FirstInFlight

I'm genuinely curious as to whether anyone actually redeems award tickets at the highest levels. I tend to seek flights at the lowest levels - under the new system level 1 or 2 and maybe 3. I'll rearrange my plans if necessary to make that work. I can't imagine ever being willing to spend 65,000 miles for a domestic ticket or 350,000 miles for a first class international award ticket.

I assume there are exceptions - medical emergencies, unexpected funerals etc. But still - are there really a lot of tickets redeemed at those levels?

When I see a chart that shows 350,000 miles for an international first class ticket, even in a crisis I would think PWM would be a better option. The ticket would have to cost significantly more than $3,500 to make it worth an award ticket. Perhaps those who use credit cards to accrue 500,000 miles each year are willing to redeem at those levels.

Perhaps my travel is atypical. But for me the award chart seems to just reflect what I have always experienced. I often found no tickets at 25,000 but could get them for 32,500. I just assumed that there has always been a level 2 - it just wasn't called level 2.

pbiflyer

Sorry if this has been asked further up thread. Haven't read all 11 pages.


I noticed that they are showing round trip miles, instead of one way, like they currently do.
Will the mixed fares (one way mid/ return low) be going away? If so, it seems that it is actually a mileage increase on most of the new levels.

Mid/low domestic now: 32,500
New level 2: 35,000

Increase of 2,500.

Has this been addressed at all?

Beckles

Although they are showing the chart as round-trip, they have said they will offer one-way fares. If those fares are half of the round-trip price (which I assume they will be, but admittedly I don't believe DL has said this for sure and I'm sure some will jump in here to claim Delta's going to charge 125% the round-trip price for one-way), that would cover you on mixed itineraries even if something funny changes with round-trip pricing.

Ebes1099

I wonder if Delta changed their plans on the Award Calendar when they were pressured into releasing it early.

If this is what it would have been all along, I don't see why they wouldn't have released it with the changes to at least soften some of the criticism.

Could it potentially have been a lot worse for FFs?

Dick Ginkowski

We don't know how "not bad" it is until people have to start using it!

5khours

I think I missed something. When did DL get international F?

kettle1

Perhaps when flying on partner airlines?

hfly

No that has not been allowed for several years. I am not making a specific comment about an individual here, however in my FT experience those who refer to int'l long haul F, never fly upfront internationally. HOWEVER that does not mean that they do not have the aspiration to do so one day, something which Delta may now be abusing (both themselves and the customer).

5khours

Agree, but to answer the question posed, I can see someone using DL miles at the high levels, but only because the availability is so poor at the low levels. At UA or AA, however, I think it would be quite rare to see redemptions at the the high level.

Sabai

Nope.

kettle1

That is why I posed a possible answer? On partner carriers, perhaps.

I thought the answer was no. And it appears the answer is no.

I have never even looked at booking F on any other carrier International using DL miles.

Can it be done?

cfischer

nope

hfly

High levels are not designed to get people to redeem at those levels, high levels are designed to get you to pay cash instead, either fully or partially for your ticket.

Lets look at big ticket items for a second. two people in BE to Europe at 650,000 miles??!! How may people do you think are out there with 650,000 miles in their accounts full stop? 1.3 million for a family of 4??
Less than 5000 people in the entire program. And guess what? Anyone with that kind of balance is most likely Skymiles savvy and knows it to be ridiculous and would only spend such miles if either they were broke and absolutely had to fly (or it was so last minute that that cash fares would be ruinous). Were not talking domestic here where an extra 25k here or there means relatively little, were talking real miles.

Any savvy FF would either............find another way to travel, by paying cash or cash and miles, or simply put off their trip if it was not important.

Again, the purpose of such high levels is a form of pricing referred to in Hollywood as the F U price, and is solely intended to channel you into something else.

5khours

Not always. I know a couple (sophisticated FFs) who redeemed at the high level for a couple of business class seats to Asia. They'd been trying for years to use their DL miles without success so they figured they might as well redeem at the high level since they had concluded they would never be able to use them otherwise. They rarely had any flexibility on travel dates so I think they were probably right.

remyontheroad

You used to be able to book International F.

I redeemed for an AF First Class ticket several years ago. Pajamas, the whole deal. IT was fun. Wish I could remember how many miles I paid.


As for High level redemption, I'd actually think that in a lot of cases, a last minute TATL J at 325K would be a better value than what you could get for $3,500 of PWM.

Not that I'd willingly do either, but if you're stuck you're stuck.