Nasty Surprise: Delta Secretly Raises Award Ticket Prices

[LL_Travelfan]

Today, airlines routinely implement consumer-unfriendly program changes with little or no advance notice. Nasty Surprise: Delta Secretly Raises Award Ticket Prices - SmarterTravel.com

As if that weren't bad enough, on September 1, Delta raised prices on some SkyMiles awards with no notice whatever. The only semi-official reference to the changes came several days after the fact in a post by a Delta employee, identified only as DLCorpGirl, on FlyerTalk.

[jmbklj]

This is not the first time Delta has made negative changes to its programs without communicating them in advance. Often the changes are communicated after the fact.

(Rant): Delta Stealthily Changes Some Mid/High Tier Award Levels | The Points Guy


Delta Award Changes Effective 8/15/11

[thepiranha]

I'm confused. How can there be a price on award travel? Did they raise the mileage requirements?

[kyshel]

LLTravelfan--I think you need to use quotes when you make what looks like a statement from you. There is no way to certify that This DLcorpgirl is a Delta Air Lines employee. You are only posting what someone else has written without quoting him. Just because the author of the cited article got it from flyer talk doesn.t mean it's legit info. He mentions when he was involved w/FF programs how long ago??
I read that one award was lowered. Why not make that more pronounced? This smacks of propaganda--grudge?

[copahc]

I think the points guy said it right "loyalty goes both ways". I agree that it's sneaky and wrong for delta to change prices without communicating it to its loyal members. It usually takes me several years of flying to save up for an award ticket. I would be quite angry if a had saved for that long, gone to buy my ticket and then found out I didn't have enough miles, because the prices had been secretly raised. I really think the skymiles members have a right to be angry about this.

[kyshel]

What's the difference in raising an award or an airfare? None. Grandma saved to have little Bobby come visit--she waited until she had the $ and the ticket went up. Same thing with miles/award. Is it the perception that these awards don't have value to the airline? Every seat bought w/miles is technically "lost revenue" in terms of dollars. When is it fair to increase a ticket price or a mileage award? Never? I guess it depends on who is saving or hopping for a better deal. Airlines are not charities; they are businesses with stockholders, operating costs and thousands of employees.

I'm a long-time SkyMiles member; most of my miles come from credit cards, not miles flown. I'm amassing mine for upgrades when my husband retires. If I get "stung" by increases (which have already happened more than once), that's the way it is. Will I be happy? Bet your booties I won't! What can I do about it? Nothing.

[copahc]

The difference between changing the price of an award fare and the price of an airfare is that mileage awards are published on mileage charts by all airlines and customers rely on those charts to determine how many miles they have to save for a trip. Airfare doesn't work that way. And sometimes it takes a very long time to find a ticket you can actually purchase with miles because unlike regular tickets, award tickets are VERY limited and not that easy to come buy. You can always purchase a ticket for the flight you want (even if it's sold out because they will over sell it), but you can't always buy it with mileage.
I don't see how you can argue that award tickets are lost revenue. Airlines make very few awards available, if any, and if the flight does not sell out they haven't lost anything.. If the flight does sell out, you can be sure that they've made up for the price of those seats by selling seats to the other passengers (the ones who bought their tickets last who are usually companies purchasing last minute tickets at sky high prices for business travelers) for double or triple what they should have been.. or they simply oversell the flight and those oversold seats are like I said sold for VERY high prices to make up for having to bump people. Trust me.. the airlines aren't losing any money from offering loyalty bonuses. They are increasing revenue by loyalty. If loyalty programs didn't exist passengers would be much more inclined to just buy the cheapest ticket everytime. If the airlines were losing revenue.. they wouldn't have these programs. They aren't doing it just to be nice.

All I'm saying that these companies should at least put out a public statement that fares will increase and give a bit of time to their loyal travelers to use their miles before it goes up. Other airlines do that. I find it very sneaky to not say anything about it AT ALL.

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Airlines are making lots of money now with all the fees they now charge - any airline that says they are not making money is full of it. So many articles out now talking about how many millions they are making in just baggage fees alone.
I do not have any credit cards that give me "free miles" so I have to fly for a few years to get anywhere near enough miles to "fly free" and using miles to upgrade costs alot of $ now. When I booked my tickets on United/Continental for my March Nicaragua flights - it was actually cheaper to pay for the 1st class ticket on sale than to buy an economy ticket and then use miles for upgrading - this option actually came out costing more! I have about 28,000 U/C miles and just hoping I can manage to amass more to eventually get a free flight before they expire. I fly at least once a year, so I think I will not have a problem with them expiring since as long as you have some activity every year, they continue.

[jmbklj]

LLTravelfan--I think you need to use quotes when you make what looks like a statement from you. There is no way to certify that This DLcorpgirl is a Delta Air Lines employee. You are only posting what someone else has written without quoting him. Just because the author of the cited article got it from flyer talk doesn.t mean it's legit info. He mentions when he was involved w/FF programs how long ago??
I read that one award was lowered. Why not make that more pronounced? This smacks of propaganda--grudge?

Kyshel, based on my experience using FlyerTalk, I am quite sure that DLcorpgirl is indeed a Delta Airlines employee. And she stated that....."legally we're (Delta) not allowed to notify folks In advance" That is totally false. The other airlines do announce those award changes in advance.

Time will tell if people vote with their wallets in the future.

[kyshel]

Kyshel, based on my experience using FlyerTalk, I am quite sure that DLcorpgirl is indeed a Delta Airlines employee. And she stated that....."legally we're (Delta) not allowed to notify folks In advance" That is totally false. The other airlines do announce those award changes in advance.

Time will tell if people vote with their wallets in the future.

If she still works for DL, she can be jeopardizing her job. She can be dismissed for mis-using social media. If she is DL and she's incorrect, same thing. If she's right, then it isn't totally false info. Do you have anything that says DL must notify in advance?
As for "vote with their wallets"--if DL is the only service for a passenger's needs, they will buy/fly DL. Same with any other carrier in another city.