Unreasonable award pricing for Europe <90 days out
I know there are countless threads about the fact that TATL award fares have gone way up over the last few years. But what I'm seeing now just seems unreasonable. I'm researching a trip to Europe this winter and I'm seeing one way rates of 105,000 miles no matter what dates or destination (within Europe) I choose over the next 90 days. It seems to me that they have a 90-day advanced purchase restriction for any lower level award tickets, because decent award fares suddenly come back exactly 90 days out. In comparison, both United and American have the exact same routes for 30k miles one way with ample low level availability.
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105k one-way for economy? That's absurd.
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LBJ has posted extensively on the topic. Partner awards can be one mechanism to avoid the advance purchase rules for lower priced award redemptions.
If you like AA and UA award availability, accrue their miles. That's how the market is supposed to work. |
There have been several discussions here on this topic. There are a number of RT awards for less miles that do not have a 90-day advance purchase requirement. You won't see these when doing one-way searches. Advance purchase requirements for each award level can be found by clicking on the "Fare Rules" link for the award.
There are reduced rate coach awards to Europe out of BOS and JFK if you are based out of there or can reposition (can potentially use hidden city on return if based in another hub). The below roundtrip awards have 30-day AP and Sat night stay requirement. In some cases, there are additional levels with lower AP requirements. Here's a few I found. BOS-LHR 32K RT BOS-AMS 34K RT BOS-FRA 38K RT BOS-DUB 38K RT BOS-CDG 38K RT BOS-AGP 40K RT BOS-FCO 42K RT JFK-LHR 32K RT JFK-FRA 32K RT JFK-MAD 32K RT JFK-ALC 36K RT JFK-DUB 46K RT JFK-BCN 46K RT |
Originally Posted by Kacee
(Post 30314007)
105k one-way for economy? That's absurd.
Originally Posted by 3Cforme
(Post 30314022)
If you like AA and UA award availability, accrue their miles. That's how the market is supposed to work.
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Originally Posted by LBJ
(Post 30314031)
There are a number of RT awards for less miles that do not have a 90-day advance purchase requirement.
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Originally Posted by ruckzac
(Post 30314043)
My point of mentioning that UA and AA have plenty of low level availability is to indicate that Delta's high award fares can't be justified by peak demand. The advance purchase restrictions are purely punitive.
I noticed something else doing a test search. I found r/t were 104k (AA would be 60k), so this is more to do with how one-way cash TATL fares cost almost or as much as round trip TATL when leaving the USA. Can you book a round trip with a distant return date and then possibly just do a change of date later? Edit: Oh, you saw this too. What about a multi-city award? |
Originally Posted by Gig103
(Post 30314929)
I'm not so sure that I'd say there's "plenty" of AA availability, and the YQ on their TATL tickets are usually hundreds of dollars each way. I'm not saying that 30k+$300 is competitive to $100k though.
I noticed something else doing a test search. I found r/t were 104k (AA would be 60k), so this is more to do with how one-way cash TATL fares cost almost or as much as round trip TATL when leaving the USA. Can you book a round trip with a distant return date and then possibly just do a change of date later? Edit: Oh, you saw this too. What about a multi-city award? I did find a 29,000 mile award in Y with Flying Blue miles. Opted to do J instead for 62,500 miles + YQ on AF's Dreamliner. I haven't flown the 787 yet and want to give it a try. |
I noticed this too. Pretty ridiculous for delta.
105k 1 way europe. 58k roundtrip europe.....with about 30% availability though. 58k is about the normal price. |
Delta has intentionally removed most of the flexibility that mile fares used to have. The only remanent of the old days of yore is free refunds for PM and DM. Delta is trying to slowly boil the frog and get 1 SkyMile = 1 cent of fares. This is why they "ban" one ways: one way TATL fares are expensive (for some reason or another). Over time Delta will continue to add more and more restrictions to better match actual fare prices until - for all intents and purposes - they're the same.
Delta has made it clear that they are not interested in making SkyMiles a competitive part of their loyalty program. It is what it is. |
Mixing one-way awards (with different programs) was one of the ways to make use of scant award availability. It's a shame DL is taking that option away (through skyrocketing OW award rates), and I don't really understand why this benefits DL.
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Originally Posted by CPMaverick
(Post 30315604)
Mixing one-way awards (with different programs) was one of the ways to make use of scant award availability. It's a shame DL is taking that option away (through skyrocketing OW award rates), and I don't really understand why this benefits DL.
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Originally Posted by RealHJ
(Post 30316258)
This benefits DL by having more and more pax accumulate more and more SlyMiles, that will be worth less and less in the future. Essentially, it's hyper-inflation on the actual redeemable value of the DL SM liability, which means that the liability for DL goes down.
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Originally Posted by RealHJ
(Post 30316258)
This benefits DL by having more and more pax accumulate more and more SlyMiles, that will be worth less and less in the future. Essentially, it's hyper-inflation on the actual redeemable value of the DL SM liability, which means that the liability for DL goes down.
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Europe - USA return fares range in the EUR 300-500 range, esp. during winter and with 90 day before.
Why would anyone waste miles? |
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