mfFrom35K

Not just gamers. Stopovers could be used for very legitimate purposes. For example this past June I took my two twenty something kids on a fantastic trip to South Africa. We had to transit thru LHR to get J award tix as they are rarely available on the ATL-JNB route. We did a 3 day legitimate stopover in London on the this trip. This helps a great deal with the long layover and exhausting travel and my daughter had never been to London. Does anyone know offhand how many miles this would have added? As it was I was lucky to still get in on 140k but I believe it is now 160k from the US to SA. And it will be even more with this new change.

I fully understand eliminating the stopover on a one way but on a round trip it was really a great benefit and this is basically a devaluation.

mfFrom35K

To answer my own question I think a round trip in J between US and SA with a stop over one way in London will now be 207.5 k. I think it is 62.5+65+80. That certainly seems like a devaluation to me.

Kevin AA

ding ding ding ding we have a winner!

JORBUST

Definitely sucks, not being a "gamer" I enjoyed being able to stop at a connecting city for a couple days before continuing on. Like going from ATL-NRT, stay there for a couple days and continue on to BKK.

MSP_Monopoly

The loss of open jaws is a HUGE blow. In some cities it's the only way to make the routings work at the low pricing. Ex. XXX-MIA FLL-XXX or XXX-LAX SNA-XXX etc.

I suppose you could do two one ways with the new system, but I'm sure DL will find a way to screw us on that and the one way for each way in total will probably end up more than the round trip would be.

mfFrom35K

Two one ways should price the same. However, if you have to cancel and you are not Diamond or Platinum you would have to pay two $150 re-deposit fees. Ouch!!!

MSP_Monopoly

"Should" is the key word here. Who knows what Delta will try to pull come Jan 1st.

emrdoc

To those of us that fly weekly for work, Delta does an unequaled job of getting us to our destination on-time and with the least stress and angst. The Skymiles program can be frustrating at times but to suggest we don't fly Delta because of it is ridiculous. Your view is amazingly myopic.

readywhenyouare

Yes, I'm afraid the best "enhancements" are yet to come... Unless Mr. Anderson encounters the ghosts of Delta CEO's past, present, and future this Christmas I think we are going to be very disappointed in 2015.

fti

I know. Everyone was clammering for "one way awards" but I knew it would come at a huge cost. I always said, and continue to say, the stopover/open jaw benefits greatly outweigh the one-way awards for most people who know the DL award system.

And adding the extra leg to round trip award tickets was huge. Three trips for the price of 2 award tickets. Bye-bye to that as of Jan 1st.

TTT

As long as those airports are considered co-terminals then the award pricing should remain the same. In other words, even now a MIA/FLL itinerary isn't using an open-jaw to price but rather a connection at co-terminals.

ENIAC

That is terrible. When using miles for Europe or Asia I usually used one or the other, sometimes both. For example flew to Helsinki, then started the return in Riga after some overland travel and did a stopover in Amsterdam on the way back. Or flew to SIN with a stopover at ICN on KE, then back on DL.

Delta just seems to be systematically removing every feature of the program that might give more than $0.01/mile value so that the new program just becomes a fixed percentage rebate.

EZEDoesIt

Unfortunately I was a little late in figuring that out, so I've only taken advantage of it a couple times. But, honestly, without having fixed plans and/or PM+ status it's a bit tricky to use that feature anyway. I'll be sad to see it go, but without it I won't have to stress as much trying to maximize my award tickets.

BamaGirl

My thoughts exactly.

Fred 3

If I understand this correctly, it is very disappointing. I take my kids on trips with me to use the miles. This year I went sea-jfk. Lga- buf and buf-sea for 40000 miles. If they make more 12.5k available this would be a slight benefit, but if not, it's an additional 20k.