ffI

DL does not care about what you did in the long ago past. DL does care about getting liability off their books.
Most people acquiring miles by non-flying means do not accumulate them overnight - they get them 10-20k a yr for many years (I am not talking about FT crowd)
Their miles were likely sold by DL for 1c long ago and the cash float saved DL from 2008 crisis to now. I have some miles at least from 2010 in a few of my family accounts

From an airline point of view
A cash ticket bought today - the cash float is for max 11 months - or 1 yr more if they cancel and get a cash certificate
A miles ticket bought today - typical float is likely 2-3 yrs if not more - a much more useful thing for DL

Even considering paid tickets
DL has reduced the miles given out - to 5c, 6c 7c, 9c and 11c for every $ cash cost of ticket - but they are still giving refunds on cash tickets and calling them skymiles
There is no such refund to a miles ticket priced at 1cpm - this discount / refund is only for Amex card holders - a subset -
Also this means to reward leisure travelers with miles - not go after the disappearing corporate contracts

I need an economist to help with this argument - but I see the airlines selling even more miles with even more cards

sydneyracquelle

Yes you will unless there was a schedule change or change of air carrier.

xliioper

Award levels are dynamic and largely coorelated to revenue fare pricing. So as revenue fare prices increase with inflation, so do award levels. This has been true for some time domestically and for international coach. D1 award levels were the last to go fully dynamic last year at some point and vary from route to route (and not just by region) for US/Canada awards.

ffI

Agreed - just set the value to about 1.1c at most to ruin any good aspect of gaming the system and this has been known for a while - the 15% is just to keep the leisure traveler with a stash of miles happy.

And note that they make even more of a profit now when you fly a partner - they likely still pay AF only 30k to EU for coach - but now they charge you 60k at least!

At some point one wonders - why not go the SW route and just price miles 1.3c - may I suggest that the last minute sales are giving away too much benefit to the loyal travelers?

VFR

I think it's quite possible that Amex is paying Delta something when people use this benefit, similar to how it has been posited that Amex pays for each checked bag fee waived and each visit to the Sky Club.

It solves a big problem for Amex: on average, people have much more of a choice in payment methods than they do in airlines. For people to want to accumulate SkyMiles over a long period of time with a Delta credit card, they have to be able to use the miles. Delta does not really have aspirational international business class redemptions at reasonable prices any more, but for most of the US domestic credit card market, domestic flights in economy are going to be more applicable anyway, and people are going to remember getting 15% off for having an Amex, even on an economy fare.

GrayAnderson

No, it really isn't. It puts domestic bookings about on par with drinks in the lounge (which has been, I confess, a fairly standard use of points for me - especially in places where the points-purchased drinks aren't taxed).

sydneyracquelle

There is also the PWM feature that can be quite helpful for people who don�t travel a lot and accumulate 5,000-10,000 miles per year and can use the miles for $50-$100 discount on any DL ticket.

cre95

Is the discount only available to DL Amex cards or non DL branded Amex cards as well? I went through a full booking where I see the full price as well as the 15% reduced price at the bottom of the page but the reduced price is tied to having to apply for a DL branded AmEx card. I can't seem to activate the reduced price when using my non DL AmEx card.

sydneyracquelle

It�s only for DL AMEX personal and business gold/platinum/reserve.

cre95

Thanks for confirming. It explains why I wasn't able to make it work.

RFDMinnesota

I looked around and couldn't see this mentioned anywhere, so here's me raising what I believe to be a novel question:

What are the MQDs calculated based on, pre or post-discounted prices?

I just redeemed for a 51K award ticket (reduced to 43.3K) and the pre-final confirmation award calculator predicted MQD earnings that didn't add up to either, but instead was only like $350...

flyerCO

Post, always based on what you actually spend.

xliioper

The calculator has a long-standing bug of not including Delta Connection flights. They will post correctly once flown.

xooz

Interesting. What is the time frame from filing to getting refund? That's a pretty penny to hand over to the IRS and expect a competent response.

sydneyracquelle

Pretty quickly as I file as soon as tax season opens up. I used to get hard checks in the mail. Now it�s direct deposit. Make sure you check the 2022 box online not 2023 or you won�t get your refund for another year. And definitely do not do this with a state as the amount would be taxable income.