Originally Posted by
Brian Chen
Every time I book with miles to fly internationally, let's say asia, United has super savers from 70k to regular of 175k using miles, but delta's is perhaps 1 very bad flight at 100k and goes to 300k. It seems that delta points just aren't worth as much. Am I missing something? I feel like I'm stupid here.
You aren't missing anything - DL isn't known for great mileage redemption rates and the miles aren't worth as much. Not having a published award chart doesn't help though some FTers (such as LBJ) know where to find the details on redemption rates. The unicorns for Delta are out there though often require a lot of searching and sometimes significant flexibility. Partner redemptions can still offer some value when you can find them. With DL, I've found sometimes the best way to redeem miles is with flights that aren't to/from North America but rather solely partner redemptions such as Asia to Europe or Australia to Asia.
That said, I recently used some UA miles for a redemption (used them to book an LH flight - China to Italy) and found great mileage availability for Asia to Europe (lots of options, including decent options) and also found good options for North America to Asia. However, the options between North America and Europe (on UA or partners) were very poor. In a wide range of dates I only found one UA redemption at the Saver rate which was an LHR-EWR flight. Some partner options at the Saver rate but they were terribly timed flights or required significant backtracking and while less important domestically, none of the flights booked into F on UA for the domestic hop unless I wanted to pay the higher rate instead of the Saver rate.
My anecdotal experience.