If you're not familiar with how award space works, this post about American Airlines saver
level award tickets gives a little more info (which applies to most airlines).
Miles earned on your Platinum Delta SkyMiles card can be redeemed for a variety of awards, but the best value is realized on saver
level award tickets.
Additional charges, including taxes, booking fees, and fuel surcharges, came in second place while low -
level award tickets not available ranked third.
My partner and I were able to book two low -
level award tickets leaving Thursday evening on a non-stop and returning Sunday morning with a connection in Detroit.
If Global Services member books a cash ticket, she or he may bring along a companion for the cost of a saver
level award ticket.
Use Delta or KLM / AirFrance to find saver
level award ticket availability, then book the ticket on Korean Air's website.
Not exact matches
Regardless of what happens to the cash price of a United
ticket, an
award ticket will cost one of two possible amounts: a «saver»
level price in miles, and a «standard» price.
These Reduced Mileage
Awards can save you up to 7,500 miles per person on round - trip
tickets purchased at the saver
level.
Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles
award tickets have two
levels.
For
award tickets, you can book
award seats on alliance members at the low
level with other alliance member's miles.
According to the Aeroplan
Award Chart, it costs 60K for a roundtrip
ticket between North America and Western Europe at the lowest
level.
I've compiled a table of the
award types, maximum
ticket price, and the effective Cash back rate for purchases on the card at each
level:
Saver
level economy
award tickets for domestic flights can offer good value for your miles, but they may be difficult to find.
Unfortunately, this means it would cost 160,000 Delta SkyMiles to book an
award ticket, which is double the saver
level mileage cost of 80,000 miles.
This part was easy, since there was low -
level award availability on American Airlines through Chicago, so I booked 2
tickets for 12,000 British Airways Avios and $ 5 each.
Since there was low -
level availability and the flights are during American Airlines» «low» European
award season, I was able to book the
tickets for 20,000 AAdvantage miles and $ 69.60 each.
There are three types of economy
awards (super saver, saver and refundable) and two types of first class
awards (refundable and nonrefundable), along with two
levels of Money + Miles
tickets.
On top of that, they made some changes to their no - show fee on
award tickets and dropped their Standard
level awards for new «Everyday Awards.&
awards for new «Everyday
Awards.&
Awards.»
And with reward tiers, there's a limited number of
award tickets at any given
level, and once they're gone, they're gone.»
We're adjusting existing
award levels for
award tickets redeemed on March 22, 2016 and beyond due to changes to market pricing and demand.
The catch is that cash
ticket prices are based on four fare
levels, but
award ticket prices are based on one.
Members at the same Medallion
level will be cleared in order of fare class groupings for revenue
tickets, Award Tickets and Pay with Miles1 tickets, with higher fare classes among all ticket types holding higher pr
tickets,
Award Tickets and Pay with Miles1 tickets, with higher fare classes among all ticket types holding higher pr
Tickets and Pay with Miles1
tickets, with higher fare classes among all ticket types holding higher pr
tickets, with higher fare classes among all
ticket types holding higher priority.
The cost of
award tickets, on the other hand, is based on the Value
level cash price.
Since the cost of
award tickets are based on the price of the Value fare, you'll get the same 2.89 cents per point for any route unless the cheapest Saver
level fare is available.
Award Availability and Fees The primary Cardmember can use miles to book award travel on any United - operated flight at the MileagePlus ® Everyday Award level, including award travel booked by the primary Cardmember for an authorized user under the primary Cardmember's MileagePlus number, as long as tickets are still available for sale for the applicable cabin on such fl
Award Availability and Fees The primary Cardmember can use miles to book
award travel on any United - operated flight at the MileagePlus ® Everyday Award level, including award travel booked by the primary Cardmember for an authorized user under the primary Cardmember's MileagePlus number, as long as tickets are still available for sale for the applicable cabin on such fl
award travel on any United - operated flight at the MileagePlus ® Everyday
Award level, including award travel booked by the primary Cardmember for an authorized user under the primary Cardmember's MileagePlus number, as long as tickets are still available for sale for the applicable cabin on such fl
Award level, including
award travel booked by the primary Cardmember for an authorized user under the primary Cardmember's MileagePlus number, as long as tickets are still available for sale for the applicable cabin on such fl
award travel booked by the primary Cardmember for an authorized user under the primary Cardmember's MileagePlus number, as long as
tickets are still available for sale for the applicable cabin on such flight.
