2015 SkyMiles Program News from Delta
Dec 26, 2014, 6:51 pm
#1036
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 371
Are you talking about specific One Way's with partner because it's certainly available for their product?? I only care about doing Europe and Domestic US on award miles. I actually think 17,500 one way from US to Europe(London or UK) with YQ($140) especially from USA is very achievable for most travelers. I agree YQ can be a downer costing around $240 on the return from Europe to USA. That's my biggest concern, since Delta essentially runs Virgin Atlantic now, they may not give us full miles, I guess it could be any moment they may take it away. Also, twice a year they run promo for 25% off miles redemption.
Last edited by DLDFW; Dec 26, 2014 at 9:31 pm
Dec 31, 2014, 12:48 pm
#1037
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: SFO/ATL/MEL/BKK
Programs: Marriott Plat, Hilton Diamond, IHG Diamond, Hyatt Globalist UA 1K MM, Delta Diamond
Posts: 2,678
This is probably addressed.. If tonight 31 I fly SMF-SLC-ATL-MEX (SLC-ATL-MEX is on the 1st) Will I get full credit or will the after midnight flights be revenue based
Dec 31, 2014, 10:29 pm
#1038
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Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: NYC
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Jan 1, 2015, 6:49 am
#1039
Suspended
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Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
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Posts: 102,095
The new Skymiles redemption ticket pricing gets us closer to the penny-ization of SkyMiles -- a state of affairs where the maximum value of a redeemed SkyMiles approaches 1 cent per mile of value for the customer.
At this kind of value cap, use of the DL credit cards to earn DL miles seems to be a sub-par choice on so many levels.
At this kind of value cap, use of the DL credit cards to earn DL miles seems to be a sub-par choice on so many levels.
Jan 4, 2015, 3:15 pm
#1040
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: LAX
Programs: DL DM, 2 MM; OW Emerald; MVP Gold 100k;Marriott/SPG LTPlat; HH Diamond
Posts: 968
Not sure where to ask this...is there any correlation between award availability and RUC availability? Wait listed on a lax-rdu in March but seeing ow award availability...thanks!
Jan 5, 2015, 8:08 am
#1041
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Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: BOS
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Posts: 15,207
Anyone see award search results also giving a 'money and miles' option? For example, I had one that quoted 50k miles, and something like 35k + $269... when you look further into the details, you're actually buying the 15k mile difference at the normally high buy miles rate.
Jan 5, 2015, 9:03 am
#1042
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Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: ATL
Programs: DL Scattered Smothered Covered Medallion, Some hotel & car stuff, Kroger Plus Card
Posts: 10,745
Anyone see award search results also giving a 'money and miles' option? For example, I had one that quoted 50k miles, and something like 35k + $269... when you look further into the details, you're actually buying the 15k mile difference at the normally high buy miles rate.
It's been a while since I didn't have enough miles, so I don't remember...but I feel like once upon a time it would say 35k miles then have a link saying "you need to buy 10k miles at $XXX to book this trip".
Jan 5, 2015, 4:17 pm
#1043
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 32
Hey everyone! Long time since I have been here but I figured some of you might be able to shed some light on this new program.
My particular case is as follows: I am trying to book an award trip to MRS in September and am encountering two issues.
1. On my preferred travel days, I am seeing only "Not Available" on the award chart. Booking with cash shows that ~85% of seats on the plane are available though. So, my question is, What does the new benefit of "No Blackout Dates" mean?
2. On other, possible travel days, I am seeing redemption pricing at 145,000 Miles yet according to the new award chart, the Max Level 5 One Way amount is 65,000. By my math, that means it should be 130,000 Miles at an absolute max.
3. What am I missing? Is this just simply something wrong with the award webpage? Will calling present more options? Or is this just misinformation?
Thanks for the help!
My particular case is as follows: I am trying to book an award trip to MRS in September and am encountering two issues.
1. On my preferred travel days, I am seeing only "Not Available" on the award chart. Booking with cash shows that ~85% of seats on the plane are available though. So, my question is, What does the new benefit of "No Blackout Dates" mean?
