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You can do some cool things with Delta SkyMiles. Here are some awesome awards you can book with 25k to 150k SkyMiles.
Delta SkyMiles awards have some generous routing rules too like being able to get a free oneway on an award within the continental US or have open jaws across continents.
But Delta SkyMiles have their limits, which I discovered the other day as I tried to piece together a trick award with a cheap one way to Korea.
What rules can you bend on SkyMiles awards? Which are firm? (with screenshots)
This is an award I wanted to book:
- Seoul to Los Angeles one way
- months later, Los Angeles to Sao Paulo roundtrip
This award would be ideal for someone who lived in Los Angeles to get 1.5 vacations for a discount on what each leg individually would cost. And the outbound from Los Angeles to Seoul could be booked with United or American miles or purchased as a one way.
Unfortunately when I used delta.com’s multi-city search tool, this award priced out at 220k SkyMiles.
I wanted Delta’s computer to see the award as Seoul to Sao Paulo (with a free stopover in Los Angeles), returning Sao Paulo to Los Angeles. Since Delta’s chart lists Northern Asia (Seoul) to Southern South America (Sao Paulo) as 80k miles per direction in business class and Southern South America to North America (Los Angeles) as 50k miles per direction in business class, I was hoping the award would price at 130,000 SkyMiles.
I called in to see if I could put the award on hold by phone and get it to price at 130k miles.
The agent put together the segments, and the award priced at 220k miles, just like delta.com had priced the award. Evidently the computer saw the award as a roundtrip from Los Angeles to Sao Paulo in business class for 100k miles plus a one way from Seoul to Los Angeles in business class for 120k miles–the roundtrip price between the two cities–since roundtrips and one ways cost the same number of Delta miles.
Speaking to a Supervisor
The first agent you call will never have the power to overrule a computer, so I asked politely to speak with a supervisor.
This supervisor was similar to every airline supervisor I’ve ever spoken to. He had some knowledge of awards, but less than most of the readers of this blog. Because he didn’t know much, he trusted the computer 100%. Whatever the computer said, he tried to justify as best he could even though all the reasons he gave were made up on the spot.
When I was connected to him, he had me explain very slowly why I thought the award should price at 130k miles. Satisfied that I was reading the chart right, he was confused and put me on hold to speak with Delta’s Global Ticketing Desk. When he came back, he had the reason that my award was pricing as two awards (220k) instead of one award (130k).
Objection #1
“You can’t have a stopover and an open jaw on the same award.”
He’s actually right that it does say that on delta.com, but he’s not right that that’s a rule for Delta awards. As he gave this objection, I quickly pieced together an award on delta.com, held it, and gave him the confirmation number to look at it.
This award shows an award with both an open jaw and a stopover pricing out as one roundtrip award.
Momentarily deflated, he put me on hold again to talk to the Global Ticketing Desk.
Objection #2
“Your open jaw can’t straddle two continents.”
My proposed open jaw was between my departure city of Seoul and the award’s final destination in Los Angeles. Those cities are on two different continents. But that doesn’t matter at all when it comes to pricing a Delta award.
A Delta award with an open jaw that straddles two continents correctly prices at the sum of what half of each roundtrip would cost. I quickly put the following award on hold to point out that an open jaw straddling two continents is fine.
This award shows an outbound from LAX to Australia and a return from Asia to LAX.
This award priced at 135,000 miles and $106.70. A roundtrip in business class to Australia is 150k miles and a roundtrip in business class to Seoul is 120k miles; 135k splits the difference.
He was befuddled because I did seem to be right again. I reiterated my contention that my award should correctly price at 130k miles according to Delta’s rules, and I asked him to override the computer’s pricing. He couldn’t do that, but he couldn’t give me a rule I was breaking, so he tried to get rid of me: “I’m just going to let you talk to the Global Ticketing Desk. Please hold.”
I was excited. I have talked to the Global Ticketing Desk before and gotten them to change award prices when I thought the computer was mispricing one. But I haven’t been able to speak directly to someone from the Global Ticketing Desk on my last several attempts because they are supposed to be internal support and not customer support.
Unfortunately my supervisor came back on the line, so it looked like the Global Ticketing Desk had said they didn’t want to talk to me directly.
This did not stop the supervisor from making up more rules.
Objection #3
“You can’t have a complete roundtrip plus an added one way.”
Of course you can, since that’s the basis of free oneways on Delta awards, which I have booked many times before. But to show him he was wrong, I quickly held the following award and gave him the confirmation code.
This award shows a complete roundtrip between LAX and Atlanta with a later free oneway to Las Vegas, pricing at 25,000 miles.
Objection #4
“Why don’t you just fly back to Asia?”
“Thanks for your interest in my trip, but that’s not my plan.”
Objection #5
“Your open jaw has to be shorter than the shorter leg.”
- Open Jaw: 5,994 miles between my outbound’s departure (ICN) and my return’s destination (LAX)
- Shorter Leg: 6,156 miles between GRU and LAX on the return
- Longer Leg: 12,150 miles flying ICN-GRU-LAX on the outbound
I was complying with this rule.
