jo_ann

okay, those are words not often spoken, right?
DH and I are flying to Amsterdam and one other spot in 3 1/2 weeks (flying over May 1, back on May 11th.) I've joined him in retirement, so we're now the "fixed income" people trying to travel lots but on the cheap - Had planned Amsterdam and Paris - watched air costs for about 2 months, finally booked on 3/28 - business travel (my favorite) was stuck up at about $2,800 each - I looked into upgrading from coach with points, and was quoted $2,500 PLUS something like 50,000 points for each - egads. and, to use just FF miles: 200,000 points!!! - virtually all that I have, for just one ticket. So, regretfully, I booked us into coach at $639 with all taxes and fees (about $540 before those extras.) I thought that was pretty good for coach these days, and got busy planning and convincing myself I could survive overnight in coach (my business travel was ALWAYS top tier, and has spoiled me!)
Well!!! this morning, I found an e-mail from Delta that they were putting award travel on sale - 10% less for coach, 20%-25% cut on business class! For grins, I decided to check it out - and now, have BOOKED two business class tickets for us (along the way, it became Amsterdam and Copenhagen, just because we decided to go places we've never been, and save our return to Paris for another time) so, TWO business class tickets over the ocean, first class seats for the connecting flights here in the states: 75,000 points each!! 3 1/2 weeks before the trip, down from 200,000 points as recently as a week ago! (and I see that as about a 60% reduction, btw, not 25% - way to go, Delta!!)
Pretty excited here, I must say - I cancelled the coach seats; we have a year from issuance to reuse them, and we can easily do that, so I'm not concerned. Even with a rebooking fee, we'll be fine - and we get to spread out on the redeye to AMS!! Yes!!
So, if it helps anyone else: it's "book by April 20th, travel between 4/20 and June 15" and it seems to be a great deal to us, and actually seems to exist.

CarolA

Details

delta.com/awarddiscount

Danie3633

Thank you so much Jo_ann and Carol!! Thanks to you I changed my existed coach award ticket to business for only 5200 extra miles and a $100 change fee! Which brings the total out of pocket cash to less than the taxes on the business ticket! I heart fodor's and all of you

Patty

Northwest is offering a similar award discount. KLM operated flights are eligible too when booking via NW. You can link NW and DL accounts and transfer miles back and forth for free as needed.

http://www.nwa.com/features/awarddiscount/

ccb3001

We had two business award tickets (200,000/ticket) for Atl to Manchester that I booked several months ago. got the email from Delta and rebooked. Paid a $100 redeposit fee but got a refund of $97 on original ticket. Taxes are more but I was able to redeposit 250,000 for future travel. Thank you Delta!

CarolA

I am not sure this is working the way Delta wanted... but I am glad everyone is getting the deals! (I expect Delta wanted more "new" bookings LOL!)

MomDDTravel

I saw this email as well and wished I had the time to fly across the pond! I have 180,000 Delta miles which would be enough for two business class seats for dh and I!

rkkwan

With low fares and bonus miles and EQM right now, it is not very economical to claim mileage awards in many cases. So, it's not unreasonable for the airlines to "discount" the awards.

Also, since planes are relatively empty now, they'd rather you burn the miles now. When travel picks up again along with fares, you'll have to pay for your seats then.

MomDDTravel

rkkwan - that makes sense. I booked a ticket for dd to travel from SNA to SEA today and it was NOT worth it to use ff miles... I got the fare for around 250.00 and that is over 4th of July!

CarolA

Well the cheapest fare to upgrade to Business Class to Europe on Delta is over $2,000. IMHO it's not worth it, even for "bonus miles"

I don't use my miles for cheap trips. I save them for those $2,000 trips!