Delta Frequent Flyer Mileage Cost Increases

I recently saw an article (Washington Post, I think), that essentially said that award travel is more expensive right now because of high demand.

Many “experts” say that the key for frequent flier miles is to use them quickly because the risk of devaluation is always present. I try to compare with ticket prices to see if paying cash would be better (think British Airways fees) and see if there is a different route that might work at a lower cost.

The mileage requirement is different depending on demand, time of year, flight time, whether its nonstop and often how early you buy them. We are going from Minneapolis to Paris soon and we paid 140,000 for 2 tickets

EDITED TO ADD: I probably should have stated these are main cabin tickets. So not the super cheap economy plus, but below business class

You need to compare the monetary equivalent. Before, I counted 2¢ per mile. Today it's 1¢ to 1.5¢ per gf mile on my routes. The best we ever did was 1 mile=6¢ a few years ago. You are better off with a cash back credit card at today's exchange rates

I researched a one-way on American from the West Coast to Milan and in first class it was 400,000 miles per person. We got RT on BA and AA in Business Class for 235,000 and $2000 when we committed in February. Yup, inflation is real, at least in point-world.

I recently booked award travel leaving in October and returning in January. JFK-LHR--JFK. BA going/AA returning.

It cost me 107K miles for business class round trip. The fees were high because one half is BA. (If I flew BA both ways, the fees would be about 60% of what the fare would be if I paid cash.)

However, just as I was about to book, i was notified that for 10K miles more, I could move up to first class on the return. No brainer. So for 117K miles and around $1000 I am flying business class to London and first class on the return. (I did have to pay an extra $130 for a reserved seat on BA but it's their new seating plan of 4 across rather than the old 8 across.)

Here's a little hint.....The more competition on a route, the lower the price/availablitly. JFK-LHR is the busiest route across the Atlantic. The competition is great. You might have a better time finding a cheaper mileage flight including that in your routing. Or Orlando to London is also popular--or was pre-pandemic--and Virgin flies that route (A Delta codeshare).

I probably will be booking a FF flight today on another airline. I see mileages varying by a factor of 3. What was really crazy was when I booked this flight last year ( cancelled of course ), I saw this same variation for the exact same flight depending on the day I looked. I kept checking and when it went down to the low figure I pounced on it.

My father gave me his 500,000 miles when he became too infirm to travel anymore, back in 2000. Round-trips to Europe in Biz were 80k, and I blew through it like the foolish 20-something I was.

The devaluation happened back in February.
https://onemileatatime.com/delta-skymiles-devalues-partner-awards-again/

Suggestion? Keep checking. As noted above, mileage requirement can vary significant from day to day. i was looking at business class ticket from my local airport to Frankfurt. Miles needed ranged from 340K to 540K over a 10-day period. -- obviously, crazy high compared to historical standards, even at the low end. If your dates are flexible, try the price calendar (when you get to the "flexible dates" grid look at the left upper corner on the web page and click "price calendar").

One other thought... Delta is giving frequent flyers medallion qualification miles, segments, and dollars on reward travel through the end of 2021 as part of its status accelerator program. That is cranking up demand for reward tickets because usually flyers get nothing for reward tickets. Much of pricing is algorithm driven, so the demand for this fall may be pushing up redemptions for 2022.