Solutions
My argument was that my award complied with all known rules of the Delta SkyMiles award program to price at 130,000 miles. If the computer is pricing it differently, that’s a mistake that should be manually overridden. I think it’s the airline’s responsibility to promulgate rules and follow them.
The supervisor would not or could not manually override the price.
He would not contact the Global Ticketing Desk again. He had done that twice.
He was willing to try to find a way to get the computer to price the award at 130k. He speculated that maybe if the outbound from Seoul to Sao Paulo didn’t come through the US, the pricing might work out. He spent a few minutes trying to find a routing like that, but eventually gave up.
He said my best bet to continue my quest to get the award for 130k miles would be to contact Delta through its online complaint form.
What We Know
- You can have a stopover and an open jaw on the same Delta award.
- Your open jaw can straddle two continents.
- You can have a free oneway on Delta awards.
- You can have a “complete roundtrip” plus an add on. (Similar to the last bullet point.)
- There are other rules that aren’t listed anywhere that determine what awards are possible.
Recap
I swung for the fences to try to get three very long segments in business class for 130k miles by adding a cheap one way to Korea onto an award to Brazil and failed miserably.
Delta not publishing all of its award rules decreases the value of the miles to me, but not all the way to zero. There are still tons of great uses for Delta miles, especially to Australia and Asia.
The best offer to earn SkyMiles quickly is to see if you are targeted through CARDMATCH for the Delta Gold card with 45k SkyMiles after spending $5k in three months as I explained in this post.
Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.
With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel℠ and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!
Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.
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Wow you have a lot of patience!
Wow you have a lot of patience!
Clearly you broke stopover/open-jaw rule. In some cases awards are pricing out (wrongly) in your favor, but you can’t really complain when the system works as intended. When the computer is wrong tho…
If something rings up incorrectly at a store, you wouldn’t expect the rest of your cart too.
I think the site is just a typo. I think you do get one stopover and one open jaw on Delta awards.
Clearly you broke stopover/open-jaw rule. In some cases awards are pricing out (wrongly) in your favor, but you can’t really complain when the system works as intended. When the computer is wrong tho…
If something rings up incorrectly at a store, you wouldn’t expect the rest of your cart too.
I think the site is just a typo. I think you do get one stopover and one open jaw on Delta awards.
The rules are crystal clear. Their systems’ logic hasn’t tied to match this, which explains why basic one stopover plus an open jaw awards work. But when you press beyond, well, not much recourse because the rules shouldn’t allow in the first place. The ‘free’ one way is just an IT glitch for now.
http://www.delta.com/content/nas/content/live/milevalu/en_US/skymiles/about-skymiles/program-rules-conditions.html
Open Jaw
Open-jaw travel is permitted and counts as a stopover
Stopovers
One stopover is allowed per Award.
I think that that’s a typo. Open jaw travel doesn’t count as a stopover. I also did not add to the post that I changed the dates, so that there was no stopover in LAX, just ICN-LAX-GRU and GRU-LAX, and the award still priced at 220k. So it is not because I am breaking this rule.
The rules are crystal clear. Their systems’ logic hasn’t tied to match this, which explains why basic one stopover plus an open jaw awards work. But when you press beyond, well, not much recourse because the rules shouldn’t allow in the first place. The ‘free’ one way is just an IT glitch for now.
http://www.delta.com/content/nas/content/live/milevalu/en_US/skymiles/about-skymiles/program-rules-conditions.html
Open Jaw
Open-jaw travel is permitted and counts as a stopover
Stopovers
One stopover is allowed per Award.
I think that that’s a typo. Open jaw travel doesn’t count as a stopover. I also did not add to the post that I changed the dates, so that there was no stopover in LAX, just ICN-LAX-GRU and GRU-LAX, and the award still priced at 220k. So it is not because I am breaking this rule.
I think it’s objection 5. You’re counting ICN-LAX-GRU as one segment when it should be two because of the stopover. I wonder if it would work if you just did GRU-LAX-SEA and got off the plane in LAX. Not on a computer so can’t test
I think it’s objection 5. You’re counting ICN-LAX-GRU as one segment when it should be two because of the stopover. I wonder if it would work if you just did GRU-LAX-SEA and got off the plane in LAX. Not on a computer so can’t test
I think like you stated Scott ” the Delta system is Broken ” .Half the time I logged off after 10 mins and then got on later .I never had this with United or AA(Perfect) , they have to learn if customer service works they will come back . But they work well with my ord to Nce flt because you can’t get there nonstop anyway . Its good to have different cards so you have more options .But I would never tell anyone to get a AMEX card to many hours for what you get ..
When in France check out the MONOPRIX stores their in many places and are a full service store like in the US at HALF the price of the little stores.
Thanks Scott !!!!
Cj
I think like you stated Scott ” the Delta system is Broken ” .Half the time I logged off after 10 mins and then got on later .I never had this with United or AA(Perfect) , they have to learn if customer service works they will come back . But they work well with my ord to Nce flt because you can’t get there nonstop anyway . Its good to have different cards so you have more options .But I would never tell anyone to get a AMEX card to many hours for what you get ..
