Back in April, Delta decided to devalue the redemptions on their partner airlines overnight without any notice. This was the latest of a string of devaluations that Delta imposed upon its members overnight. One of the particularly stinging devaluations was for a last minute premium award on Virgin Atlantic. Overnight, a last minute (21 days out) redemption on Virgin Atlantic Upper Class went from pricing out at 70,000 Skymiles to 102,500 Skymiles.
Anything beyond 21 days still prices out at the partner award price of 85,000.
Well, it looks like Delta is up its tricks again (and hoping no one would notice). Today, while I was searching for business class availability to Asia for a client, I noticed the following.
JFK-TPE on September 19 on China Airlines:
JFK-PVG on September 19 on China Eastern Airlines:
JFK-ICN on September 19 on Korean Airlines:
Anything beyond the 21 day mark is still pricing out at 95,000 miles, which is the post devaluation price for partner flights to/from Asia (one way):
What makes this worse is that Delta’s calendar isn’t quite working properly for partner flights. However, this is a topic for another post.
We are not exactly sure when Delta implemented this last minute pricing for their Asian partners and we are currently reaching out to Delta for comment.
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11 comments
I thought US-ASIA is 80,000?
[…] noted by Point Me to the Plane, it looks like that was only the beginning, as Delta SkyMiles has now introduced higher award costs […]
@Simm US-Asia is 80,000 if you fly on Delta metal. If you fly on partner metal (Korean, China Airlines, China Eastern, etc.), the price is 95,000. With this latest development , if you book close in (21 days before departure), the price is now 125,000.
Did you really think that close in awards would be cheaper than early booking ones at 70k vs 85k?
@George It’s always been that way for award tickets across all airlines. Some airlines charge a close in booking fee. Delta’s the first to charge extra miles for close in awards and a ridiculous number of extra miles at that.
right. hence people love using miles last minute cuz they dont have to pay ridic rev close in premium. however, while this is technically a “deval”, i see it as the change becoming more in line with how rev works. close-in prices are always more.
since this game has become so saturated, my standards are super low now. anything thats not fixed pts structure like B6 or WN is still a win for me. but when that happens, we all lose.
[…] DEATH BY 1000 CUTS: I’ve been writing about this for 30 years and the story remains the same. Our only hope is that a downturn in the economy will force airlines to use programs as marketing tools again> Another Delta SkyMiles devaluation […]
[…] Delta Up To No Good Yet Again! by Point Me To The Plane. I think it’s really important to try and keep Delta honest with these constant stealth devaluations. […]
We’re hoping to use SkyMiles to fly to Bali or Jakarta at least with Korean or one of the Chinese or Taiwanese partners but both Indonesia destinations are virtually blacked out for virtually all dates I can find. They pop up on the Delta app on my iPhone – I have found a 95K Korean Airlines flight – but when I check the website there’s nothing. Maybe it’s wishful thinking we could use SkyPesos for Korean to Bali but I’m a little confused finding no availability on any partners.
[…] Every few months it seems that we learn of a new secret devaluation. The latest devaluations involved Delta charging more for partner flights than for their own, and now they even added increased partner award prices for flights within 21 days. […]
[…] The airline did it again in late August, when awards to Europe on Virgin Atlantic increased to 102,500 per person. The total change for the year, 50 percent. Most third world currencies offer better price stability than this. […]