Originally Posted by
florin
What I don't understand is, what do you think would motivate DL to eliminate stopovers on awards? If award availability is there, it doesn't cost them any more if you fly AAA-BBB-CCC all in one day or if you fly AAA-BBB and BBB-CCC on different days. What you get from them is the same: a seat on a plane that would have otherwise likely gone unsold.
There would be simply less awards redeemed if there are no stopovers, as pax would choose not to redeem if no stopover, or buy a pay flight. OR - most likely, in most caes, the one add'l flight for stopover you would buy then using $$ vs. get "for free" in the award. That's plenty of motivation. $100s of M of yearly potential additional revenue on the table (think of how many delicious ham sandwiches it can buy for Glenn Hauenstein!), if for a lot of awards pax buy an add'l flight (for stopover) for $$ that thus far Delta had been "giving away for free."