Two words: first class.
You can now book China Eastern First Class awards using your Delta miles. The value is not great, but it is fair…especially compared to how much Delta asks for some of its own flights.
This marks the first time you can use your Delta miles for three-cabin first class since the good old days of booking Singapore Airlines First Class (that dates me, I know…).
And while China Eastern is fine if you don’t mind inedible food and smoking, imagine the possibility if Delta started offering partner first class awards on all SkyTeam carriers that offer first class. That would include:
- Air France
- China Eastern
- Garuda Indonesia
- Korean Air
- China Southern
- Saudia
- Xiamen Airlines
Korean Air First Class
Garuda Indonesia First Class
China Southern First Class
China Eastern First Class
Saudia First Class
Currently, Air France first class award space can only be booked with Air France, Garuda Indonesia first class award space can only be booked with Garuda Indonesia, Korean Air first class award space can only be booked Korean Air, and the same with China Southern and Xiamen. China Eastern first class space can be booked with Korean Air SkyPass and now Delta SkyMiles. Saudia first class space can also be booked with Korean Air. In short, it is very difficult to book partner first class awards on SkyTeam.
Imagine if Delta had access to award space for each of these carriers in first class. Even if Delta charged obscene amounts like 300-400K one-way for these flights, it would at least be an option…an option that I know many would be willing to pay (not that I would…).
But imagine further if Delta actually made these rates competitive. Not cheap, but competitive. Say in the 150K one-way range. What a game-changer this would be for the SkyMiles program. It would even cause me to start more aggressively racking up Delta miles.
CONCLUSION
There are so many components that make a loyalty program valuable. But just one small change could quickly make Delta a leading loyalty program.
Would you invest more time in Delta if you could redeem your miles for first class awards?
Delta isn’t big on competitive award pricing in premium cabins.
Have you seen the 900,000+ SkyMiles r/t on their ATL-JNB route in D1??
Now, if Virgin could see that space at THEIR Upper Class levels(with myriad partners), then we’d be talking.
Care to share how much such a redemption costs?
That’s the question. These are no available now — the key is how much Delta would price these awards at.
It cost me 170,000 miles for a one-way JFK-PVG first class on China Eastern. Reservation confirmed and seat selected. Now the challenge is China Eastern all of sudden stopped releasing first class award space.
But try finding an award seat in the new premium economy on the A350… DTW to AMS is crazy high mileage now. Flagship comes at a very high cost.
I’ve seen nothing but higher and higher milage costs over the past several years, while I, the entity that DL and the rest point to as their highest cost, weight equating to fuel consumption, has been constant (<160lbs) and even heading down. So why is it that the well-earned label of SkyPeso's cost continued to go up? Greed? Because they can? US to Europe has doubled in the past couple years alone. I went to JNB not that many years ago for 160k miles, which wouldn't even get a cattle car seat today.
We did a First Class around the world trip using skymiles in 2015 and Delta booked us First Class on an Air France international flight. Of course, the flights within Europe on KLM etc were the hockey pretend first class.
Delta, although my favorite domestic carrier, also needs to become more competitive with its “Lifetime” awards which recognize Delta’s most frequent and loyal travelers over the years. My 2,000,000+ lifetime UA miles aceorded me UA’s “Lifetime Platinum” status while my 1,000,000 AA miles was awarded with the carrier’s “Lifetime Gold” status. However, my over 3,800,000 Delta actual miles only qualified me for Delta’s “Lifetime Gold” status; same as only 1,000,000 miles on both UA & AA. And, even before they started counting miles, I was a Delta “Flying Colonel.” After all these years of heavy travel, I have sort of “aged out” and don’t get to travel all that much anymore. Still, getting that higher level recognition from Delta as its way of letting me (and other long time loyal flyers) know that our business was appreciated over the years would really be a nice and a “no cost” gesture.
I could see Air France & Garuda unbundling the ground service end if any 1st award space were offered.