rucksack

@btonkid12345, I wasn't talking about CostCo; I was talking about retailers generally. My point was that returns increase the cost of doing business, which over time is baked into the price of goods. This is just economics.

Besides, what does the trend of prices at CostCo have to do with this discussion? CostCo's generous return policy is longstanding, so clearly any more recent decrease in the price of its goods is a result of other factors.

MikeMpls

It has nothing to do with "not all flights within the contiguous 48 states are created equal".

The changes date back to late 2007 when Delta added a 3rd tier, ostensibly to protect premium flights (Jeff's specific examples) such as Nice during the Cannes Film Festival and Beijing during the Olympics.

Until then it was possible to get a seat on any flight for double miles.

What Delta had really done (and FlyerTalkers quickly figured out) was to tie award availability to the availability of discounted fare classes. And there turned out to be a lot of those so-called "premium" flights all over the place.

As people wised up to what had happened and made the connection between the award tiers and fare-class availability, the award charts disappeared and a "4th tier" was introduced.

Today you just roll your dice and see what comes up, then see what you can do elsewhere. I usually start elsewhere.

rucksack

Not to get all geeky with econ here, but because it maximizes economic profit for both the airlines and you!

Imagine for a moment that American Airlines used the same chart system for paid tickets that they use for award tickets. What would be the result? You'd have three prices for all flights within the U.S. On routes like JFK-SFO, AA would only ever offer one price: high (if they offered anything at all). On some short routes or routes with a lot of competition, the "low" level price wouldn't be competitive and no one would buy it. The end result would be that AA would sell a lot fewer tickets and you wouldn't be able to get all of your travel demand met. In my opinion, this is a big part of the reason it's so difficult to find decent award tickets on American.

To be clear, I'm all for transparency and stability in the value of miles. However, I'm of the opinion that in order to create a functional award chart that meets the most traveller demand, it would have to be so complicated that it would have the same effect as getting rid of the award chart all together.

TheLifeOfA_NKCM

Dont you love how those who put out angry posts are too afraid to hear how wrong they were and retreat to never be seen again?

mapleg

Don't forget the tsunami of exclamation marks, questions marks and BIG CAPITAL LETTERS for emphasis. Do they think we are incapable of reading without those BIG LETTERS????????

CalVol

Or, maybe they just wanted to vent.

It appears, based on the stats, that she posted at 8:17 and has never returned.

Glad to know we have a mind reader here who has the ability to discern why she hasn't been back. LOL!

Care to read my mind?

Kevin AA

It doesn't cost anything to come back to the thread and post. One doesn't need permission to come back to the thread and post. Therefore, the only thing I can conclude is that the one post wonder registered for an account at FlyerTalk and made one thread with one post just to vent and make us waste our time talking among ourselves.

JBa

You guys are smart. I am surprised that this thread got that long

TheLifeOfA_NKCM

Hey! Who knows.

It just seems all too common lately where someone will post an unjust rant as if it were the.. Oh crap, wait.

Well, let me rephrase that. It seems like all to often people will all out rage at Delta and when they realize after our pointery that they are the ones at fault are too afraid to actually come back and say something or be receptive. For all we know this won't be the OP but who knows.

Also, I'm totally a mind reader!

Lemme guess, you at some point in the last year you thought about a stupid enhancement that Delta had done.

See, pro mind reading right there

​​​​
​​​​​​

CalVol

True. True. Well, FT is, by and large, designed for the purpose of making us waste our time talking among ourselves.

CalVol

You oughta charge 1.99 a minute.

StayingHomeIsBetter

Where?

xliioper

Okay, I know OP is probably never coming back, but why would you spend 92.5K miles on a domestic F award in the first place? We know it was domestic F based on the taxes (5 x $11.20 RT TSA fee = $56). Award charts or no, anything close to or less than 1 CPM is a poor deal due to PWM. I'm having trouble finding too many domestic F routes that are more than $1K RT with an advance purchase. And for the ones that are more than that, I can't say I'd ever spend that much for a domestic F ticket. Also, OP states that the price dropped to 65K RT. Was that actually for 5 tickets, or just 1?

StayingHomeIsBetter

Yes. Every DL customer should read 40 or 50 pages of opaque legalese before purchasing a ticket.

StayingHomeIsBetter

If you were a first time poster, would you return and post in the face of such invective and contumely?

"If we insult the OP enough, she has to come back and defend herself, otherwise she has proven herself to be in the wrong!!!"