2. On other, possible travel days, I am seeing redemption pricing at 145,000 Miles yet according to the new award chart, the Max Level 5 One Way amount is 65,000. By my math, that means it should be 130,000 Miles at an absolute max.
3. What am I missing? Is this just simply something wrong with the award webpage? Will calling present more options? Or is this just misinformation?
Thanks for the help!
Jan 5, 2015, 5:15 pm
#1044
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: ATL
Programs: DL Scattered Smothered Covered Medallion, Some hotel & car stuff, Kroger Plus Card
Posts: 10,745
Hey everyone! Long time since I have been here but I figured some of you might be able to shed some light on this new program.
My particular case is as follows: I am trying to book an award trip to MRS in September and am encountering two issues.
1. On my preferred travel days, I am seeing only "Not Available" on the award chart. Booking with cash shows that ~85% of seats on the plane are available though. So, my question is, What does the new benefit of "No Blackout Dates" mean?
2. On other, possible travel days, I am seeing redemption pricing at 145,000 Miles yet according to the new award chart, the Max Level 5 One Way amount is 65,000. By my math, that means it should be 130,000 Miles at an absolute max.
3. What am I missing? Is this just simply something wrong with the award webpage? Will calling present more options? Or is this just misinformation?
Thanks for the help!
My particular case is as follows: I am trying to book an award trip to MRS in September and am encountering two issues.
1. On my preferred travel days, I am seeing only "Not Available" on the award chart. Booking with cash shows that ~85% of seats on the plane are available though. So, my question is, What does the new benefit of "No Blackout Dates" mean?
2. On other, possible travel days, I am seeing redemption pricing at 145,000 Miles yet according to the new award chart, the Max Level 5 One Way amount is 65,000. By my math, that means it should be 130,000 Miles at an absolute max.
3. What am I missing? Is this just simply something wrong with the award webpage? Will calling present more options? Or is this just misinformation?
Thanks for the help!
1. Are you sure that all flights you need are operating on those days? Even if they are, if there is no AF availability CDG-MRS, then your itinerary will not be available. While DL won't black out any days, they are still reliant on AF to release their inventory, and AF is notoriously stingy.
2. This is additive pricing, where anything above Tier 1 on DL flights causes the itinerary to break and price your connections separately. One way you can get a 145k award for coach US-EU is if your TATL flights are priced at Tier 4 (55k) one way and Tier 5 (65k) the other way, then your intraeurope flights are being separately charged at 10k (intra-France) and 15k (intra-Europe).
3. You're not missing anything, this is just DL being DL. My experience lately has been that calling will actually result in agents telling you that the partner availability, particularly if using AF or KL, shown on DL.com is not current and some flights showing available are actually not available and impossible to book. You'll also find that the DL website errors out if you try to book these flights.
Check out this thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...er-thread.html) for info on booking with partners, which you need to do to get to MRS. It was very, very helpful to me in booking my own trip to Europe. Also consider just finding reasonably priced DL or partner awards to get to CDG, and buy cheap AF Mini fare or take a train to get to MRS (or, now that we can do one-ways, possibly stop in Paris/Amsterdam for a day or two if the low TATL flights are available on different days than the intra-Europe flights). Eliminating that intra-Europe leg may open up more availability for your TATL flight since.
Jan 5, 2015, 7:03 pm
#1045
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: HNL
Programs: DL PM/1MM, BW DE (lifetime), HH DE, Marriott PE (lifetime), National Emerald Executive
Posts: 7,205
DL most definitely will white-out (as it appears white on the calendar) many days, and often several weeks in a row, for its own flights. DL has been doing so for many years, while as the search is running claiming (lying right to its customers face) of having "no blackout dates" (as I guess that DL calls it "whiteout" vs. "blackout"). Often you can find the award calendar have many days (up to 28 days in a month from what I've seen) whited-out - as in not available at standard, double or quadruple level (pre-2015), while having 100s of seats available for revenue booking. (This is many months in advance on 747, 767, A330 flights, including routes with three daily flights - sometimes all three are completely whited out.)
