Delta Up To No Good Yet Again!

by James

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.

a screenshot of a computer

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:

a screenshot of a computer

JFK-PVG on September 19 on China Eastern Airlines:

a screenshot of a computer

JFK-ICN on September 19 on Korean Airlines:

a screenshot of a computer

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):

a screenshot of a computer

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

Simm August 30, 2017 - 10:55 pm

I thought US-ASIA is 80,000?

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James August 31, 2017 - 5:50 am

@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.

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George August 31, 2017 - 6:34 am

Did you really think that close in awards would be cheaper than early booking ones at 70k vs 85k?

Reply
James August 31, 2017 - 6:43 am

@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.

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NinjaX September 8, 2017 - 2:28 pm

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.

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sami September 8, 2017 - 5:40 pm

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.

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