The only thing worse than an increase in award prices: an award-price increase with no advance notice.
That’s what members of Delta’s SkyMiles program are facing. And not for the first time.
Since Delta ditched its published award charts, assuring program members that they could simply look up award prices on the airline’s online booking app, awards have been priced at whatever level Delta deemed appropriate. When it was discovered that the lowest-available prices for flights between the U.S. and the Pacific would be increased from October 1, with no advance notice, SkyMiles members’ worst fears were realized. Their miles could be, and would be, devalued willy-nilly, according to the whims of Delta’s marketing department.
It’s happening again.
Related:‘A First Class Upgrade Every Time’? C’mon!
As discussed on FlyerTalk, prices for the lowest-priced business-class award flights between the U.S. and Europe will rise from 62,500 to 70,000 miles each way on January 1, 2017. Once again, SkyMiles members were given no notice of the impending change, no opportunity to lock in the lower award price before it increased a hefty 12 percent.
Program members have no recourse in such situations. As do all airline loyalty programs, Delta reserves for itself the right to make any changes to SkyMiles, at any time, for any reason. 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.
What goes around, comes around.
Reader Reality Check
Is this action-worthy, or just another predictable setback to be stoically endured.
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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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With no published award-price charts to refer to, members of Delta’s SkyMiles program don’t know when award prices are higher or lower than normal. That’s because there is no baseline to use as a reference point; there is no normal. Or rather, normal is whatever Delta chooses to publish as the price for an award ticket on a particular flight.
It’s a fact of loyalty-program life: Airline and hotel programs periodically adjust their award prices. Of course, those adjustments amount to price hikes more often than not. And, all things being equal, higher award prices amount to an overall devaluation of the program.
As changes to hotel-program award prices go, the latest for InterContinental’s IHG Rewards are decidedly modest: Prices for award nights at 400 hotels will change by either 5,000 or 10,000 points, half moving up, half moving down. If it were just that 50-50 split, Rewards members might dismiss it as a wash and count their blessings. After all, “It could have been worse.”
Ever since Delta began ramping up operations in Seattle, Alaska Airlines’ hometown and main flight hub, the relationship between the two airlines has been disintegrating. And there was plenty to disintegrate. The carriers were long-time partners in each other’s frequent-flyer programs, and they code-shared on a host of flights. They were, in the industry vernacular, preferred marketing partners.
By traditional measures, Alaska Airlines is a carrier of decidedly modest size, even after its acquisition of Virgin America. Its own flight network is small, compared to those of American, Delta, and United. And it’s not a member of one of the three global airline alliances.
For travelers to, from, or through Los Angeles International Airport, it may seem as though the airport, the world’s seventh busiest, is in a semi-permanent state of modernization and remodeling, with all the construction, traffic, and delays that entails. A pretty picture it ain’t.
Marriott has just published its list of award-price changes for 2016. As Marriott Rewards members have come to expect from these annual pronouncements, the news amounts to yet another decrease in the value of their points.
Overall, Delta’s SkyMiles program has established itself as one of the industry’s least generous loyalty schemes. To play, you’ll pay. But with this limited-time award sale, you can at least pay less.
Update from IHG, including effect date for new prices: “All reservations booked beginning Jan. 16, 2018, will use the new Reward Nights point prices. This is part of an annual review into the number of points needed for a Reward Night, and we’ll communicate to members through our regular channels, including email and our website.”
Hilton this week posted upcoming changes to HHonors award prices. While such announcements are almost never good news—and are sometimes positively gut-wrenching—this round of changes is so modest in scope that it’s practically a non-event.