Delta Sky Miles Awards

Have any Delta frequent fliers out there (I'm longer one since moving back up north, but have about 30,000 miles I need to use) heard if Delta has any plans to follow AA/OneWorld and UA/Star Alliance and issue 1-way award tickets for 1/2 round-trip miles?

And no, I haven't called Delta - my past experience has been that getting a straight answer from them about anything, phone or email, is a losing battle.

If I can't use my miles for flights guess I'll have to see what else they will buy.

Thanks in advance.

Have any Delta frequent fliers out there (I'm longer one since moving back up north, but have about 30,000 miles I need to use) heard if Delta has any plans to follow AA/OneWorld and UA/Star Alliance and issue 1-way award tickets for 1/2 round-trip miles?

 

I'm a DL FF and your hear speculation about things like that all the time, but I can't recall hearing anything credible to that effect. However, contrary to popular belief you CAN actually find low mileage (25,000) round trip award tickets, so you actually have enough for a RT domestic ticket. Granted, it takes some planning and flexibility but they are out there. I've seen them, I've booked them. They do exist, LOL.

Alternatively, if you happen to have a Delta Amex you can use the "pay with miles" option that allows you to pay for a ticket partly in miles and partly in cash. That option provides another way to use up quantities of miles that you might not ordinarily be able to.

Bob:

You are a wimp! Call Delta. Get an answer. If they say "yes" it is 50-50 it is the right answer. If they say "no" it is 50-50 it is the right answer. See how much information you gain for only 57 minutes on hold?

I haven't heard anything (rumor or otherwise) about this happening. It would be nice if it happened. But, then, many things would be nice if Delta changed. :)

Bob:

 

You are a wimp! Call Delta. Get an answer. If they say "yes" it is 50-50 it is the right answer. If they say "no" it is 50-50 it is the right answer. See how much information you gain for only 57 minutes on hold?

 

I haven't heard anything (rumor or otherwise) about this happening. It would be nice if it happened. But, then, many things would be nice if Delta changed. :)

Love this response!

And thanks for your info, waterbug. My problem is that I seldom fly anywhere round trip these days since I'm retired - I'm usually looking for a 1-way ticket to or from a port, and have had very good luck finding them on UA and AA - most recent success is recently booked business class BOS-ZRH-LHR on Swiss for 50,000 miles.

In the meantime, have looked at SkyMiles market place and see that they have a camcorder I've been considering for a while for 26,400 miles.

Bob

I did a search last night on Delta just out of curiosity because I too have miles to use up. There is a one-way search option, but it takes 60,000 miles for 1 economy ticket. That is double what it takes to fly Continental/United.

I was trying to rescue some old abandoned miles and build enough with my American Express card to do a trip to Europe sometime down the road. Now I don't think it is worth the effort. Maybe I can find a domestic ticket for a quick getaway. In the meantime, I'll be using my Continental-linked card because those miles are much easier to use.

I did a search last night on Delta just out of curiosity because I too have miles to use up. There is a one-way search option, but it takes 60,000 miles for 1 economy ticket. That is double what it takes to fly Continental/United...

 

Yes, that's the same thing I found. What's really frustrating is that Delta's awards chart shows miles each way, but only if you buy a round trip!

In the past I charged as much as possible to my Chase/UAL Visa card (1 mile/dollar), but my best deal at the moment is Chase Sapphire Preferred, with two points per dollar charged for travel.

Unfortunately the points are only directly convertible to miles on CO and BA. Hope that this will continue to work for the merged UA/CO frequent flier programs next year. In the meantime, I'm making sure to convert points to OnePass miles ASAP, as OnePass and MileagePlus are now linked.

DL is sticking with the R/T awards. Execs have said that one-way travel is too profitable for them (higher yields), so they are keeping it this way.

The reason for the one-way chart is that you may have a trip with one tier of redemption in the outbound direction and a different tier in the return. Or coach one way and first the other. This provides the pricing for each direction in mix and match situations.

Also, by playing around with the system, you can figure out which segment is putting you in the higher category. Personally, I like that they do it this way - makes you do some math, but hey...addition came before Econ 101. Should be easy....right???

I'm a DL FF and your hear speculation about things like that all the time, but I can't recall hearing anything credible to that effect. However, contrary to popular belief you CAN actually find low mileage (25,000) round trip award tickets, so you actually have enough for a RT domestic ticket. Granted, it takes some planning and flexibility but they are out there. I've seen them, I've booked them. They do exist, LOL.

Alternatively, if you happen to have a Delta Amex you can use the "pay with miles" option that allows you to pay for a ticket partly in miles and partly in cash. That option provides another way to use up quantities of miles that you might not ordinarily be able to.

I get 25,000 point RT tickets all the time - they are out there.