[Video] Booking Award Tickets with Delta SkyMiles (DL): Beginner Guide, Part 3

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1 Overview
2 Video
3 Related Information
4 About Lizi
5 Guess You Like

Overview

In this video, Lizi breaks the topic down into three parts.

Part 1: A quick look at the history of Delta's notoriously weak SkyMiles program. I previously discussed this with a frequent flyer friend, and it really does seem like part of the mess left behind by Northwest Airlines back in the day—because NWA miles used to be worth very little, and after the merger, DL became pretty sneaky about its award pricing.

Back then, DL miles could only be redeemed for round-trip tickets, and one-way awards cost the same number of miles as round-trip awards. The published starting price for a round-trip economy ticket was supposedly 70,000 miles, but in reality it was basically impossible to find. What Lizi actually saw was pricing starting at 100,000 miles... Just a different kind of SkyPesos? Were they even more devalued back then than they are now?

PS: Here’s a photo of the old Zimbabwe dollar... compared with that, DL miles can still hold their heads high!

Part 2: Searching for award space and trying it out.

A couple of days ago, you could still find Delta-operated nonstop Business awards between China and the US for 90K+Tax&Fee, but by the time this video was made—possibly because of RPWT—the cheapest option had gone up to 120K+Tax&Fee.

Hopefully this doesn’t mean there was yet another devaluation in the past few days... The main issue is that Delta uses dynamic pricing on its own flights, so there’s no fixed chart to rely on, and sometimes the prices change faster than a face-changing performance in Sichuan opera.

On the partner side, though, you can still find awards for 85K+Tax&Fee.

Part 3: Summary.

1. For Delta-operated flights between China and the US, the cheapest I could find was 120K+Tax&Fee, which is a bit expensive.

You can still try your luck and see whether you can find something for 90K+Tax&Fee.

2. If there is Saver partner space, the price is still 85K+Tax&Fee.

However, everyone already knows what to expect from MU fuel surcharges as a SkyTeam member—nonstops between China and the US can have even higher surcharges than flying KLM via Amsterdam Schiphol or AF via Paris Charles de Gaulle. Because of that, redeeming on MU is really only a decent deal for Business Class.

If you can find KE award space, and you don’t have any hesitation about flying them (have you watched too many air disaster documentaries?), then it could be worth considering, since their fuel surcharges are quite low—one of the bright spots of DL award tickets at this stage.

As for CZ, it has already split with SkyTeam and left the alliance, so there’s nothing more to say there...

Update 2019.07.10: I did a random search out of boredom and was surprised to find China Southern award space again, but the price was 90K+Tax&Fee! Why did it suddenly go up by 5K for no reason? Not cool!