vfw614

I presume Delta gets paid by other airlines for those award tickets, whereas they have to give them away for free to its own customers. So one is a loss-maker, the other a revenue earner - or am I missing something?

Duke787

Delete

gooselee

Might be slightly different with VS due to the JV.

However, when we redeem DL miles on DL flights, they get to remove the RDM liability from their books so they're still coming out net-positive. RDM absolutely carry value on DLs books.

RealHJ

Not sure what's the big deal here. It's horrendous value to ever use DL miles for DL flights. If you want to book DL flights, book using another program miles. Likewise, use DL miles to book other ST airlines (excluding DL). That's always been the rule. If you want to book DL flights, don't accumulate DL miles. Only accumulate DL miles for booking other SkyTeam airline flights. Use other airline program miles to book DL flights.

BenA

I can confirm this is a long standing problem, dating even back to the Alaska partnership (when seats could be available on DL flights booked through AS but not on DL's own program). I agree it's 100% lame.

gooselee

This may be generally true but it is not an absolute rule and it's not always a horrendous value to book DL using DL miles.

See my post immediately above about short-haul domestic coach flights still being good value for DL miles. I'd guess that more DL customers actually have a need for those types of redemptions than long-haul J.

I love int'l J as much as the next person, but I probably book 5-7 short-/mid-haul domestics using DL miles every year and find great value in doing so. In fact, I'd say the value of these redemptions has actually gotten a great deal better in the past 2-3 years; about the same time it started becoming increasingly difficult to get things like US<>Australia RT on DL metal for 180k DL miles. Times change; our spending habits should evolve accordingly.

BenA

I agree with this, with one caveat: the introduction of Basic Economy to award bookings has harmed the value proposition dramatically for domestic trips, and I suspect that effect will continue to increase going forward

Duke787

I agree the DL metal costs are insane but in fairness this mileage arbitrage across programs isn't unique to DL.

You can book NH F for 120k/person RT with VS miles and those same flights cost 300k/person RT with NH miles

sharkey

josephstern

So the take-home lesson here is: dynamic pricing still only applies to booking Delta metal with Delta miles. Partner metal with Delta miles and Delta metal with partner miles are still on some basic award chart.

I think this is true with AA and UA also, currently.

pulpfiction78

I accrue a lot of Delta SkyMiles yearly and so far am finding good use. I fly mostly DL. This year I have enjoyed 3 R/T SEA-AMS in J for less than 300k miles total. I just need to be sure I catch the flash sales. Otherwise, yes, the award prices are quite staggering.

Gig103

Were they partner flights or DL operated? I ask because I haven't heard of the flash sales in busienss class and thought the cheapest TATL was 105k one way.
But I'm in SEA now so if I can find r/t for 100k I'd be thrilled to go to AMS on flexible dates!

josephstern

Delta has flash sales to Europe from the US. I'm booked LAX to AMS x2 in business. I think it was 128K RT, per person.

Edit: confirmed @ 128K Skymiles plus $51.43

Gig103

Very nice!

gooselee

The 128k flash sale was a pretty good one, and there were lots of options on DL metal.

But, if you don't want to sit around hoping for a flash sale, there is pretty good availability on KL metal if you have some flexibility. 150k RT if you can get all KL metal or pair it up with a low-level DL domestic.