights? For example, last February Delta ran a sale giving 10% off domestic award flights (i.e., 25k miles reduced to 22.5k miles for a domestic round trip itinerary). Is there any way to predict when they'll offer these sales, for either domestic or international travel?

javabytes

No, there isn't.

xliioper

While the exact date is not consistent, they have been offering them mid-month (between the 8th and 17th) every month since August of last year. I'm referring to the "Monthly Skymiles Flash Sale" which lasts for 48 hours. The most recent one was for Canada and started June 12th. They are mostly for coach, but 4 of them have included D1/First.


Here's a list:

June (Canada)
May (Caribbean and Florida)
April (South America including D1)
March (Europe including D1)
February (LAX)
January (Mexico)
December (Asia)
November (Europe - D1 sale)
October (New York)
September (Hawaii including F)
August (Caribbean)

javabytes

Even if you know the rough time of month when they tend to appear, there is no way to predict what will be going on sale. For example, OP's inquiry about another 10% off domestic sale... even if you know sales tend to appear in the middle half of the month, no one knows the next time domestic awards might be put on sale.

xliioper

Well, in terms of "general" award fare sales, I'm not aware of any such offerings. I searched my email for February and found no "10%" off offerings. Perhaps OP could provide further details on this offer. I'm only aware of the regular 48 hour flash sales which are targeted at particular destinations. That said, there are numerous domestic routes where DL offers coach awards for less than 25K RT (there are some as low as 11K RT). If OP provides his home airport, we could likely identify some options.

rstrodes

Thanks for the info re the flash sales each month for the last year. The sale I caught in February was indeed a non-stop to LAX. I don't fly Delta much, so I don't get their emails; I must have found out about this one in February from a deals website. At the moment, I'm looking for a sale to Europe, but I have plenty of time to find one, as I'm not going until next year. Looks like they do flash sales to Europe periodically, so I'll just sign up for their emails and wait to see if anything comes along this fall.

C W

Is there some kind of minor domestic sale going on right now?

I was looking at some award tickets for my mother and am seeing one-ways for 12k rather than the normal 12.5k and with excellent availability.

@Renes Points How does this mesh with your very useful new award charts? I see you have 12.5k listed, which I thought was correct.

Renes Points

Check the fare code. Likely still a Level 1 YSV but discounted Level 1 award.

C W

YSV120

xliioper

Not a sale, just normal DL domestic coach pricing which varies in 500 mile increments. When I did a survey a few months, I found 10 different levels below 12.5K. Many of the lower ones below were only available on non-stop routings. It looks like they've changed up the fare codes to start with YSV now. The ones below pretty much all had a 3 week advance purchase requirement, but I'm not seeing that requirement in the YSV coded fares.

YSMK050 5K
YSMS055 5.5K
YSMK060 6.0K
YSMS070 7.0K
YSMK075 7.5K
YSMS080 8K
YSMS095 9.5K
YSMS100/YSMK100/YSM100 10K
YSMS110 11K
YSMS115 11.5K

Additionally there were a number of awards between 12.5K and 17.5K. The old "5 tier" awards were still around as well at the 12.5K, 17.5K, 20K, 25K, and 32.5K levels.

YSM125 12.5K
YSLS130 13K
YSLS135 13.5K
YSLS145 14.5K
YSLS150 15K
YSLS155 15.5K
YSL175 17.5K
YSD200 20K
YSS250 25K
YSK325 32.5K

These are the sub-12.5K levels I'm seeing today and some sample routes

YSV055 5.5K SFO-LAX
YSV060 6.0K SEA-SFO
YSV085 8.5K DTW-MIA
YSV090 9.0K ATL-YVR
YSV095 9.5K SLC-DFW
YSV100 10.0K SLC-ORD
YSV110 11.0K SEA-DFW
YSV120 12.0K PDX-ATL

On some routes, the lowest level starts above 12.5K. For example, not seeing anything lower than a 14.5K one-way award on DTW-SFO. The goofy part is that you can do hidden city and book DTW-SFO-SEA one-way awards for 12.0K. For return, you could do SFO-DTW-STL for 9.5K.

C W

Thanks for the information!

Air Houston

You get my vote for post of the week. I have seen all kinds of low awards on SLC flights (and have booked SLC-LAS for 5k a couple times) but haven't done the detailed research. Thanks!