Originally Posted by
Buzzardgut
Greetings all, I’m looking at flights on July 16 and every flight that day is 27,000 miles, flying ORD to TPA? Why is this when the $ price is different for each? Is that normal For Delta flights?
Yes, this is normal. Unlike Southwest, Delta does not have any fixed formulas for award redemptions based on revenue ticket pricing. You will also find this with AA and UA awards. Delta tends to have a closer association between award and revenue ticket prices than those airlines, but it is still not nearly as predictable as Southwest awards.
Delta can also have different awards available based on the season. The awards you are looking at are 13.5K one-way. But there are 11.5K one-way awards (fare code YSV115) on this route which are good through May 22nd.
Sometimes you can get cheaper awards out of nearby airports. For example, MKE has 12.5K one-way/25K roundtrip awards to TPA in the summer. And SBN has 22K roundtrip awards. In this last case, a roundtrip purchase is required and that award level is only good for Tue/Wed/Sat travel. A one-way award on this route will be 14.5K or higher.