Why Delta Eliminating Its Award Chart is No Big Deal
March 30, 2015
I was explaining to my brother the changes that Delta has made in 2015, and I mentioned that the one I just couldn't believe was that Delta eliminated its award chart. It seems self-evident to all of us in the miles game that Delta eliminating its award chart is insane and unjustifiable.
(Delta deleted the chart from its site, but the possible priced for awards are the same now as they were when the chart was on delta.com.
Southwest Announces Massive Devaluation, Effective April 17
February 13, 2015
Southwest currently has a purely fixed-value rewards program. For every dollar of the base fare, you have to redeem 70 Rapid Rewards to get your ticket (plus you pay a $5.60 per direction government tax on each redemption.)
That's about to get worse, much worse in my opinion.
Current Rapid Rewards Scheme
Let's look at an example. Here are the pries for tickets from Los Angeles to Tampa this March. They vary greatly by day from $207 to $334 to $607.
If you select a day with $211 fares, not all fares that day are $211.
Expert Predictions for Timing and Extent of Next American Airlines Devaluations
February 6, 2015
I gathered several estimates for the timing and extent of the next American Airlines devaluation from miles and points experts. I've averaged the guesses to produce a wisdom-of-the-crowd estimate that I hope is as close as possible to predicting the future as we can get.
Background
Last year, United gutted and bifurcated its award chart for Business and First Class redemptions. Now awards on partner airlines cost a lot more than they used to. For instance, one way in Partner First Class to the Middle East is 140,000 miles.
Delta released a few new award charts last year.
No Stopovers on Delta Awards from January 1, 2015
November 18, 2014
As widely predicted, Delta is eliminating stopovers on its awards starting January 1, 2015. Its SkyMiles program rules page says as much.
This is a bummer, but the good news is that one way awards will be bookable with Delta miles starting January 1, 2015, and Delta has already improved its online search.
American eliminated stopovers on awards this year, and the US Airways program will cease to exist in quarter 2 of 2015, which means United will be the only American program that allows stopovers very soon.
Reminder: You Can Still Book United Awards at Pre-Devaluation Prices
August 27, 2014
You can still pay United's award prices from January 2014 and before for premium cabin awards.
The catch is that you need to be changing an existing award that you booked February 2, 2014 or earlier.
Massive Avios Devaluation? No, I Was Wrong
August 24, 2014
Well, this is embarrassing. As it turns out, there was no devaluation of the Iberia Avios program. The rates in this post have been consistent since November 2011.
Almost no one in the world knew the rates for Iberia Avios oneworld redemptions because they weren't bookable online. Thankfully this FlyerTalk thread and in particular these two posts set the record straight.
Travellair said:
"I don’t know what the fuss is all about. These have been the same Avios amounts for Oneworld redemptions through IB Plus since 2011.
LifeMiles Devalues Its Award Chart Effective October 15th
July 31, 2014
A few days ago, LifeMiles joined United and Delta in announcing an award chart devaluation, which will take place on October 15, 2014.
Bookings made until October 14, for travel until mid-2015 will cost the current mileage prices.
US Airways Devalues A Great Award with Two Months Notice
June 12, 2014
For bookings made August 1, 2014 or later, a roundtrip three-cabin First Class award within the United States and Canada will cost 65,000 US Airways miles.
Buy Miles,LifeMiles,Devaluation
LifeMiles Set to Increase in Price by 10%
June 11, 2014
Avianca LifeMiles sell for 3 cents each, but frequent 100% bonuses on purchasing miles have made the effective cost 1.5 cents each for most of us.
LifeMiles have a number of strategic uses like Lufthansa First Class between the United States and Europe for 72,500 miles (instead of 110,000 United miles) or hidden city tickets that get you from the United States to Japan for 12,500 miles.
LifeMiles are valuable enough that I've suggested converting Arrival miles to LifeMiles.