I am not talking about status, but am referring to award travels, because that's what collecting miles are for, right?Delta requires an arm and a leg for award travels, especially premium class...15% off is still a lot miles.

You put additional spend on a Delta credit card to get status quicker, and to travel less (?) - I get all of that, but what good is all those miles collected if the required amount for award travel is astronomical? Wouldn't you want to spend less for that Delta flight you have been wanting to fly by having other options such as through its other partners like VS, for example?

coke cans and winglets just finished saying they found JAX-LHR and DCA-LHR for 34k RT in main. Is that an arm and a leg?

I got JFK-LAX on a 764 for 6.5k, applied a RUC, and got D1 during COVID. Is that normal? Of course not.

If you’re inflexible with travel plans, expect inflexible prices, I suppose.

You are missing my point entirely. I was talking about redeeming through Delta vs. the flexibility of redeeming elsewhere for the same (Delta) flight, or redeeming same origin/destination for less in other programs.

For example, before the devaluation, I transferred from Chase to VS, and redeemed Delta business class one-way nonstop ticket from ATL to PVG. That same ticket would have cost me more than twice as much (at the time) going through Delta.

The point is having more options give you more to play with; rather than being stuck with one program.

I have found huge value in using up my SM on domestic main cabin flights averaging about 1.5 cents per mile with the 15% Amex discount. For international travel I just pay cash.

Says who?

A couple of things

1) The idea that Skymiles are "worthless" is empirically false. They are worth a minimum of 1 cent per mile via Pay With Miles. When you factor in the 15% discount and standard redemption rates, the value is 1.2 cents to 1.3 cents pretty verifiably. The fact that you can also get upgraded on award travel, apply upgrade instruments on award travel, and earn status via award travel are also differentiators. Are miles in other program worth more due to better rates for international business class? Sure - but that doesn't make SkyMiles worthless. Spending $30K on a Delta reserve gets you 30K SkyMiles. Could you get 60K miles with a CapOne reserve or something? Sure - but that spending on the Delta Reserve gets you things like RUC, upgrade priority, etc, all of which have value.

2) Those complaining about low upgrade changes with status should look at changing their travel patterns if possible. I have had great success with F upgrades in Diamond, and pretty good track record with Platinum. If you want upgrades, don't leave Monday morning, Thursday evening, etc. Schedule business trips for Tuesday or Wednesday and leave in the afternoon or evening the day before. Fly out Saturday afternoon for business trips that start on Monday. If you choose to fly routes and times that are elite dominated, you aren't going to get upgraded no matter what airline you fly. Switch up

I have cleared from economy to Detlta One 100% of the time (albeit sometimes at the gate).

Poster was refering to GUC upgrades on international D1 routes where you can no longer go directly from Economy to D1 (unless there is no PS cabin). It sounds like you are referring to comp upgrades on domestic D1 flights, rather than GUC upgrades.

wrong. I’ve purchased economy, applied the GUC to PS (except for flights without PS like NZ this fall) and then 24 hours out cleared to D1 (or sometimes at the gate). Every single time. (Last year I used 12 GUCs due to COVID rollover.)

I don’t waste GUCs on domestic flights.

About 85% of my travel every year is US domestic, and partner availability of award seats out of my wee home airport is more miss than hit, alas.

The wee home airport problems are not limited to Delta or its partners; I’m sitting on a good-sized stash of United miles because before before they pulled out of VPS, it was almost impossible to find saver award space on their regional jets. And then United went to dynamic pricing where domestic redemption options out of PNS or ECP seem even worse than Delta domestic redemptions out of VPS, and I’m just kind f saving the United miles for when we move to Colorado and hoping they’ve still got a little value at that point.

I actually second this for UA domestic redemptions too, I think UA international redemptions seem better than DL's on average but the domestic ones are atrocious. Last two times I looked at a UA award the cheapest option was a double connection through PWM and somewhere else, a normal itinerary was double the price and the cash fare didn't reflect the absurd jump in miles either. Other time wanted me to change airports from DCA to IAD or something like that, with again a normal itinerary being ridiculous. UA does let you earn PQPs on awards now, but still no upgrades and can't even use Plus Points if you're not GS.

If you have a UA credit card, you would be eligible for upgrade on award travels (CPU routes only).

United also has lower XN and IN awards in terms of required amounts, but you need at least a credit card for XN and at least Plat for IN.

Edit: XN = discounted economy awards; IN = discounted business awards; CPU = complementary premier upgrade (basically most US domestic routes plus canada, mexico, Caribbean and central America)

~50% success rate for me….I fly mostly ex-JFK….tons of 360s and DMs everywhere.

And you were lucky enough to clear and didn't clear into d1 until 24 hours out or at the gate. That's a huge devluation from last year of clearing right into d1 from economy and being assured a seat in d1

This is something I'm curious about, too.

I wouldn't blame Delta for eliminating that, but I do suspect that most of these proposals thrown around would result in a number of DL FFs reducing how many Amex DL cards they hold.

Maybe it wouldn't affect spend, and I don't know who really benefits from these annual fees, Amex or Delta.