Shame, Shame – Delta Kills Partner Awards w/ Huge Devaluation

by Adam

Wow, if you didn’t realize already how much respect Delta has for their SkyMiles members, get a load of these ridiculous devaluations which hit upon ALL partner awards in ALL regions and which were not formally announced, but instead loaded on a FRIDAY afternoon.

Ridiculously, the only way to get around these increases is to include a Delta flight in the itinerary. Of course, these changes come after three other devaluations in the last year.

Flights to Europe (ex 1. New York to London) -> From 70K to 85K each way when not flying Delta. Virgin Atlantic, 49% owned by Delta, also receives the new pricing. SHAME!

DL LHR

Ex. 2 – These changes impact their joint venture partners Air France, Alitalia, and KLM as well. SHAME! 70K to 85K 

Screen Shot 2017-04-07 at 4.13.43 PM

Ex. 3 – This one really hurts me…When flying to Europe in the summer I tend to fly with Delta at their old “Low” level. How? Well, Aeroflot has fantastic availability and connections back to most major European destinations. They also have schedule changes all the time which has given me a 100% success rate in changing to the direct Delta flight over the last 3 summers without having to worry about actually flying with Aeroflot  Well, this method will now cost me an extra 15K miles as you can see from the Moscow / Nice connection below. SHAME!

Screen Shot 2017-04-07 at 4.14.08 PM

Flights to Central & South America ->

 40K to 45K each way when not flying with Delta to Colombia, SHAME!

Screen Shot 2017-04-07 at 4.17.29 PM

 30K to 35K each way when not flying with Delta to Mexico…on a carrier that they just increased their ownership share to 49%, SHAME!


Screen Shot 2017-04-07 at 4.21.27 PM

75K to 100K each way when not flying with Delta to Brazil and Argentina…including GOL, another airline where Delta has an ownership share…SHAME!

Screen Shot 2017-04-07 at 4.22.39 PM

Tokyo goes from 80K to 95K when not flying with Delta…SHAME!

Screen Shot 2017-04-07 at 4.26.37 PM

Australia goes from 95K to 115K when not flying with Delta..including Virgin Australia…SHAME!

Screen Shot 2017-04-07 at 4.42.01 PM

Now, these are just a few of the changes. We can keep playing this game all day as Delta doesn’t publish an award chart or even announce changes so the only way to verify increases is to actually search for an award. In general, it seems that ALL partner awards now come at a premium unless a Delta flight is included in the itinerary (even one within the US). The examples above are for business class travel, but unfortunately economy is impacted as well.

SHAME SHAME!

SHAME

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5 comments

02nz April 7, 2017 - 9:32 pm

Sad!

Reply
Jake April 8, 2017 - 9:15 am

Act like this are simply a power play on the part of some dirt bags who get a kick of sticking it to helpless customers who have little to no way to fight back. They are probably high fiving themselves and laughing at articles like this. They would not dare play games like this with actual fares because the fare paying customers could fight back and hurt them head on. Not so with miles – they fewer people use their miles the happier they are.

They did not have to do this, or at least not the way they went about it. If they needed to devalue their program there are so many less alienating ways to do it but they chose the FU approach with glee because of the type of people they are. Assad has not qualms about using chemical weapons on innocent civilians, this is the frequent flyer miles equivalent of it – totally heartless and unnecessary but gives the person doing it the perverse pleasure of hurting people.

Reply
Ryan April 8, 2017 - 8:09 pm

When will airlines realize we will shift our credit card spend away from their “miles” to something more valuable? They are sabotaging themselves. Selling “miles” to banks is one of their most profitable revenue streams. When that demand drops so do their revenues. Why pay $95 – $450 each year for a card that gives worthless points? The banks know this an offer their own products that provide a reliable redemption (Chase Preferred/Reserve, AMEX Platinum, and many more). Another move that is profitable for the airline this quarter but ultimately shortsighted.

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