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The future is now everyone. These flights, all on Delta by the way, with nothing special done other than doing an A-B search on Delta.com, turned up this route as a possible option. No, it was not the cheapest option, but it existed and all you had to do was click it (HT to FlyerTalk for find).
Let this sink in (and feel free to look at the old award charts) and think about spending over ½ Million SkyMiles for just ONE award ticket and over 1 Million SkyMiles for two people to fly business class from NYC to South Africa on Delta. And this is not even mixing and matching with partners for crying out loud!
Mind blown. You bet ya!
Some have been very critical of me, due to my harsh stand on what Delta is doing to SkyMiles as of late, but I think I will let the above screen shot from Delta.com speak for me and talk louder thank I ever could.
This is the future. It is here right now!
So I have a little challenge and it will run until the end of the month of May. If anyone can find a higher priced ticket for two people on Delta.com (with no photo shop work) and I can re-create it on my own, I will then give the one who finds the highest award ticket submitted to me anywhere you can fly on Delta.com a $50 Amazon gift card on 1JUNE2015.
There are some rules you have to follow. And they are:
- 2 Flyers Maximum
- Maximum 21 day ticket
- May not use Multi-leg search
- You must e-mail me a screen shot
- I must search / confirm your screen shot
There you are. Have some fun with this and let’s see if we can really find a ticket that will run 600,000 or 700,000+ SkyMiles per person. – René
PS – What do you now think about: “Delta’s expanded search capabilities and calendar at delta.com offer[‘s a] more flexible and accurate view of Award prices” 🙁
UPDATE: As of 5/22 our new leader is Nicolás who has offered up 1,335,000 for a RT for two. Truly disgusting and leads me to believe someone will break 1 Million SkyMiles per person! #SAD #FAIL
UPDATE: As of 5/22 7:PM ET we have a tie for the winning total of 1,500,000 for a RT for two. I can not believe this folks. This is just nuts! I may have to give a bonus award if anyone can find a 1 million point award per person! 😉
Gold Delta SkyMiles®
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Well, the surcharges seem pretty mild.
@Christian – True! And I guess we value those more than 1 Million Skymiles? 😉
Delta is a good airline if you can find a good fare, but not for accumulating/using mileage currency.
That is all anyone needs to know.
I paid 250K per person round trip from LAX to MXP via JFK in business, with a couple hours layover at JFK. It’s on Delta metal. It would have been cheaper if I choose to fly Aerofloat. But I dont want to trasit at Moscow.
@Rene – Well, not just yet, but give Delta a little time…
@christian:
i can’t post a pic with my phone, but I wanted to visit Japan for the weekend while staying in Seoul. Normally it’s 7,500 each way with Korean Air. There is no DL metal possible for that route. As of 2015…it’s double (30,000) or quadruple (60,000) the miles for round trip, plus almost a KE economy fair ($294) in surcharges.
I’m a DM. I still plan on flying Delta, but this week I just booked 3 TPAC RT (ICN-DTW) in AA F rather than DL J. I saved ~$1,500 per ticket too.
@Brian – Sorry, bud. Just my dry sense of humor. Rene has indulged me on plenty of rants about how awful the changes to Skymiles have been. A couple years ago, I was pretty fanatically loyal to Delta, to the point where I just wouldn’t fly anyone else. But that loyalty only ran one way, and with the never ending stream of devaluations and negative changes, I became really embittered. At this point, I’m using my last big stash of Skymiles to fly myself and my wife in J on KE to Bali in a few months. After that, only dire need will see me on a Delta flight. A shame, really, but intentionally treating your customers like dirt will eventually alienate some of them.
@christian, I got the first comment, I just wished I could paste pictures to these posts to show some other extreme examples. You would die laughing. I recently found a RT flight from DTW to Germany (NUE) for over $17,500. All on J. DL metal to CDG and AF Regionair to NUE. I couldn’t believe it. I checked AF F and it was “only” $8,800.
I’m working on gathering additional info now on a new theory. I’m seeing different pricing or availability of flights when I search DL website depending on whether or not I’m signed in on my home computer or if I’m using a VPN or public computer. ie, if they know it’s me, it seems I’m getting the more expensive options only which are in line with my normal purchases. I know the cheaper options exist due to ITA or Kayak, but often if I search on Deltas website they don’t appear. If I walk to the library and search on a computer there without signing in, those cheaper options show up first. So far, I only have enough data to say it may be an unfortunate coincidence, but I’m Going to see if I can build a case with three months data.
@Brian
You seem like a top notch guy, and I wish you well on all fronts. As to airline pricing, I understand your point, and think that DL has similarly charged variably in the past. Given the changes DL continues to implement, I have to give you props for sticking it out when I ran like hell.
@Christian, thanks. I guess I’m still coming to terms with Step 1 and admitting I have a problem 😉
Best of luck to you too!!!
Wow. I stopped chasing status on delta but I still keep my delta platinum amex for the miles earnings and other perks. But with the miles pretty much almost worthless, I just may start collecting hotel points instead.