I haven't checked on the white-out situation now in 2015, but 2012, 2013, 2014, it has been a widely employed practice by DL on certain flights. So, let's not make claims that we know are not true (that DL doesn't do blackouts of its own flights for award), as we all know (or should know, at least) that it most certainly does blackout its own flights for award bookings at any level - often taking it to an extreme, even. I doubt that it has changed in 2015, but I haven't checked on it yet, and in my quick check on award pricing now. vs end of 2014 I didn't come across any blatant white-outs during the ~2 month timeframe I was checking then for a few flights.
I haven't checked on the white-out situation now in 2015, but 2012, 2013, 2014, it has been a widely employed practice by DL on certain flights. So, let's not make claims that we know are not true (that DL doesn't do blackouts of its own flights for award), as we all know (or should know, at least) that it most certainly does blackout its own flights for award bookings at any level - often taking it to an extreme, even. I doubt that it has changed in 2015, but I haven't checked on it yet, and in my quick check on award pricing now. vs end of 2014 I didn't come across any blatant white-outs during the ~2 month timeframe I was checking then for a few flights.
Jan 5, 2015, 9:34 pm
#1046
Suspended
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: BOS
Posts: 15,027
Jan 5, 2015, 10:33 pm
#1047
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: ATL
Programs: DL Scattered Smothered Covered Medallion, Some hotel & car stuff, Kroger Plus Card
Posts: 10,745
In the past, I've had mostly simpler award itineraries, but any "Not Available" days were easily explained by either sold out flights on some last minute bookings or by missing partner availability to the final destination.
So, what you describe is decidedly NOT well known in my limited experience. And in the MRS trip in question, I still think the most likely scenario is missing partner space.
Jan 5, 2015, 11:52 pm
#1048
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: HNL
Programs: DL PM/1MM, BW DE (lifetime), HH DE, Marriott PE (lifetime), National Emerald Executive
Posts: 7,205
Whoa there, Tiger. I clearly hit a nerve. All I can say is that has not been my experience, and in fact I'm one of those who has been having a fair amount of luck looking for awards in the past week for multiple domestic and intl trips. There are some weeks and months where my searches turned up zero Tier 1 awards, but there was SOMETHING available on each day.
In the past, I've had mostly simpler award itineraries, but any "Not Available" days were easily explained by either sold out flights on some last minute bookings or by missing partner availability to the final destination.
So, what you describe is decidedly NOT well known in my limited experience. And in the MRS trip in question, I still think the most likely scenario is missing partner space.
In the past, I've had mostly simpler award itineraries, but any "Not Available" days were easily explained by either sold out flights on some last minute bookings or by missing partner availability to the final destination.
So, what you describe is decidedly NOT well known in my limited experience. And in the MRS trip in question, I still think the most likely scenario is missing partner space.
You were correct in your response in all aspects but one. I just meant to say that it is not correct to say that DL doesn't do blackouts, as it most certainly has been doing so for the last 3-4 years (on some, not all, flights), and I doubt that it has all of a sudden stopped doing so as of January 1st, though I haven't had the chance to search enough to confirm or deny either way yet. You could say that Delta claims that it doesn't do blackouts, though... and then those of us in the know would know what it really means: that like so many other things, what Delta sayeth and doeth are often two opposites.
Jan 6, 2015, 8:10 am
#1049
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: ATL
Programs: DL Scattered Smothered Covered Medallion, Some hotel & car stuff, Kroger Plus Card
Posts: 10,745
Sorry, I should have been more clear. DL does do that - at times rather extensively - on some flights (on flights to/from Japan for sure, I can't speak about others). But yes, here in this particular case you are 100% correct (sorry, I should have said so; I often fail to say the obvious), it is almost surely lack of AF availability (which a quick check on airfrance.us will either confirm or deny for the OP, and where it seems a segment by segment search is in order - though that may be less useful now, if now indeed married segment pricing is employed for award availability).
