pinniped

That's the one that has jumped in value for me in the past 4 months. I was about to cancel my BA Visa right at my November annual fee but have decided to keep it.

I got into the program thinking I'd use the 2-for-1 vouchers. Now I'm using Avios on all the partner airlines.

In fact, Avios is the one program where I actually find the SPG 1:1.25 exchange to be a decent value. To date, I've always kept SPG points for hotel stays (which I'll still do with *most* of my points).

Firewind

I haven't done it in a while, but isn't there an extra surcharge for doing that? Seems to me that when CO was still DL's partner, the DL site always showed a lot of CO availability at the low redemption rate, but you ran into the fee at the end of the booking process.

turtleisland

Air Canada is still a good airline, and the best in North America. Aeroplan has gone to the pisser.

I used to value AP miles at 2c/mile. I now value them around 1c/mile from the last year, not to mention the general program devaluations.

Paulchili

But can you redeem one way awards with DL? You can do it with OW & *A.
It seems that I am using one way awards more and more (cruises, intra Asian/European travel, etc)!

cesco.g

You can, but DL still charges you the same as for rt awards; i.e. 1-ways are double of what they are at other programs.

Paulchili

In other words - you cannot.
One would have to be pretty desperate to waste miles like that, especially at Sky Pesos rates.

factory81

After having some time to play with my miles and see just what I can do with them for my personal needs I have found out of AA, CO/UA, and Delta. Delta has the worst mileage system, skypesos is a true descriptive word for sure. I just can't get their flights to work in my favor hardly ever.

Right now I have the opportunity to go to Jamaica if I feel like spending $900 and Delta I think gets me there the quickest through ATL and I think they might have a 50k redemption for this, and that is the only time Delta has shown to be useful.

I have just over 40k (like 40200) left at the moment and I just can't make use of them efficiently ever. GRR-NYC CO redemption of 20k r/t + 7.50 vs. a Delta 40k + $50-60 in fees is a great example off the top of my head of just a poopy reward offering by Delta.

Ancien Maestro

I agree, its becoming more difficult to squeeze the value out of AE.. I considered the other alternatives, and still open to say Avion, or TD..

I almost have to bank on the conversion bonus, and the book economy points for business class promo to happen, to make any sense of AE in the longterm. And specific routes still hold pretty good value, but the main key is to book good routes with low taxes and fees.

Was beside my friend yesterday at Banff Springs Hotel as he booked 7 tickets to MIA from YYC.. Was $1,000 in fees for 7 tickets.. So fees worked out to $143 per ticket.. and I believe a normal ticket around end of April would be around $500 all in.. Better than nothing, but he was looking for 7 tickets, and pulled the trigger on the 175,000 point redemption..

pinniped

You're not funny!!

benzemalyonnais

I never said DL was the best.....I just said that if you know what you're doing, the redemptions can be quite useful....

We are lucky - most of the international programs have ridiculous surcharges a la BA, and the miles are completely useless for Y and only a little bit useful for C or F

Stubtify

Shhhh.... don't give the US carriers any more ideas! I see these surcharges as more detrimental than mileage depreciation. I can always get more miles, I can't always get more $$$'s :P

pinniped

With BA, there are still long-haul partner redemption opportunities...for now. I just redeemed Avios for India-U.S., a true one-way award, with $0 YQ. Total taxes $88 per ticket, identical to the fees I would have paid with CO miles doing a one-way *A redemption.

On the BA board, it appears that a thread is forming where people are listing their YQ-free Avios redemptions. Maybe that will formalize into a bit of a more organized thread over time.

shel

Interesting. How can you search for award availability of DL partners (using DL miles)? It's not searchable on delta.com.

I'll be glad to put those DL miles in use to either Europe or Asia. They have being stuck there since Katrina (the hurricane).

pinniped

Can one of the Award Nexus / KVS / Expert Flyer type tools do it?

I redeemed my DL for an award trip to Key West during Spring Break. I was kind of surprised to see that available...a $620 ticket available for 32,500 miles per person. One direction was a "low" award...the other a "mid" award. Since I never have enough DL miles to do a serious long-haul premium cabin trip for two, I figure the 2 cpm range was as good a place as any to burn 65,000 miles.

KVS

Only the KVS Tool supports Award Availability on all SkyTeam partner airlines (as well as DL itself):
http://Help.KVSTool.com/#Classes