Originally Posted by pbarnette

It all depends upon the value of the miles, the price they pay for the award seat on the partner, their true marginal cost for flying someone else on their planes, the cash price for their own seat, and the probability they will sell the seat. Since you don't have that data, you really have no way to know whether it is the smart play or not. My guess is that DL knows what they are doing and if it truly were profit-maximizing to offer the award on their own metal, they would do so.