Update: This deal is dead. See our new post here.
This past week Delta Skymiles performed a stealth devaluation. Long ago Delta decided to remove their Skymiles price award charts from their website. This was attempt to hide any price increases–such as the one they did last week. Fortunately we were smart enough to save copies of the award charts. We know if we are getting a good deal! These stealth devaluations have been the norm for Delta Skymiles for years now.
This time around Delta raised their prices for award tickets with partner airlines. They kept the prices for Delta operated flights at the same previous “low” level (if you can find them!). The price increases are not small and affect all classes of service and all regions. They even raised mileage prices for short notice bookings. Previously everything was a single (low level) price for all partner airlines. In our opinion partner flights were the last “good deal” for using your Delta Skymiles. Today they are more expensive.
Fortunately a work around has been discovered! If you include at least one Delta operated flight in your itinerary it will price out the mileage portion of the ticket as if the entire itinerary was on Delta operated flights at the lowest level. This is great for those who need it anyway.
Oddly this would make a connecting flight cheaper than a direct flight on a partner airline since you have to fly at least 1 Delta segment in order to get the favorable price. This makes zero financial sense as they would have to cover the cost of two flights instead of one yet they would recognize less reduction in liability from requiring less miles for the purchase. Delta has a good product overall but they are horrible with their management of the loyalty program as well as their IT systems.
Delta Skymiles get a lot of bad press because they are constantly making changes with no announcement or warning. This is a poor decision made by management to alienate their most loyal customers by constantly promising value while secretly lowering that value every few months with no notice of any kind. They are well within their legal rights to do so but that does not make it right. We personally have just used up the last of our Delta Skymiles with no conscious intentions to earn more on purpose. Delta has become too dishonest and sneaky with their changes–something we don’t want to support!
Are you ready to redeem some of your Delta Skymiles before things get worse? Submit a new request today to get started!