It’s a serious question. Is Delta Air Lines simply trolling us?
Is Delta Air Lines Trolling Us?
It is one thing to raise prices during a time of inflation. It is quite another to raise prices during a deflationary period as we currently find ourselves in, especially when partners are going in the opposite direction.
Earlier this week we booked a round-trip journey from Los Angeles to Rome via Amsterdam on KLM for 103,000 Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles. Taxes/fees were just under $500.
Were I to book the same flights on the same dates via Delta, the price would have been 240,000 miles and about $125 in taxes/fees.
Do you think we made the right choice?
United raised prices too (and I condemned it), but Delta continues to raise prices on partner awards to levels that are so far out of the norm that you have to wonder if they are just trolling us. By that I mean Delta does this to intentionally upset its customers.
Back in the day, Karen Zachary, the Managing Director of SkyMiles, seemed to gloat at raising prices. That’s the vibe I feel with these sort of devaluations.
Delta says:
Delta regularly evaluates Award Pricing which can result in the increase or decrease of the mileage amount you need to purchase an Award Ticket.
Certainly, Delta wants to discourage these sorts of redemptions in favor of absurd redemptions on Delta’s own metal, but the latest string of price increases feeling like mocking all those who have saved miles in hopes of aspirational travel.
Prices for partner awards keep rising and I simply do not see value in collecting SkyMiles any more when you can collect points in a flexible currency instead.
I’ve long warned that miles and points are depreciating assets meant to be spent, not hoarded. Nothing changes in terms of that general advice. But there’s an implied contract of good faith and fair dealing here…if I entice you to collect miles and save up for an award, it’s manifestly unreasonable to massively inflate the price without notice.
But that’s simply what Delta does. Over and over again. Delta has raised prices without warning for years.
Your Response
Here’s what I’d do if I were you: rip up your Delta American Express cards. Call up American Express to complain and cancel them. Use a flexible card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred or American Express Gold instead.
Delta only does this because it can get away with it. But I can tell you, the values are simply not there. There once was value in paying 85K and $5.60 in taxes for a last-minute New York to London ticket when Virgin Atlantic was charging 45K miles but $600 in taxes/fees for the same ticket.
Not anymore. If you think 195K miles and $24.50 is a better deal than 45K miles and $600, please just switch to a cash-back card.
CONCLUSION
While I understand Delta does what it can get away with, I think it shows deliberate disdain for members when prices accelerate without notice in an era of empty flights. In fact, I think it rises to trolling. It’s as if Delta is daring us to book away. We should do so…
Does Delta’s conduct concerning partner award pricing constitute trolling?
image: Delta
Amen, Matthew!
And this doesn’t even include the fact that partner award availability on Delta is limited for Air France, KLM, and Korean Air (amongst other partners), along with married segment logic availability and pricing.
So what’s one to do if they are stuck flying Delta or have elite status? I say bank everything with another loyalty program. Flying Blue, most likely.
One only has to look at how Delta praises its flexible award pricing to shareholders to know that they don’t care about customer reaction.
It’s unfortunate that one accumulates useless miles just from flying, which makes one feel that they have to be used somehow, someday. But for spending, the transferable currency programs are definitely the way to go.
The airlines know very well there is huge pent-up travel demand, and huge un-spent balances of points & miles waiting to be spent once the skies open up. They don’t want to fly planes full of non-revenue passengers all summer, so they are going to raise the prices on award flights to (1) slow down redemptions, and (2) suck up as many points/miles as possible to take them out of circulation until outstanding rewards account balances return to more normal levels. When you look at all the 100,000 mile/point bonuses being given out for new credit cards lately, you had to figure all those new miles would have an inflationary effect at some point.
Well an airline that gets a revenue premium over UA and AA sure isn’t interested in giving out free perks at all. Makes sense.
the only thing they have more than their rivals is long term debt on their balance sheets. they were lowest pre-covid but boyyyyyyyyy have the tables turned.
And they want people to buy miles!!! “Today only- Up to 100% bonus”. Well, they probably forget another “0”. And the fact is even if you get 1000% bonus, it is still not enough to claim an award ticket. If one wants to be naive, just be naive.
The AMEX Gold is pretty terrible as an earning card for airlines (1x). Maybe Green (3x) or Platinum (5x)?
