Everything you need to know about Delta's new award program:
While most of us were drinking champagne and doing things we hope nobody was sober enough to remind us about the following day, Delta was busy unrolling its updated SkyMiles award program, which went into place about as soon as the ball dropped in Times Square to ring in 2015. Delta has already devalued SkyMiles so much in the past few years that the award currency has become better known among frequent flyers as "SkyPesos," a term that seems to be too generous for a currency that seems about as valuable as monopoly money these days. But while Delta will further alienate most of its customers with the changes, there are some positives.
One-way tickets
After years of limiting travelers by allowing only round-trip award redemptions, Delta has finally caught up with the rest of the major U.S. airlines to allow SkyMiles members to cash in their points for one-way trips at half the cost of round-trip flights. This is a huge bonus to travelers with a limited amount of miles or those who want to visit multiple cities on one trip.
However, be careful when booking trips to Europe as two one-way tickets. Delta charges fuel surcharges for flights that originate in Europe, so if you book two one-ways you will be charged on the return trip for fuel surcharges hefty enough to deem the award redemption virtually worthless. If you book a round-trip ticket, you'll be able to avoid any fuel surcharges, at least until Delta takes its award program back to the butcher block.
New tiered award chart
Delta now has five tiers of awards available, up from three. One-way domestic coach awards, for example, may cost either 12,500, 15,000, 17,500, 20,000 or 32,500. In theory this is supposed to increase the availability of lower-tiered award redemptions.
Cash-based awards
Good news: If you haven't already heard, Delta is transitioning from a miles-based to a cash-based reward system. Or at least that's good news if you happen to have deep pockets or a big expense account. For the rest of us, this massively reduces the miles-earning potential. While passengers used to earn miles based on actual distance flown, they will now earn based on dollars spent. So, unless you're shelling out major cash for a ticket, chances are you will be earning a pathetic fraction of what you would have earned in 2014.
The worse news for travelers with no loyalty to a specific airline is that United will follow suit in March, and it's likely only a matter of time before American joins the fray.
No more stopovers
One of the only good aspects of SkyMiles was that it allowed for stopovers on award tickets, so if you wanted to stop in, say, Paris for a few days or a few weeks on your way to, say, Hong Kong, it wouldn't cost you any additional miles. Well, we can all sing Auld Lang Syne to the good old days of stopovers, as the airline has now joined American in doing away with them for round-trip tickets, massively devaluing the potential for redemption value.
Meanwhile, US Airways will still offer stopovers on round-trip tickets until its Dividend Miles program is officially swallowed up by American Aadvantage in a few months, and United will continue to offer stopovers for the foreseeable future.