Delta no longer publishes an award chart, but they do have regular award sales and there is generally a minimum flights will cost. It looks like the minimum a one way business class ticket to Europe has increased to 105,000 miles one way. Previously these flights would cost 86,000 miles, interestingly partner bookings with SkyMiles haven’t increased in price and still price out at 86,000 miles. In December 2017 Delta increased business class flights to 86,000 miles (from 70,000 miles) before reducing the price again only to then increase it back to 82,000 miles in June of 2018.
Part of the reason I hate the fact that Delta doesn’t publish an award chart is because they are able to make no notice changes like this. This is a significant devaluation and as loyalty members there is not much that can be done.
Hat tip to VFTW
As I commented on VFTW site, this is incorrect. The sky is not falling. There are still plenty of flights for 128K miles to Europe if you know how to look.
1. Only search round trips.
2. Start with 1-week travel interval, and play with it if you’re flexible.
3. Search this summer, July-Aug, the best.
4. Most Delta routes from JFK are available for 128,000 miles, at least a few times a month, often with 2 or more seats.
5. Found award space? Disregard and book with Virgin. If you’re in NYC — definitely book with Virgin. 50K each way.
http://lazytravelers.net/delta-one-suite-amsterdam-summer
Gary checked winter travel, and I suspect, Delta doesn’t want to commit saver award seats that far in advance. If you want to travel in December, maybe you should check back in August?
6. Most stuff on Delta I’ve written would tell you I’m NOT a Delta fanboy, so don’t take it with a grain of salt!
What does having routes available for 128k have to do with anything?
I think that’s round-trip.
Well, in my opinion, everything. It means that the bit about Delta raising their lowest redemptions to 210K per RT is incorrect. The latest flash sale is gone — yet there are routes that sell for 128K points. In addition, I’ve seen 105K per one way travel before it “hit the news.” Is there anything I’m missing?
Sorry, wasn’t clear you were talking about R/T. Are you able to find flights that price for less than 105,000 miles OW? R/T is sometimes discounted by Delta, pretty sure Gary even addressed that in his post.
Yes, but I was wrong too. It has nothing to do with the advance booking window, as I’ve found cheaper routes in 2020. Just did a post about it.
Why does everyone keeps saying book on virgin. We’re talking about using delta miles here, not transfer MR or chase points to virgin to fly on delta. Completely different things.
Also what is up with your website? I’m assuming that is your website, every link opens a new tab even if it’s within the site. Super freaking annoying, you should only have a new tab open if the link is going to an outside source off your site.
Delta is horrible for biz class redemptions. That said, US economy flights aren’t a bad deal. Can even be a good one depending on timing.
Anyone who goes out of their way to collect Skypesos is a moron
Well, as loyalty members, there is ONE thing that can be done- don’t collect Delta miles. Better to keep most of your points in transferrable currencies. Can always transfer in MR to Delta when one of their great flash sales comes along.
Would be a crime to transfer MRs to Delta
Venezuela miles !
Delta award sale – blog posts everywhere.
Delta increases miles for award to Europe – can only find two posts on this.
There was quite a lot of posts about this tbh
Zimbabwe miles
Delta is increasing it’s flash sale frequency which is the only reason to have delta points nowadays.
For most of Europe, this is the case. I did see flights from MSP to LHR for the same 86,000 SkyMiles
It won’t be long before Delta miles become SkyBolivars