@eponymous coward. Not true. 3x spent directly with airline or in Amex travel portal. Matthew was also referring to the Amex gold’s ability to earn flexible points at a high rate (4x grocery stores and eating out). See below
https://card.americanexpress.com/m/cm/gold-card/?utm_mcid=3559197&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=%2Bamex+%2Bgold&utm_cmpid=697971536&utm_adgid=38024382404&utm_tgtid=kwd-20939457057&utm_mt=b&utm_adid=496358693251&utm_dvc=m&utm_ntwk=g&utm_adpos=&utm_plcmnt=&utm_locphysid=9028100&utm_locintid=&utm_feeditemid=&utm_devicemdl=&utm_plcmnttgt=&utm_programname=brandcps&gclid=Cj0KCQiAmfmABhCHARIsACwPRAB2yjc49wfWVMH5uinXPj2aFh6-cJIPj5CruB2azzi3h04CCYkBc4QaAj7bEALw_wcB
This isn’t just about Delta sticking it to the public. SkyMiles have been totally worthless for sometime but where Delta fails, AA and UA do too and that’s because they fail to see this as the gift wrapped opportunity served up by DL that it is. That’s the current state of affairs for AAdvantage and MileagePlus — they rather screw their loyalists than say “Hey! Delta is busy screwing everyone with terrible pricing. Come on over to MileagePlus because we’ve increased our value by lowering award pricing.” — We know this won’t happen but the massive missed opportunity is so obvious. If UA or AA could see this opportunity for what it is they could drive massive amounts of business to their programs for a change like say dropping award pricing by 5-10k miles on premium cabin redemptions. Advertise something like this along with a 125% bonus buy and they’d bring in tons of new business. If I was in management at one of the other programs I would be scheming up a great announcement right now to take advantage of this news from DL.
I completely agree with you Tom. Perhaps there’s value in the travel bloggers reaching out to make suggestions to UA/AA? I know lucky, Gary, etc have PR contacts at the airlines, and pointing out a massive opportunity to gain loyalty is smart. I’ve been DL platinum for years and I’m jumping ship.
Or perhaps they are waiting to see if Delta gets away with it. Because they want to do the same. No point in promoting the superior redemptions if your goal is to do exactly the same in time once you see how it takes. With just three majors and Covid killing the industry, it also may be that we just don’t have a choice but to accept the future. I have long said that the mileage game is nearing an end. This is an indication.
Mileage programs will become like Publishers Clearing House (I know, I am dating myself). Lure people into thoughts of grandeur but give them nothing in return.
@Stuart I completely agree that is probably what they are doing. That’s why I said we all know AA and UA will pass on taking advantage of this gift from DL. It’s a race to the bottom and SkyMiles have been leading the pack with the other two chasing them down. However, again, if they take just a moment, stop being so shortsighted, and realize how much more of a marketshare there is for the taking if they make a U turn on their self destructive strategy. This will actually make them much more money in the long run. They can only raise prices so much before their currency becomes worthless (perfect example of hyperinflation) and SkyMiles is that currency…soon to be UA and AA miles.
You all need to learn your place. If you were truly deserving of first or business class travel you would be able to pay for it in cash or work for the government/industrial complex and spend OPM. No more will people (deplorables) who don’t rate this level of service will be allowed to mix with their betters. If you can’t afford to pay cash, YOU DON”T BELONG THERE.
Preach, I love spending OPM! What idiot would spend his own cash to buy a first class ticket when they could use yours?
Delta is the most profitable of the US3, and (pre-Covid at least) the best by many metrics. They DGAF about their loyalty program as clearly even with the never-ending devals it isn’t hurting topline revenue, and can only help the bottom line by reducing cost.
I’m ATL based and figured this out years ago. Thus I’m down to fewer than 300,000 nearly worthless Skymiles but still have 1,800,000+ with AA & UA, only so high because of a half dozen cancelled international trips in business because of the pandemic. Suggestion: If you have access to a Sky Club, use your miles to buy Champagne by the bottle and drink it at home.
That is a great use of them!
This article is about award travel. Consider this – blocking 40% of the seats means a plane is “full” and the price of each seats goes up 40% earlier. Airlines price their seats like hotels and car rentals. So good ole’ Delta cares so much about everyone they block seats. The demand is not present – but they achieve the step up in seat price as though it is! And they don’t burn the fuel, load the meals or use the supplies.
One would think that they are actually trying to lead the way towards eliminating these programs in the end. Yet, credit cards and miles amount for such a huge part of an airlines structure now. And a profit center. I actually can’t understand what they are doing. Delta being the worst. Perhaps the bean counters decided that there is actually more profit in just flying people and not relying on these programs and this is the end game.
Or, as you say, Matthew, it’s just to see how much they can get away with while still luring people into getting CC’s etc and grabbing that piece of the pie. It’s too bad, I like the service Delta offer in comparison. But I refuse to fly them unless I have to for just this reason. They are NOT that great.
Does anybody think that we , the travelling public , business or otherwise , are able to influence the bottom line of Delta ? The answer quite simply is of course not .
The “rewards ” program for Delta is a loser and as such needs to be got rid of , which is precisely what they are doing.
