Rene penned a piece this morning on using Skiplagged to maximize the value of your SkyMiles. In fairness, he was quite clear that this is NOT the thing to do if you intend to remain a member of the program. In fact, the title of the post was “Can SkipLagged & hidden city ticketing help with Delta awards? YES (but don’t do it)!” (emphasis mine) Having worked for another airline, I can’t count the number of messages I received from corporate security telling me to greet customer X on flight XXX to let them know that they’d been caught using “back to back” or “hidden city” ticketing. And by the way, the one-way walk up fare you’ll need to buy to get home is $800. Deja vu.
That’s neither here nor there. Frankly, today is the first time I’ve ever looked at the SkipLagged website, and an essay on the concept of hidden city or back to back ticketing is not what I’m here for. The thing that really struck me about Rene’s post was how Delta has implemented a revenue-based redemption program without actually saying so. Of course, I’ve long maintained that SkyMiles went revenue-based the day the 3-tier award chart appeared, and only became more so with the 5-tier award chart. Now, there’s no official public award chart, and “the price is the price.”
I did not do the research, but I’d bet an expensive cup of Starbucks that if you priced some flights in the markets researched in Rene’s post, you’d find a rough correlation between the $ fares filed and the price in miles. Just one more thing to think about for a minute on this Tuesday morning. And I don’t think we’re anywhere near the end of change when it comes to SkyMiles or airline loyalty in general.
-MJ, June 16, 2015
Which airline was that, if you can say? Does it start with U and end with nited?
Ha. No, was AA.
MJ, speaking of SkyMiles and going revenue-based, do you think they might do something like VX has done, and have flex-pricing for their own metal, but have miles-based awards for partners?
@Brian,
I think that’s entirely possible…perhaps even probable. Keeping in mind that this is entirely rampant speculation on my part, I believe the ultimate answer is that Delta believes the rest of the industry will ultimately follow the model they are creating. Whether that’s true or not, is anyone’s guess.
Have there been recent accounts of Delta and others meeting pax at the gate? Would they do this to a HVC?
I haven’t heard of any. And keep in mind that I was just relaying an experience at another airline. An HVC isn’t likely to be doing these things, and if they were, I’d expect someone might at least try to take a bigger picture view.