Delta Raises Award Prices 39%. Ouch!

After 20 years working in the travel industry, and 15 years writing about it, Tim Winship knows a thing or two about travel. Follow him on Twitter @twinship.

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Yesterday, Delta’s lowest-priced business-class award ticket for travel between the U.S. and India was 70,000 miles each way. Today, it’s 97,500 miles. That’s an increase of 39 percent. Talk about inflation! And, adding insult to injury, the price increase was made with no notice to SkyMiles members.

This is hardly the first unannounced award-price increase since Delta ditched its published award charts. Prices for award flights to the Pacific rose in October, and Europe award prices will rise on January 1, 2017.

As do all airline loyalty programs, Delta reserves for itself the right to make any changes to SkyMiles, at any time, for any reason. And with these consumer-unfriendly changes to its award prices, it’s doing just that.

That doesn’t mean that SkyMiles members are powerless, however. It is after all a loyalty program, and travelers who feel disenfranchised by such consumer-unfriendly policies can take their loyalty elsewhere.

Reader Reality Check

How do Delta’s award-price changes affect your loyalty to the airline?

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After 20 years working in the travel industry, and 15 years writing about it, Tim Winship knows a thing or two about travel. Follow him on Twitter @twinship.

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