"Low" award ticket pricing doesn't seem to be a reference as much to the price in miles of a DL-issued award ticket as it seems to be a reference to low availability.

There is no simple way to deal with this kind of issue when even calling up DL on the phone to attempt to find "low" priced award inventory sector by sector is not a guarantee of the final award ticket pricing calculation at the "low" price marketed on DL's website still.

DL management's approach has made it so that "low" award inventory has become lower availability award ticket inventory even in this economic environment where regular paid demand for travel is down significantly.

I still manage to avoid DL management's rip-off pricing levels in miles (and/or even in money) on the web or on the phone, but it's only getting more difficult for more customers than ever before.