You don't think those savage attacks helped in making DL improve? Or even their ranking at the bottom of the award availability rating by WSJ?

They exist. You just have to buy the stickers.
And because you need the stickers, the upgrades have a better chance of happening.
(Except for some EXP heavy routes like LAX-JFK on a Sunday evening!)

No. WSJ and some other rankings compared apples to oranges, including their failure to differentiate close-in from advance redemption, and international from domestic. Also, UA/CO low/saver inventory has lessened while DL's has lessened to a lesser extent (i.e., DL hasn't improved availability - rather, it has remained more firm than others because of their policy change to prevent sub-72-hour free award changes).

Maybe because the average flyer feels that international redemptions provide greater savings in general and that most people cannot make last minute travel plans?

I expect the average flyer to redeem 25K Y domestic tickets the most.

Unless you are an elite or spend a ton on your credit card you it is the best you can hope for

The FT userbase is likely skewed towards more international preference than the norm, but there's no need to guess what is most common amongst DL customers overall. The vast majority of their revenue and flights are domestic. You could argue that these domestic-heavy revenue customers are more focused on international awards, but that's a hard sell. Regardless, someone who cares most about international award redemptions probably isn't best served by hoarding DL miles - despite being cheaply acquired - at the exclusion of others. I hold millions of *A miles that I tend to use for international awards, but for domestic use, I'm increasingly finding Skymiles to be the *best* value - hardly "SkyPesos".

Flew biz DEN-DUB @ 100K last spring ^. Going to PRG in April.....100K, biz again ^.

FWIW, the best deal I'm seeing is CO awards.

You don't think that the reason DL customers are mostly domestic US award redeeming types for this reason? That DL is okay in this aspect?

Thw WSJ is a reputable group, I'm sure they realize that majority of FF would like both domestic and intl awards. They also realize that intl awards represent greater savings and obviously they will consider that more important than domestic. The only good thing about DL is last minute awards. This is to me the only area in which they sort of exceed others. With the recent rule of no changes 3 days prior to departure, even this aspect is not much to talk about.

So it is natural for WSJ to look at carriers from both the domestic and intl award aspects.

Assume the following:

1. You do not have to make any trips, i.e. all your trips are completely optional /leisure.

2. You travel equally between domestic and intl destinations

3. You have the chance to collect only one airline's miles

Which airline would you choose?

There's no doubt that, to some degree, some people are DL customers because they recognize domestic strengths beforehand. I doubt that's a substantial cause for the majority of their revenue and flights being domestic, however.

Realize it or not, the fact is that domestically - especially for elites - DL offers a better value. Skymiles can be *vastly* cheaper to acquire - the half of the equation often ignored. Many of us purchased hundreds of thousands for 1 cent each last year, earned almost two miles per dollar spent (non-airline spending) along with status via credit cards, or used conversion bonuses to turn hotel and/or MR points into Skymiles at ratios of 1.5 - 2 : 1. When spent, inventory has been just as good or better. Factor in last-minute availability and unlimited first class upgrades for elites on coach awards and they really stand out. Outside a few niche uses, no one would argue that Delta is as useful internationally, but that matters *only* for customers wishing to redeem international awards.

It is the *only* good thing about them? None of the aspects I mentioned above are advantageous? As for last-minute redemptions... when they put in that 3-day rule, my observation (albeit empirical, not scientific) was that their inventory opened up even more.

The split between dom/intl makes it a tough call. With upper-level status or better, given your assumptions, I'd go with DL. With low or no status, I'd go US or UA. Mid-tier status I'd be on the fence. If I could spend a lot on CCs and/or utilize a lot of promos, it would tip me to DL in all cases except no status.

In reality, my situation is that 90% of my trips are domestic, 50% are leisure (many miles redeemed for friends/family/employees, too), and about 30% are last minute. As a DM, I've never missed an upgrade on a coach award (GMs I redeem for have about 50% success in getting into F), and about 80% of the time I redeem at the 25K level, 15%+ at 32.5K. My cost of acquiring SkyMiles, largely because I use branded credit cards + various promos, is about *half* that of my cost of UA miles, about 2/3 of my AA mile cost, and about 80% of what I spend to acquire US miles. Certainly not everyone has the same situation, but for me, DL is a no-brainer.

I would choose UA/CO, based on assumption #2 about international destinations.

And since elites are not the majority of FF, WSJ was correct in putting DL at the bottom. When making a survey like that its obvious they are looking at the interests of the majority of FF

We have gone over this time and time again, even in this aspect US matches DL, and with redemptions on Star, going with US is a no brainer.


To me yes, I have no interest in upgrades, last minute awards might come in handy, so that is the only useful thing to me. I book travel few months in advance and DL absolutely sucks in that regard. It has improved slightly, but its still tops the chart for suckability.

So now you expect people to think that DL is a great airline because their best chances at an award are 3 days before departure?


There you go, for a FF who is part of the majority you admit DL is not the best, so now do you understand why DL deserves to be at the bottom?

Maybe for you, but for some reason you seem to defend DL with a passion like you feel that its best overall.

And in honor of Skypesos, FTers have started nicknaming India's Jet Airways as well:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/airli...alue-post.html

:D

Then they should be called SkyRubles (Russian Money) there was a time they were 1to 1 with $, after USSR fell apart, they were devalued many times over.

Am I the only one who does not see the vast Delta availability close in. For example I just tried SEA-ATL (award chart for F says low) 80K level for March 1-6th with most options at 90K with connections through SLC or MSP etc.

At AA.com, choose the same SEA-ATl and the award is 50K.

This is the norm I see out of Seattle. I rarely see Delta availability. In fact the only way I use Delta awards is using Delta miles for partner redemptions AF/KLM or AS.