So what if a couple of hundred passengers decided to transfer their allegiance to another carrier , or , a miles based credit card simply because their Skymiles have become almost worthless .
Do the math as the Delta CFO clearly has done, cinch your belt and walk away as I have done .
Yes, Delta is trolling us. I cancelled my Skymiles credit card after the previous massive devaluation in October, so my leverage is limited but it still sucks to be treated in such a shabby fashion. I’m perplexed that American Express would agree to two massive devaluations in such a short time span during a global pandemic. If Delta is cheerfully willing to hurt cobranded cardholders, what good are they as a partner for Amex?
I couldn’t agree more. I’ve never flown Delta, but I’ve read great stories about them, which made me want to transfer AMEX points to Delta.
Not anymore.
Not only have they been stupidly raising Award redemptions, the “dynamic” awards on Delta flights are outrageous! I can never find the so called “saver awards” for long haul routes.
At least with United I can find flights from San Francisco to Europe for only 60k miles on Polaris business class! Same with American, although I’ve found more saver availability on United.
Lastly, Delta charges insane amounts on premium cabins too! Way more than United, Alaska, JetBlue, etc. It just doesn’t make sense to me how Delta is so successful, I don’t get all the hype!
Delta is… extremely variable. I’m a former Delta fanatic. Back around a decade ago they were simply phenomenal. Delta offered great service and good value. They loved their Skymiles members and treated the members accordingly. Then they started slipping. A lot. As a annual silver member I was never upgraded. Ever. Then flying back one time from Europe with my wife, she heard the FA’s talking huge smack about the business class customers in a none-too-discreet manner while we were in the first row. Then Delta cancelled five consecutive flights out of my home city one day when I had a crucial meeting due to “weather”. The weather was fine for every other airline and they continued their regular schedule but I had an important meeting and Delta simply didn’t care about our city. I asked Delta to endorse the ticket to another airline but they simply refused. I ended up driving to another city hundreds of miles away and was still late but not as much as if I had stuck with Delta. Then there was the Greece trip where they misplaced my luggage for almost a week. There were other issues as well but that’s enough for here. Anyway, at this point, I will go to substantial lengths to avoid Delta.
I admire Delta as a company. They have run the world’s best airline on so many metrics. Where they fail is in loyalty. I was a Diamond member from the beginning and a year ago back to Platinum. Next year probably silver which I have from my million miler status.
The quarantine-free flights for EU citizens from ATL to FCO are about $800 one-way — and then you have to add the cost of the PCR test in Atlanta, which is probably another $150. Delta is a terrible company, which engages in anti-competitive behavior and forces customers to grapple with the surly service and unpleasant atmosphere at ATL.
Italy does not require PCR tests for entry. Rapid antigen tests will suffice and they cost about $70 at the airports where I’ve gotten them in the US and UK.
As for Delta, I just don’t get the love. I’ve flown fewer than a dozen flights on Delta in my entire life. Anyone who cares about an international route network should be flying United and Star Alliance blows SkyTeam out of the water.
@cargocult, the quarantine-free flights require a PCR test.
Before boarding? Aren’t all arriving passengers subjected to PCR tests?
For the past 10 years I’ve been moved around by my company three times. Austin TX, Jacksonville FL and now Raleigh NC. All cities with mainline service from AA, DL and UA, none of them a hub. So I always have a choice of airlines for the most part and I’m usually connecting through a hub at least once a week. I average $115k in spending on air travel each year (not 2020 obviously) thanks to obligatory business class tickets when traveling over 2hrs for work, so I attain status quickly. I’ve experienced from a customer perspective each of the big three airlines post-merger. I HATE the valuation Delta puts on their miles program and it seems to be in free fall at this point. I liked AA’s best and UA was decent, especially on partner airlines. But oh my, how pleasant it is to a fly an airline where the employees seem happy and actually work together. And that is almost always the case on Delta. Service is for the most part always consistent. Agents are helpful no matter the airport, whether a hub or not. Flight attendants are pleasant and professional 99% of the time. AA seems to have a crisis when it comes to corporate culture as people rarely seem happy there. And UA was hit or miss seemingly each time I flew them, a pleasant experience as always sure to be followed up with some sort of catastrophe. I see why DL commands a revenue premium.
They’ve been slow to bring back any kind of service domestically in these covid days, while other airlines are getting back to normal. But that doesn’t bother me as I get uncomfortable just thinking about 120 people all with their masks under their chins, nursing coffee for a two hours or sipping mixed drinks from takeoff to touch down. Things are still hairy out there and when you see middle seats blocked I do breath easier. DL does it right for me but the miles valuations, gives me pause, but not long enough to even consider UA or AA. Something has to change at those airlines. DL, despite mile devaluation, has made a loyal customer out of me.
I raise you this:
https://9gag.com/gag/aLp9mEM#comment