You were correct in your response in all aspects but one. I just meant to say that it is not correct to say that DL doesn't do blackouts, as it most certainly has been doing so for the last 3-4 years (on some, not all, flights), and I doubt that it has all of a sudden stopped doing so as of January 1st, though I haven't had the chance to search enough to confirm or deny either way yet. You could say that Delta claims that it doesn't do blackouts, though... and then those of us in the know would know what it really means: that like so many other things, what Delta sayeth and doeth are often two opposites.
You were correct in your response in all aspects but one. I just meant to say that it is not correct to say that DL doesn't do blackouts, as it most certainly has been doing so for the last 3-4 years (on some, not all, flights), and I doubt that it has all of a sudden stopped doing so as of January 1st, though I haven't had the chance to search enough to confirm or deny either way yet. You could say that Delta claims that it doesn't do blackouts, though... and then those of us in the know would know what it really means: that like so many other things, what Delta sayeth and doeth are often two opposites.
Perhaps the difference is that nearly all of my award bookings the past 2-3 years (which is about all I can remember) have been in the Americas or TATL. Perhaps their "enhanced"
availability happens more on TPACs?100% OP should be checking AF.us by segment to see if AF availability is the problem, though I think it'll probably still require a call in to see if any AF classic awards are actually bookable by DL.
Jan 6, 2015, 9:12 am
#1050
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 32
I'm assuming your itinerary is USA-CDG/AMS-MRS, using AF or KL for the CDG/AMS-MRS leg.
1. Are you sure that all flights you need are operating on those days? Even if they are, if there is no AF availability CDG-MRS, then your itinerary will not be available. While DL won't black out any days, they are still reliant on AF to release their inventory, and AF is notoriously stingy.
2. This is additive pricing, where anything above Tier 1 on DL flights causes the itinerary to break and price your connections separately. One way you can get a 145k award for coach US-EU is if your TATL flights are priced at Tier 4 (55k) one way and Tier 5 (65k) the other way, then your intraeurope flights are being separately charged at 10k (intra-France) and 15k (intra-Europe).
3. You're not missing anything, this is just DL being DL. My experience lately has been that calling will actually result in agents telling you that the partner availability, particularly if using AF or KL, shown on DL.com is not current and some flights showing available are actually not available and impossible to book. You'll also find that the DL website errors out if you try to book these flights.
Check out this thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...er-thread.html) for info on booking with partners, which you need to do to get to MRS. It was very, very helpful to me in booking my own trip to Europe. Also consider just finding reasonably priced DL or partner awards to get to CDG, and buy cheap AF Mini fare or take a train to get to MRS (or, now that we can do one-ways, possibly stop in Paris/Amsterdam for a day or two if the low TATL flights are available on different days than the intra-Europe flights). Eliminating that intra-Europe leg may open up more availability for your TATL flight since.
1. Are you sure that all flights you need are operating on those days? Even if they are, if there is no AF availability CDG-MRS, then your itinerary will not be available. While DL won't black out any days, they are still reliant on AF to release their inventory, and AF is notoriously stingy.
2. This is additive pricing, where anything above Tier 1 on DL flights causes the itinerary to break and price your connections separately. One way you can get a 145k award for coach US-EU is if your TATL flights are priced at Tier 4 (55k) one way and Tier 5 (65k) the other way, then your intraeurope flights are being separately charged at 10k (intra-France) and 15k (intra-Europe).
3. You're not missing anything, this is just DL being DL. My experience lately has been that calling will actually result in agents telling you that the partner availability, particularly if using AF or KL, shown on DL.com is not current and some flights showing available are actually not available and impossible to book. You'll also find that the DL website errors out if you try to book these flights.
Check out this thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...er-thread.html) for info on booking with partners, which you need to do to get to MRS. It was very, very helpful to me in booking my own trip to Europe. Also consider just finding reasonably priced DL or partner awards to get to CDG, and buy cheap AF Mini fare or take a train to get to MRS (or, now that we can do one-ways, possibly stop in Paris/Amsterdam for a day or two if the low TATL flights are available on different days than the intra-Europe flights). Eliminating that intra-Europe leg may open up more availability for your TATL flight since.
Also, thanks to all so suggested alternative routes. I have checked into them all and likely likely end up choosing one of those routes. This was just an effort to make travel easier!