This is bad news. KE Business awards between Southeast Asia and north Asia (including Korea and Japan) used to cost 30,000 SkyMiles. But then the award chart showing such routings disappeared from DL.com. I was afraid a price-hike was in the works, and this is the first confirmation of it I've seen.

30,000 SM's for KE SEAsia-Korean/Japan was a very good deal. 40,000 not so good. 45,000 on DL metal not good. And that's if you can even find the Low availability. Good luck with that on BKK-NRT.