Delta today gave us some good news. Well, no, not really. Kinda like the OFCMB seat PR spin to sell the mass market on something “new” that is not new and is hit & miss at best – we now have 10K one way award seats in limited markets. When Delta says limited you had better believe it is limited!
I e-mailed Delta for a list of the routes and was basically told to buzz off. Nice. I spent about an hour searching for these 10k limited routes from both Delta hubs and non-Delta hubs. Folks the seats are wide open in the markets that have them, but if you are not in that group forget it!
I mean if you are in the Midwest and want to go skiing in Salt Lake? Forget that one. How about Atlanta and want to go to Los Angeles or San Francisco? Not gonna happen. How about NYC to almost anywhere – YEAH RIGHT! Go have a bagle instead.
Here is the deal folks – in defending the REPREHENSIBLE move to hide the Delta award charts Delta, via their PR folks, have told us most of the “sheep-le” are redeeming award tickets for domestic coach travel. Well most folks are just dumb and not doing it right. If you are spending your $kyRubles this way (unless you are a high level elite and can score upgrades) you are not doing it right and getting value. These folks are better off NOT using SkyRubles but other types of points like Arrival+ card for these kinds of redemptions.
If Delta wants to really make a change for the better, rather than slowing down the already REALLY slow Fly Delta APP with more features, how about you fix the award booking page so I don’t have to say pay for two fights to get from Australia to the Midwest?
Delta has also bragged about more partners added to the award booking page. Oh you mean like other airlines have had for years? Let me stand up and clap for Delta IT – TRULY – you are now almost caught up to the 1990’s of other airlines. Sigh.
Then we have more airlines earning MQDs for travel. Really? Anyone who worries about MQD spend is either just lazy or just does not get it. I met my MQD exempt spend in less that 3 weeks for the year. You can too. If you are worrying about MQDs you need to rethink!
Oh then we have Diamond’s boarding with 1st class. You know what, last year, I privately sent a very long list of things Delta could do that would not cost them one red cent and would make the elite program much better. That idea was on top of my list. I had a bunch more and we will see if they implement them too.
Bottom line – Delta needs to stop just putting out PR spin and offer real change. They need to bring the award charts back. They need to bring stopovers and the OLD open jaws back. They need to stop #KeepDescending and #KeepClimbing! – René
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O death, where is thy sting?
So, where FROM and TO are these 10,000 miles awards available? Based in MSP I doubt there will be any places included in the 10,000 miles award (will there be any from MSP???) that I want to visit. 🙂
When I saw the announcement re the 10k miles for one way, WITH A 21 DAY ADVANCE NOTICE, the first thing that I thought was, here comes the next “enhancement” whereby Delta will start charging a service fee for last minute award bookings, on not only the 10k, but all other award bookings. It’s about the last quiver left that Delta has not shot.
Bagel, not bagle
By picking random dates and flights out of Atlanta, I’ve found quite a few places where 10K miles can be redeemed for one way tickets. Some of these places include: SAV, BNA, MEM, JAX, RDU, MCO, TPA, CHS, MSY, RSW, MIA, EYW, PBI, et cetera.
@Robert – OK so ATL to the south? Great promo!
What I took from you post was the PR people telling you that most redemptions are domestic coach bookings. Wow. WOW. I guess I am not stinging them hard enough will all my MIA to LHR in upper class on VS. I can’t say I am shocked that was the response. I guess I am shocked you got a response. I expected similar to you asking about the 10K routes. Buzz off indeed Delta. I won’t fly a single revenue flight on your metal this year. I will fly Alaska metal on revenue. Same with AA. I also will not redeem miles for domestic travel again. Did it once and shame on me (pay with miles actually). Humph. Good luck at the Freddie Awards pal. Hope the goose egg stings at your home.
Delta is great at spinning anything into something positive. The “great news” is nothing but fluff. Sure there are plenty of 10K o/w seats, but that are on routes no one wants to “cash in” their hard earned miles on. And if you find a 10K o/w on a good routing, the times are awful.
Rene, how about the AS devaluation as the “small change” that Delta made to MQM partner earnings as part of this same announcement? In June, I’m flying on an 006 Delta ticket with two K legs on Alaska. When I booked the ticket, it was worth 100%. Today, it’s worth 50%. Delta made no mention on the website yesterday about purchase date- just travel date. The diamond desk yesterday had no idea about this “enhancement.” Any suggestions on what to do? I obviously wouldn’t have booked a 50% MQM ticket had that been the policy at time of purchase… And I obviously want my MQMs!
@Mike – Once the trip is done, email and complain that it is changing the terms AFTER purchase and you want the points or you file a complaint with the DOT. That will fix it.