happyvoid

I was trying to find a flight from BCN to any city in US for October they are all 375,000 delta one miles, I miss the 148,000 miles deal roundtrip last month because i had to change it. Now they are all 375,000 miles just for one way

USCTrojan83

Are you pricing it out as a one way? Often times one way will be crazy expensive.

xliioper

DL has had roundtrip awards on international D1 routes for several years now (where a one-way award will cost more miles each-way than an award booked as a roundtrip). They've had them on a number domestic coach routes for the last 6 years or so now. Note this was also true of the 148K roundtrip 48-hour flash sale D1 awards from last month which were only bookable as roundtrips (and couldn't be booked for half-price as 74K one-way awards).

The fare rules for awards and are very much like what you find in revenue fares with advance purchase and roundtrip booking and minimum stay requirements for cheapest award levels. The fare rules for awards can be found at the "Fare Rules" link when pricing out awards. Roundtrip D1 award pricing now varies with markets. JFK/BOS-BCN low-level D1 awards are 280K miles roundtrip (CSTR1400 fare basis code) and have 90-day advance purchase, Sat night stay, and mid-week travel requirements. While low-level D1 awards on less competitive markets (DTW/ATL-BCN, for example) are 340K miles roundtrip (CSTR1700 fare basis code with same fare rule requirements). Note that booking in reverse direction ex-EU will add significant carrier-imposed surcharges to award.

Partner business awards to/from EU are a fixed 120K miles each-way (requires 60-day advance purchase for that level. 21-day - 60-day advance purchase and less than 21-day advance are priced at higher amounts) and are still bookable as one-way awards.

Beetles

In a word; yes. Skymiles award prices have become a literal joke. Routing restrictions are another no go for me. Log into my United account and there’s Turkish airways availability NYC to BKK via IST, at a far more reasonable award price. Try going via Europe to SE Asia using Skymiles.

hockeystl

Sure, they're typically a joke for International J....but I'm off to MUC next month for 148k RT in J.

There's consistently great value for domestic SM awards in Y. The awards aren't sexy but I usually get around 1.5c per mile in value...

flyerCO

If getting to Mexico or Central America is quick/east/cheap, you can find great deals. DL is US based and thus most it's customers are looking for US awards. Demand means they're the most expensive.

Adelphos

I have one of the Barcelona round trip deals in a few weeks to - I was interested in changing dates, but I am seeing 750,000 round trip pricing.

The answer is yes, especially close in. Outside of the Flash Sale round trip deals and occasional mediocre redemptions several months out, it is very difficult to use SkyMiles for international business class to Europe.

Another issue is that fall demand for European travel is apparently unprecedented right now due to exchange rates.

DLATL777

Skypesos. Not a joke but a reality since 2019.

Centurion

You can often back door into Delta One via Virgin and save a hundreds of thousands of miles.

Adelphos

This is true - the issue is though that you have SkyMiles that you earned from flying leftover. I would rather redeem 74K Skymiles one way than 50K Virgin Miles (which have to be transferred over via MR usually).

drjeffrock

Skypesos redemption rates for international travel have conditioned me into thinking that flying F on AF for 230k miles one-way is a steal lol

Synapseturquoise

At this point , I only use the Skypesos to buy upgrades.

s0ssos

And their partner awards? Cause most Americans don't travel internationally.

happyvoid

yes one way

xliioper

Anything less than 60 days out will be 375K miles one-way because the cheaper levels have a 60-day advance purchase requirement. 60 days from now is November 14th. One-way awards are available for 210K with a 60-day advance purchase. The cheapest DL metal award levels (140K miles each-way on JFK/BOS-BCN) require a roundtrip purchase and will not show up if you are only doing one-way searches as they are not bookable as one-ways. The only way to see them is with a roundtrip search (and they also have advance purchase requirements of 60 to 90 days).

The one-way UE-EU awards have actually been in this range for several years now (as DL decided to more closely align them with one-way revenue fare pricing). What is more recent are increases in US-EU roundtrip D1 low-level award pricing. From 80K each-way to 105K each-way a couple years ago, and then more recently to 140K each-way (or more) on most routes with lowest level varying between markets.