Originally Posted by
ATOBTTR
Playing Devil’s advocate here - did the “loss” of RDMs discourage you from buying the ticket? If not, and DL’s 75K cap cost you 50K miles, or $500 worth of miles, that’s essentially $500 DL isn’t losing down the line via a SkyMiles redemption and thus it’s the same as an additional $500 in DL’s pockets. From their perspective, if it’s not discouraging ticket purchases, why not find ways to increase revenue?
For an $11K J fare, would the ticket have fared out the same at two one-ways at $5500 a piece that then would have allowed you to come in under the 75K RDM cap?
1) I would have gone with a competing carrier had the pricing been either similar or cheaper. As it was, DL was the cheapest, and I booked inside 7 days (yesterday) for a flight this Friday, so prices were much higher. If I had enough forethought, I would have done a status-match challenge with UA and might have met that on this flight alone. Who knows, maybe this year I'll get "The Invite" from DL.
2) I did try two one-ways. The OW fares were nearly as expensive as the RT -- each way.