Originally Posted by
mecabq
A lot of posters here are saying that they find value in last-minute domestic redemptions when cash fares are high. I've never had to do this, but many members seem to.
Originally Posted by
jsloan
Nonsense. I've gotten a ton of value out of domestic redemptions.
Of course people can get value from domestic redemptions - I often use miles to book trips to ASE @.02 cpp. But the vast majority of the FT and blogger world is focused on TATL and TPAC biz class awards. For at least a decade UA offered much better advance inventory than DL and continued to do so with *A partner awards even after raising its own pricing. But those sweet spots have reportedly disappeared. The result will be that many here will become indifferent to UA absent EQ$ considerations.
Originally Posted by
jsloan
A 1K will earn close to 200K miles per year just from flying. Those can't exactly be transferred to Hyatt.
Umm that was my point. The 1ks are screwed because they are running out of high value redemption options for the RDM they earn, esp with skyrocketing pricing for partner awards.
Originally Posted by
36902BRF
My observation with at least my travel patterns is United is the worst at releasing saver/cheaper domestic award flights and in fact I don't believe I have ever booked a United domestic Y ticket on points and certainly not since Covid. DL and AA are much better and with AA the awards are often decently priced on their currency or you can use a partner and often save some more. DL is generally not well priced using their currency but they do often have a decent amount of saver space you an book with partners though generally these partner redemptions are higher than they would be with AA's partners (especially domestic F). And I should add while I am not a United elite I do hold their CC so I do see the increased Y saver availability granted to CC users (it basically has never been useful).
***With these changes United has officially joined Delta as a points program I really have no interest in engaging with (I have earned a grand total of less than 2500 points with Delta since I started earning points).
***Honestly United and Delta appear to be betting on the fact that most folks either cannot or won't do the math and I am guessing they are right for the most part.
Everyone's experience is different, but I find DL is the worst. The best I ever see on DL is .01cpp for the routes I fly, and usually that's on low cost fares. Often worse for Mexico, Hawaii, Europe or any popular vacation spot. AA is cheapest when you can find it. UA used to be higher than .01cpp but I don't know now.
Originally Posted by
notquiteaff
Given that Skymiles doesn’t appear to have imploded and people still keep tapping/swiping their Delta Amex cards like there is no tomorrow, I suspect that this isn’t going to impact MileagePlus negatively. Perhaps because the vast majority of people are booking domestic awards that don’t quite induce such a sticker shock… but also don’t return a lot of value. I still think a 2% cashback card would probably be significantly better for most airline cardholders.
Bingo.