sheremetyevo

Awful. The intra-Asian 20K ticket used to be one of the best deals out there, as well as one of the reasons I've been sticking with ST over *A.

pbd456

it makes quitting DL easier, i think.

s1c3r1a1b3b3l1e1

I had the same thought. This award with frequent domestic upgrades are what have kept me with Delta. I hate to see it go.

But, Northwest always had a separate chart for KE awards, so I can't help but wonder if KE has something to do with this. The amount of miles needed for KE intra-Asia awards actually dropped after the merger while the miles needed for all other airlines increased. I can certainly understand the desire to have one price for all ST partners within Asia.

Jaimito Cartero

Wow, if they just changed this, looks like I just squeezed my award on Saturday in. I thought the 30k to 40k increase was bad enough, but charging 70K for intra-asia C seems silly.

Best in Class? Sheeesh.

pbd456

good things do not last forever... especially with DL. i dont fly enough domestic segments to justify the increase in the award ticket. oh well. one world isnt too bad for me as i am US/HK based. they dont have any published rule which may the whole things more complicated. i incline to leave, but since i m too far into eqm for booked tickets for this year. i will just wait and see. it is really not a real airline in which i spend my money on. for regular fare, i will buy on either *A or OW, only if delta has mistake fare then i will jump on it.. delta has earned me as a faithful customer!

i booked 3 tickets on Saturday before the increase. i had hoped to book another 5 tickets for this summer. but now, i will just wait and see first.

5khours

I think DL also recently eliminated the free Sky Club membership for Asian Gold as well.

pbd456

is it true? how come they dont announce all these enhancements. is it so hard to being honest?

Jaimito Cartero

I just called up to check on this increase, and got a CIN agent. Answered the phone "Gold Elite Line". Asked if there was an increase in Intra-Asia in mileage required. Was told no.

Asked if the awards were still 20k and 40k. Was told no, it was never 20k, but 25k for coach, and that the mileage amounts changed every day. I said that I wasn't asking about domestic flights, but about Intra-Asia. I got a pause, and then the agent hung up on me.

Very sad. DL won't even publish an accurate award chart for outside the US. Then has unprofessional agents who hang up on you when you ask a nicely worded question.

pbd456

the mileage amounts changed every day!
you are asking tough questions, well deserved to be hung up!

anyways. it is good that i am not paying much cash to delta.. most of my $$$ goes to CO now.

there is really no point to call because 1) delta agents are clueless (except former NWA agents) 2) one can just look up the amount online. i think the earlier post was in the ballpark.
they are splitting asia into a few regions, it is my guess, 1) japan, south korea (and mongolia), 2) China+HK + taiwan 3) south asia + palau + saipan + guam.

i think they are telling customers to move to CO since it has a much more generous award charts and more tickets at the low price.

DocTravel

Last night I noticed changes as I was trying to book a one way award from BKK to NRT on April 25th. Rate went from 40k to 80k within a few minutes. I looked again a moments later and it was 100k for econ. It seems to have settled at 80k.

If thats the new correct rate for a one way mid level award, I will use another carrier for 20k.

pbd456

star alliance is there for you!
it is high in every day in march from bkk to nrt.. and high + low is 72500. so high is 50000 miles.
mid is 40000 miles bkk to nrt. (one way.)

thank you delta airline.

Jaimito Cartero

I called in to complain about getting hung up on, and to find out if the award levels really went up.

Got an excellent agent in CIN this time. Was more than happy to check with supervisors. Spent about 25 minutes on the phone with her. She seemed to think my ticket last week was a glitch, but I assured her that it *was* what awards were going for last week.

Seems that awards have gone up to 45,000Y/70,000J. Quite a shame that as usual, DL gave no notice. As I mentioned in the "DL miles don't expire" thread, when DL gives something with one hand, they steal something else back with the other. I would have rather kept the 40k Biz awards.

And I have gotten good DL folks in CIN on other occasions. You just need to know what you want, and hopefully get a good agent. If not call back in, and try again.

pbd456

delta is just terrible. if they want to increase the miles, do it publicly like a man. CO did that when they move to *A. DL is just a coward. with their practice, it is hard to count on saving miles in their program. it is more for burn and run. i will never pay a premium fare to fly them. those will go to other airlines.

GYEWorldTraveler

While this change is sort of frustrating, it makes complete sense to me. You will see UA bump up its mileage levels as well. This is all to align in the competitive landscape. To me, it made no sense that NRT-ICN cost the same as NRT-BKK. NRT-BKK was a steal at 20,000 miles. It appears that DL is shifting to more of a system that determines miles required for the award ticket based on distance of the flight. I don't like the change but certainly understand it. The fact that I could book a NRT-SIN in J on a lie-flat for 40k miles when the flight is 7 hrs was a joke. US/Europe flights from the east coast are that long, provide a worse product and are 2.5x the price (100k miles).

To the comment on Golds in Asia losing SkyClub memberships, if that is even true, who cares? They gained ST Elite Plus and every trip that someone in Asia takes on DL will be international so they gain a ton of lounge access (ST lounges now instead of just SkyClubs).....so to me, they are gaining, not losing. Just go to the SkyClub member list and then go to the SkyTeam Elite Plus lounge list and look at how many more lounges one can access as a ST Elite Plus.

pbd456

not intra-china...