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We have the new award chart (there is a PDF on the Delta.com page – under “Expand All”). The good parts are the low level, that became saver level, is now just LEVEL 1. Gosh I am happy they did not come up with even MORE silly names. Level 1-5 works. First a TIP – like HIGH (you would have to be to book at this level) – never ever book level 5 – EVER!
The good news is they did NOT devalue (very few went up) the chart more than the two times they already did last year. The Level 1 awards are what they were before. The only real bad news is the Level 2 is HIGHER than we had expected and were hoping for. It would have been nice if Level 2 would have been the mid point between 1 & 3 but it is much closer to 3. They did a better job with Level 4 but that is WAY too many points for me anyway. The good side is we now have one small step below the old MID/STANDARD now Level 3.
What we DO NOT KNOW is how many seats are going to be in each level. How will the new award site work? These are the questions we will talk about a ton for the next few months once they build the thing. What do I think?
If you look at my post last week guessing about what is to come you get an idea of what we could see. How will distribution be and how hard will it be to find the Level 1 seats? How much more space will elites have? My thoughts are the same as before, the higher the ticket price the less Level 1 & 2 and more 3-5 you will see. Your elite status will drop you down a level or 2 or even 3 depending on the price of the ticket. Always think $$$ for every move Delta makes!
So what have we learned with this chart. Not much. We had a good guess and were mostly right. Now we must wait again to find out about these questions as well as one-way award and if we can still use the very good stopover / open jaw rules under the current award system! – René
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The ECONOMY awards are midway between levels 1 and 3.
Guess we know where your head is today. 🙂
@Michael – I know I am bad at math, but, the mid point between 25k and 40k is 32.5k NOT 35k or is my head on wrong today? 😉
I’m wondering about the dollars plus miles option and how that will work. specifically, will one accrue MQM and RDM for booking these partial award tickets like you get credit for BE tickets for Pay with miles now?
@jeff – my guess is no. Here is why. This is an AWARD ticket. Award tickets do NOT earn any MQMs or RDMs right? So expect not. Expect only PWM in 1st to earn as now.
It might be on wrong because I remember you like to fly international on awards (granted in first). The only instance of economy awards being closer to level 3 is for domestic flights. From what I can tell, all other destinations are either midway or slightly closer to level 1.
For business and first, the analysis is true but that isn’t specified in the post. Just wanted to point out that your wording in the post about level 2 is misleading.
@Michael – we can crunch ALL the numbers but I think you will see more are leaning towards level 3 than 1. Plus, all of it matter little till we see how much of each level is to be had!
As I said a while ago, for delta, loyalty=$$$, pure and simple. Even for a for-profit corporation, I think that approach is short sighted. Btw is your MR blog up? If so how do I access it? Thanks.
@john – txs for input. MR blog days away from live!