uclacolumbiaunc

I thought the 2015 award chart shows the minimum required miles for any domestic flight at level 1 award is 12500 miles...... I have seen flights between Southern California and Bay Area available for 5000 miles one way with pretty good availability...

is this new? or is this one-time promotion?

3Cforme

Dates and airports? Post a pic.

jrl767

LAX-SJC/SFO/OAK/SMF, flexible date search (24 Jul +/- 3 days), not logged in

uclacolumbiaunc

So is this a permanent thing or is this some type of temporary promotion? 5000 delta mile redemption for a short flight was unheard of.

I tried LAX-LAS, but this route is selling for 10000 miles at level I (coded N). Same for Bos-JFK, ATL-RDU.... looks like this pricing is only for LAX-Northern Cal... ?

javabytes

I'm seeing 10k on many non-stop routes. Seems to be market-specific, and not distance-based, as some shorter routes are still 12.5k while other longer routes are 10k.

New fare basis codes: YSMK100 and YSMK050. 21 day advance purchase requirement is codified in the fare rules.

uclacolumbiaunc

will delta revert the price back to 10K ~ 12.5K at a later date?

davetravels

Shocking, I say - SHOCKING that I see the number 5,000 miles for a one-way redemption!

Either:

1) Too much bad publicity from sky-high mileage amounts needed for redemptions - OR -

2) It's a HUGE mistake, and either, won't ticket, or it'll be gone tomorrow.



edited to add . . . .

SAN/LAX is showing 10,000 miles one way

PDX/SEA & LAX/SFO - 5,000

MSPeconomist

Award seats at very low levels are booking into Y inventory? That would be very strange. I could also see people being given 150% MQM by the computer for these.

javabytes

No. That's just what the fare basis codes have been for years. YSM125, for instance.

yanxfann

Per Gary there are at least a few more of the 5K short haul awards other than LAX-SFO:

LAX-SMF
LAX-SJC
SEA-PDX

Surely/hopefully there are more of these 5K routes out there, should you stumble on any I'd appreciate it if you'd post them here (or maybe in a wiki).

jdrtravel

I actually think this could be a very bad sign. With them taking away the award charts, they could be moving towards matching miles with fare. So 5,000 for LAX-SFO....and 500,000 for D1 TATL & TPAC trips.....

RealHJ

Of course, but we've all known it's coming for several years - ever since Delta's plan to go to RBMA (Revenue-Based Mileage Accumulation) and FBATR (Fare-Based Award Travel Redemption) was known. RBMA is here, and the way for FBATR has been paved with Polaris (new res system) going live and award charts being removed, and it is right around the corner. The EOS (End of SkyMiles), Dullta's ultimate goal, is just about here. But that comes as no surprise. DL is just a few years behind schedule, but we've all known here that the EOS is the ultimate goal of DL. There's been plenty of warning and several years we've had to switch our flying and mileage accumulation to another program, that is more likely to stick around for longer in a more recognizable and useful form.

jdrtravel

And what program would that be? American? I'm sure it is just a year or two behind Delta. Maybe AS, but also highly unpredictable how that will be in the future.

RealHJ

Any major airline program other than Delta (if you stick with SkyTeam, you have plenty of options also). Practically all other major airline programs have published award charts and predictable, disclosed pricing with either zone-based or distance-based pricing, not FBATR. At FBATR in full force, the pricing for J awards will go up several fold, if DL is going to stick to a 1.5-3.0 cents value for SkyMiles (and even that is optimistic; DL just may go for 1cpm).

DL is alone, amongst major global airlines (to the best of my knowledge), in having NO award charts and totally arbitrary pricing (the last step before FBATR).

cestmoi123

If Delta just canceled all mileage-based award redemptions tomorrow, and replaced them with Pay With Miles (for any ticket) at 2cpm, I'd take that tradeoff in a heartbeat.