For travelers on
award tickets issued or re-issued on or after April 15, 2015: Checked baggage service charge waivers will be based on the traveler's MileagePlus status
level, rather than the status of the member whose miles were used to purchase the
award ticket.
Assignment of Complimentary Premier Upgrades on
award tickets within each Premier
level will be prioritized after the lowest paid fare class.
Round - trip economy
tickets cost just 35,000 AAdvantage miles compared to Peak MileSAAver
Level 2 economy
award seats which cost 45,000 miles.
For fliers redeeming their miles, Delta will continue to
award tickets by pricing them in miles, not in actual cash fares, offering different
levels of availability as it does today.»
You can find low -
level economy
award tickets on Delta Air Lines for as little as 12,500 miles each way but the cost can surge to 45,000 miles for a peak one - way
award ticket.
The
ticket would be issued as one
ticket, but the price would be for the total cost of the two
awards levels.
American Airlines offers off - peak economy MileSAAver
Awards from the US starting at 12,500 miles each way and anytime
level 1
award tickets for 25,000 each way.
This means that you really have no context for how much the
ticket could cost if certain
award levels were available.
~ 13,000 points for two
tickets is a much better deal than 50,000 miles for
award seats on United (which didn't have any saver -
level award space, that day or the next).
Delta said that
award travel miles will be earned based on
ticket price, starting at five miles per dollar spent for general members and increasing based on the
level of elite status the member has achieved.
But, as is usually the case in ANY of these programs, buying points / miles outright is almost always a terrible value and should only be done when you need a small number to reach a certain
award ticket level or something like that.
This is assuming
award tickets are available at the saver
level.
Low
level award redemptions for premium business class international round - trip
tickets can usually be found for 140,000 miles, but Delta occasionally has flash sales where those
awards cost just 110,000 miles.
It does» t even guarantee that low -
level awards (those that are available to other SkyTeam partners as well) will always be priced at that
level, since the mileage cost of a
ticket might also vary depending on the season.
The carrier has reduced the mileage cost of many reward flights, has increased earning
levels on some partner airlines, and now allows free upgrades for elite members on
award flights when they book economy cabin
tickets.
Starting April 15, elite -
level members who use their miles to acquire an
award ticket for someone else will find that their own Premier trip benefits will no longer be granted to that second person for the
award trip; instead, the recipient's Premier status — if any — will determine which perks will apply.
Instead of having a pretty straight forward distance based
award chart with redemption rates by fare class for economy, Economy FlexyFlyer, Premium Economy and business class
tickets, PAL introduced multiple
award levels for each fare class: In addition to the Standard Economy
awards, there are no Flex 1, Flex 2, Flex 3 and Flex 4
awards.
What seems to have happened here is the partner
award on Air France is pricing out correctly at 62,500 SkyMiles, then a
Level 4 BusinessElite
ticket between LAX and JFK, for 67,500 SkyMiles was plugged in on top.
«For fliers redeeming their miles, Delta will continue to
award tickets by pricing them in miles, not in actual cash fares, offering different
levels of availability as it does today -LSB-...] Delta plans to introduce a system with up to five tiers of redemption choices so customers will have a wider variety of options, including one - way reward
tickets and the ability to redeem
tickets using both miles and cash, Mr. Robertson said.
He also wants to always get at least 2 cents of value out of each point, so he oftentimes ends up paying for plane
tickets instead of doing
award redemptions if there's only high -
level award space available.
So in this example, under the old structure, you would hit 25,000 miles — the lowest
level to redeem for an
award ticket — after a little more than five of those flights, which cost a total of $ 2,000.
Just as with American's
Award Travel rates and United Airline's MileagePlus program, Delta's SkyMiles also allows you to combine any cabin type and award level in a single round - trip award ti
Award Travel rates and United Airline's MileagePlus program, Delta's SkyMiles also allows you to combine any cabin type and
award level in a single round - trip award ti
award level in a single round - trip
award ti
award ticket.
The Delta SkyMiles program has up to five different
award levels and a pricing engine that sometimes quotes several hundred thousand miles for a
ticket.
It rarely makes sense to book an
award ticket at anything other than the lowest mileage rates, often called Saver
levels.
Instead we're getting more
award levels, a more complicated program, that tries to more closely align with
ticket costs.