award chart

Tag Archives for award chart.

You Can Still Book Delta 65,000 Mile Transatlantic Business Class, Despite Devaluation

by Gary Leff on March 1, 2021

At the beginning of February Delta devalued SkyMiles partner award pricing for the second time during the pandemic, and in a big way. Since the start of Covid-19 one way business class between the US and Europe on Air France and KLM went from 75,000 to 95,000 miles and now starts at 120,000 SkyMiles – for a 60% increase in less than a year at a time when flights are empty and prices low. Because they can.

Delta says they have no award charts any longer, but that isn’t true. They just hide their award charts. Mexico is a separate region from the United States, and while they’ve massively increased their award chart pricing for partner travel to and from the U.S., they haven’t (yet) done so for travel to and from Mexico.

Alaska Will Join oneworld Next Month, But oneworld Awards Wait Until Summer

by Gary Leff on February 10, 2021

Feb 10 2021

Alaska Airlines will become the second U.S. airline in the global oneworld alliance, along with American Airlines, effective March 31. But it turns out Alaska Airlines miles will not be redeemable on oneworld airlines that haven’t already been partners in the Mileage Plan program at that time. Instead mileage redemption on new partners in oneworld will have to wait until summer.

In other words Alaska Airlines has rushed the work to join oneworld, and will actually join before it’s done. This means customers will be able to earn miles on new airlines, crediting to their Mileage Plan account – and more airlines will award airlines for travel on Alaska – but customers don’t gain access to spend those miles on more airlines for a few more months.

Alaska Airlines Won’t Change Award Chart When They Join oneworld

by Gary Leff on January 12, 2021

Jan 12 2021

Alaska says no changes to current partner redemption pricing when they join oneworld, and to expect advance notice of any changes.

Virgin Atlantic Restoring 2020 Award Pricing For Delta Transatlantic Non-Stop Flights

by Gary Leff on January 11, 2021

On New Years Day Virgin Atlantic updated its award pricing for travel on Delta. One of the few bright spots in Virgin’s Flying Club program was inexpensive Delta awards, so this was disappointing in the extreme. Prices went up in some cases more than 100%, largely focused on longer distance premium cabin awards.

Then, two days later, their spokespeople started saying that transatlantic awards wouldn’t go up as much as they had published and there would be an update. They’ve now said non-stop transatlantic awards will revert to their earlier pricing, but flying Delta anywhere else in the world or with connections will be a lot more expensive than it was in 2020 in many cases.

Virgin Atlantic Planning Another No-Notice Award Chart Change In A Matter Of Days

by Gary Leff on January 3, 2021

Jan 03 2021

Virgin Atlantic says they are planning to make another no-notice change to their award pricing for travel on Delta, it’s expected to come in a matter of days, and they don’t even know what it is yet. That’s perhaps the worst possible practice in loyalty.

AAdvantage Raised Unpublished Anytime Award Prices, And I Never Noticed (450,000 Mile One-Ways!)

by Gary Leff on November 15, 2020

Nov 15 2020

American AAdvantage still has award charts, although the awards you book may not be based on chart pricing. They’ve increased the price of ‘unpublished any time’ award levels and a one way business class ticket on an American flight to Tokyo may now cost as much as 450,000 miles – but there’s something to look for that could cut the cost of the same redemption by 84%.

Wow: United MileagePlus Devalues Partner Award Travel

by Gary Leff on April 29, 2020

Apr 29 2020

Yesterday United Airlines removed partner award charts from its website. The only reason a loyalty program removes award charts is so that they can raise the price of awards while trying to hide what they’re doing. I have never seen a program eliminate award charts and become more valuable.

We now know exactly why United pulled these charts yesterday without any notice to members. Seriously, they’re doing this now?

United Removes Star Alliance Award Chart From Its Website, Says Pricing Is All Dynamic

by Gary Leff on April 28, 2020

Apr 28 2020

United said that partner awards would continue to price as they always had even once award charts were removed for United flights. This wasn’t true – since they were charging extra for booking partner flights close to departure.

Nevertheless they kept a copy of the Star Alliance award chart on their website. Now they’ve removed it. And a spokesperson says this is exactly what you should have expected!

Hyatt Offering New Flexibility On Non-Refundable Bookings, Postponing Most Award Price Changes

by Gary Leff on March 13, 2020

Mar 13 2020

Hyatt was first out of the gate with an offer of points for customers having to cancel non-refundable bookings. I thought that was generous because they were first and it was something. Of course this is all fast-moving, and other hotel chains have since done more.

So Hyatt has responded, well I think, and is out with a new policy allowing for cancellation of non-refundable bookings, encouraging new bookings, and offering greater flexibility for Hyatt points.

Four Big Changes To World Of Hyatt (Three Don’t Happen Until March 22)

by Gary Leff on February 12, 2020

Feb 12 2020

Annual category changes are pushing up prices at 117 Hyatt hotels, and 100 go down. Out of these 217 properties changing category 65 are SLH hotels.

Meanwhile Hyatt is adding 48 new SLH hotels to their portfolio, introducing variable pricing for cash and price awards, and implementing new peak and off peak award pricing. All of this goes into effect March 22.