When in France check out the MONOPRIX stores their in many places and are a full service store like in the US at HALF the price of the little stores.
Thanks Scott !!!!
Cj
This mirrors my experience last winter when trying to avoid DL pricing LAX-SYD, MEL-LAX (stop), LAX-CDG as two awards. I too rebutted each of their arguments but at the end of the day, they would not re-price.
Sadly, the prediction that DL will suffer from poor handling of this seems unlikely. I said the same thing about the busted search engine back in 2010 and they’ve done virtually nothing to fix it. Failing to honor miniscule routing rules in their awards will likely not have any different outcome.
Of course they wouldn’t from your deal or Scotts because 95% of the common folk (me)can’t do what you can or Scott can . But from the junk SLOW system they have (its not mine I have three online and 15 download speed on each) .We’ll just take the money to another airline like AA and be done with them.
Homeless person
Cj
This mirrors my experience last winter when trying to avoid DL pricing LAX-SYD, MEL-LAX (stop), LAX-CDG as two awards. I too rebutted each of their arguments but at the end of the day, they would not re-price.
Sadly, the prediction that DL will suffer from poor handling of this seems unlikely. I said the same thing about the busted search engine back in 2010 and they’ve done virtually nothing to fix it. Failing to honor miniscule routing rules in their awards will likely not have any different outcome.
Of course they wouldn’t from your deal or Scotts because 95% of the common folk (me)can’t do what you can or Scott can . But from the junk SLOW system they have (its not mine I have three online and 15 download speed on each) .We’ll just take the money to another airline like AA and be done with them.
Homeless person
Cj
I don’t think it smart to directly point out to Delta complex awards that price automatically.
Delta won’t fix it’s award booking engine if it means higher costs to them, but I am sure they would if they don’t like the routings and pricings the computer allows.
I don’t think it smart to directly point out to Delta complex awards that price automatically.
Delta won’t fix it’s award booking engine if it means higher costs to them, but I am sure they would if they don’t like the routings and pricings the computer allows.
Why would my pointing out that valid routings price correctly cause them to change rules?
Add me to the list of people who thought this was a foolish thing to do. Why pointing out the free-oneways and stopover+open-jaw to a DL rep, especially when the rules clearly say “stopover or open jaw”? If the website won’t do it, just chill out and find another itinerary that the website/DL computer prices correctly.
Add me to the list of people who thought this was a foolish thing to do. Why pointing out the free-oneways and stopover+open-jaw to a DL rep, especially when the rules clearly say “stopover or open jaw”? If the website won’t do it, just chill out and find another itinerary that the website/DL computer prices correctly.
Saving 90k SkyMiles = saving more than $1,000. There’s a lot of incentive not to chill out.
Oh, and one more advice, if you decide to pursue this further: DL.com does not like open-jaws at departure. So try your open-jaw at the turnaround point.
Oh, and one more advice, if you decide to pursue this further: DL.com does not like open-jaws at departure. So try your open-jaw at the turnaround point.
Unfortunately that’s impossible with this idea unless I lived in GRU.
(GRU-LAX)
(LAX-ICN)
(LAX-GRU)
But I will test this out.
I’m just impressed you were able to book those example awards on the fly so quickly. Booking complex Delta awards feels a bit like medieval alchemy to me: I never know quite what will work and I hold my breath every time I press the “Select” flight button.
I’m impressed at your handiwork to rapidly rebuke their objections. I grow weary dealing with Delta’s website (thus my dumping of my remaining 320k on an Oz trip). I find their customer service incredibly friendly and willing to pursue an answer, although often failing to find a solution on the first call. It’s helpful to try several times (4-5x) until I can finally find an agent that understands how to properly mangle the reservation to ensure it’s pricing correctly.
Objection 1 and objection 3 are technically the same thing, and are technically true. I never battle a Delta agent that says that. Hang up and call again … though as a Platinum, I’ve usually gotten great Delta agents.
Loved this post, especially how you we’re able to rebut their arguments in the fly.
Although this did break the one open jaw/one stopover rule, I think that the reason it would not price correctly is similar to the open jaw over two continents, except it is an open jaw over two “regions”. I think it is IATA that has set up three regions, basically covering the “Americas”, “Europe, Africa and the middle east”, and “Asia and Australia”, so your two continents that worked are in the same region and the two continents that didn’t work are in different regions.
Here’s an open jaw that straddles IATA regions: http://hackmytrip.com/2013/01/delta-award-open-jaw/
And this doesn’t “break” one oj/ one so rule. The computer allows one of each as demonstrated in this post. Why would the computer allow one of each for the other award in this post and not for my award?
I am just guessing and trying to figure out why one works and another doesn’t. Maybe because your return trip is within one region but your open jaw is to another region? In the one you linked to, the return trip was between regions and both ends of the open jaw were in a region that you were already in as part of the return trip. Have you found one that works for say a return US to Asia (two regions), then a reduced one way to Europe(third region different from first two)? Or maybe a return Northern India to Australia (one region) and a one way to the middle east (different region)?
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