Originally Posted by
xliioper
Skymiles is now largely similar to WN program with awards being mostly based on revenue fares. 1.1 - 1.2 CPM is pretty much the average. If you are sitting on a bunch of Skymiles and thinking you are punishing Delta by not redeeming them, you are way off base. The only person you are punishing is yourself and DL is more than happy if you want to simply sit on your miles (DL will just write them off as "Breakage").
“Punishing” a business seems like a foolish concept. Rather we simply spend our $$ with merchants who value our business.
I have not redeemed my stash of skypesos because I have yet to find “outsized value” on DL routings. Typically the value is < 1 cpm when I’m looking at peak dates to Mexico or Europe or even transcons. However my FT friends in the DL forum regularly confirm redemptions when DL offers skypeso “Sale” fares so I see no need to waste my points on DL flights that offer poor value. In 2021 I did redeem a few skypesos for OAK-SLC economy tix bc the value proposition (including C+ seats and checked skis) was better than WN. But that’s a rarity.