Originally Posted by
RealHJ
DL SM is not meant for use within North America, as it's designed to rip off those who originate in or go to NA. In NA for SkyTeam, use VS miles. Outside of NA, there are some good uses for DL SM still.. for now.
The long term goal is presumably to tie all awards to the cost of revenue tickets. I honestly don't have a problem with that (or revenue based accrual) anymore because they've given us more than a decade to get used to it.
Separately, I agree with those who feel the simplicity of the current scheme is kind of nice. Sure, you can position yourself in Korea and fly to Africa, as you point out, but taking vacations within the US is a lot easier, and the numbers aren't all that different from those during the award chart days.