Originally Posted by
jinglish
Redemption value has been a big adjustment for me coming from AS; I was able to get CX J redemptions at 6.5 cpm in some cases. Granted, the alternative for me was buying a cheap coach fare instead of actually paying $3k+ for a one-way transpac J fare, but DL's redemption values have still paled in comparison given how high their international J rates are. My one DL award booking so far was a domestic F redemption at 1.5 cpm, and I don't expect to get much better than that.
The 128K summer D1 deal I mentioned above is about 2.5 - 3 CPM compared to Z fares from most cities. If you don't understand the nuances of Skymiles program (like advance purchase and RT requirements on many of the better deals -- listed in the fare rules) and simply treat it like other programs, then yes, you will be lucky to find anything better than 1.5CPM.