Delta and Alaska Airlines are completely severing their partnership as of May 1, 2017. If you were planning on redeeming Alaska miles on a Delta flight, or a Delta miles on an Alaska flight, do so by April 30.
What This Means
No more codeshare agreement, no more earning miles nor elite credits, and no more redemptions of miles on each others flights.

Below is the timetable released by Delta of which flights on Alaska, depending on when they were/are booked, will earn SkyMiles.

Last week I wrote about how Delta devalued SkyMiles, yet again, by increasing the prices of awards flying partners to:

Europe in Business Class, now 85,000 miles instead of 70,000
North Asia in Business Class, now 95,000 miles instead of 80,000
Australia in Business Class, now 115,000 miles instead of 95,000
South America in Business Class, now 100,000 miles instead of 75,000
South America in economy, now 35,000 miles instead of 30,000

At the time of writing that post, however, there remained one loophole for getting your award to price

Through April 19, 2017 (this Wednesday) at 11:59 PM ET, you can book roundtrips to southern South America in Delta One for travel August through November 16 for only 105,000 Delta miles. The standard price is 145,000 miles roundtrip. You can also book roundtrips in Delta economy for 50,000 miles compared to the standard roundtrip price of 60,000 miles.

This isn’t a particularly amazing award price to the bottom of the Americas in a flat bed.

We all know what happened to the passenger dragged off of United flight 3411 earlier this week so I won't rehash it here.

I hope you weren't saving your Delta miles for an award flying a partner airline like Virgin Atlantic or China Eastern, or you might be sorely disappointed the next time you check out delta.com.

In the beginning of 2015, Delta got rid of their online award charts. The price of a Delta award became whatever Delta's computers said it was. Travel is Free has the latest aggregation of standard Delta award prices, but at the end of the day those prices don't matter if they don't match your search results.

In February, my parents flew down to South America to join me for a trip in Rio de Janiero, followed by a week spent in Buenos Aires, the location I call home for at least half the year.

I booked them in United Business between Charleston, SC and Rio de Janiero using United miles, and LATAM Business between Buenos Aires and Miami using American Airlines miles.

Through March 15, 2017 (this Wednesday) at 11:59 PM ET, you can book roundtrips to Europe in Delta One for travel August through October for only 110,000 Delta miles. The standard price is 140,000 miles roundtrip.

This isn't a particularly earth shattering award price to Europe in a flat bed. You can fly United or American's Business Class for almost the same price any time you can find award space (price is 57,500 United miles or 57,500 American miles respectively).

The majority of us earn heaps of miles through sign up bonuses, maximizing category bonuses on credit cards, and flying. And at the end of the day, credit cards are the bread and butter that enable most of us to fly free in First Class.

But there are lots of other ways to earn miles, many of which are passive and all of which require little effort.

Jet Airways is releasing 4+ economy and Business Class award seats per flight from Toronto to Amsterdam all year.
The flights can be booked with American Airlines and Delta miles.
Connections from the US to Toronto and Amsterdam to the rest of the Europe are easy and free.

Jet Airways, an Indian carrier, recently revamped its route network, so its only North American flight is Toronto to Amsterdam, with connections from there to India.

Jet Airways is a partner of American Airlines and Delta miles, and both types of miles can be used to book Jet Airways award space

Delta was the first to sell a sub-economy cabin class titled Basic Economy in 2012. United followed suit last year, so it should be no surprise that American Airlines has also just jumped on the bandwagon. American Basic Economy fares will go on sale February 10.

As restrictions in Basic Economy vary between the three legacy carriers, today I'm going to go over what Basic Economy is for each of them, as well as how to identify a fare as Basic Economy when searching through various methods.