As if the new high bar to qualify for Medallion status was not anti-loyalty enough, Delta continues to whittle away at what little value is left in the SkyMiles program, this time with a devaluation on trips originating or ending in Mexico.
Another Delta SkyMiles Devaluation From Mexico
As flagged by Eye of the Flyer, Delta has raised the price of redemption on a partner carrier between Mexico and Europe from 75,000 miles to 105,000 miles one-way, a 40% devaluation.
This comes after Delta massively raised the prices for its own flights from this region earlier in the year. Indeed, one of the best “open secrets” was that for years you could have started or ended your trip in Mexico for substantial savings on Delta-operated flights.
To give you an example, while Sydney – Los Angeles on Delta might run 495K SkyMiles one-way in business class, until recently you could book Sydney – Los Angeles – Mexico City (with the connecting segment on AeroMexico) for 95K miles in business class…the same longhaul flight.
Delta patched that up after a number of bloggers decided to publish that deal. I won’t publish such deals precisely for that reason…for years I booked Award Expert clients on these sorts of routes and knew that as soon as they became well-known Delta would pull the plug, which of course it did.
75K one-way fares between Mexico and Europe were a far better deal than 375K fares from the USA…one of the few premium cabin bright spots in the SkyMiles program.
But Delta has such disdain for its flyers that it is systematically eviscerating any value for SkyMiles on redemptions, now reaching beyond the United States. Oh, there are still good deals there…you just have to look. But the window is closing as the hubris at Delta grows.
You’re A Fool To Collect Delta SkyMiles
Folks, this is why I think you’d be a fool to chase loyalty on Delta next year. It would be one thing if you received 1.) complimentary upgrades and 2.) valuable redemption opportunities for your Delta miles, but neither is the case in practice. First, Delta now sells the majority of front cabin seats, leaving little opportunity for elite upgrades. Second, with redemption levels so high, it is just plain stupid to collect Delta miles because the opportunity cost (of collecting points in another currency) is just too high.
CONCLUSION
Sadly, Delta’s latest customer-unfriendly move is just another slight at loyalty and further proof that Delta has no regard for its members. Frankly, I’m surprised Delta did not just increase redemptions levels to US-levels.
If you are an unfortunate soul still stuck with Delta SkyMiles, it still makes sense to make your way to Mexico to start or end your journey. But today it costs 40% more than yesterday.
Delta continues to prove that loyalty is not a two-way street and that it is foolishness to collect SkyMiles when they lose value faster than the currency of a banana republic.
With actions like these, what serious traveler will continue to build SkyMiles?
Luckily I snagged one of the SYD-LAX-MEX deals before the other bloggers ruined this… This is the first Mexico sweet spot award where I’m not planning to take the LAX-MEX segment – wondering if you have any data points if Delta will take any action against me for skipping the segment, like closing my Skymiles account and cancelling other future award redemptions I may have? Just trying to figure out if I should burn my remaining Skymiles miles prior to my SYD flight.
I’ve had clients skip the LAX-MEX segment with no reprisals. It’s still not something I would personally do to put my SkyMiles account at risk.
Given the uselessness of Delta Skymiles to begin with, I don’t think the threat of shutting down the account is something that would leave me shaking in my boots.
My SkyMiles account is empty…I just don’t want to get banned from traveling on Delta because I do like that…though not enough to credit miles to Delta!
But the whole sky club a round with your points (if you have any).
@Alex
Why not call them on the day (after you arrive in LAX) and tell them you are unwell?
That usually works in my experience
Tell them you have COVID and ask them to change your flight to the next day (or 3 days later or whatever) for free. When they ask for an additional 825,000 miles and $7 taxes, tell them no thanks and cancel.
“they lose value faster than the currency of a banana republic”. Funny. the US IS a banana republic and just as corrupt as those that actually grow bananas. Sorry. I’m a bit off topic.
Pathetic pretty much summarizes Delta in anything regarding loyalty.
They don’t call them SkyPesos for nothing. Maybe SkyRials is more accurate now. “Currently, the Iranian Rial is considered the world’s least valuable currency. This is the result of factors like political unrest in the country, the Iran-Iraq war and the nuclear program.”
They seem to revel in poking their loyalists in the eye with a stick.
At this point Delta loyalists are like abused spouses. No matter how many times they get beat up, they just continue to go back and make excuses for why it isn’t that bad and it won’t happen again.
Yep. An apt analogy.
Ultra-rich Delta frequent fliers say they’re DELIGHTED with controversial decision to raise spending thresholds for rewards – and say they hope it’ll keep riff-raff out of lounges
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/article-12566929/rich-Delta-fliers-lounges-loyalty-medallion.html
Do you know what pisses me off? I spend $35k/year on Delta as a household expense since I pay for at least 8 international business class tickets per year for my family of 4. Problem is Delta does not count that expense to me as a frequent flier since I buy tickets for my wife and two kids who could not care less about status as they only fly for leisure with me. This, Delta will be missing that $35k from my household as it will be going to other airlines. As for the BS about the lounge, what these ultra rich are missing is that 6 visits per year for leisure flyers will still be more than enough for them. Thus, they will continue to see the guys in shorts and flip flops drinking alcohol at 6am because they will continue to use the lounges the same way they always did.
Decent uses of skymiles between Asia and Australia. Very limited use case, but I just booked Tokyo to Sydney with a layover in Taipei on China Airlines in Business Class for 65,000 skymiles one way.
I’m not going to blog about them, but if people would just be willing to look there are still some respectable deals outside North America. It just takes a little homework. But I doubt it will be long before Delta plugs those up too.
Not reported on this blog: but they also devalued Mileage Upgrade Awards (less availability based on airlines, also higher price, yet to be fully confirmed), partner earning rates (on saver J and PS seats) nerfed across the board.
Yes, the suits are on seek-and-destroy mode on anything that resembles value, I’m morbidly curious how far they’ll go.
It’s always non-Delta loyalist bloggers that are telling me I’ll never get upgraded on DL — sure, the redemption value is terrible, but I get upgraded at a far better clip than I did with comparable status on UA/AA.
In reality I think the airlines wished FF programs didn’t exist. The y could still sell credit cards with any cardholder having a few perks like no bag check fees and early boarding. But these would be available to any cardholder regardless of flight frequency. Personally I feel AA and UA will follow along and intentionally gut their programs too, hoping they die and cease to exist.