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Delta has gone where no other airline dares to go by selling Basic Economy award tickets and pushing travelers to book these no-frills fares when using their SkyMiles on domestic, Caribbean and Americas flights. Now these tariffs are spreading all over the world.
We now see Delta offering basic economy award tickets when using SkyMiles to many destinations in Europe, Africa, Asia and even Australia and New Zealand. They are not yet appearing on all long-haul international routes – particularly to Europe, where only a handful of routes were affected by this change at the time of publication. But it’s probably only a matter of time before Basic Economy Awards spread to every city on the continent and the rest of the world.
From London Heathrow (LHR) to Cape Town (CPT) to Sydney (SYD) and even on the airline’s brand new route from Los Angeles (LAX) to Auckland (AKL), SkyMiles now often get you the lowest fare for a scarce basic Economy fare. And the premium to avoid these fares and get a standard cabin fare can be steep: in most cases, it’ll cost you another 18,000 SkyMiles or more.
It’s unclear when this shift took place, but it’s a fairly recent change. And it’s a big, bad blow to your SkyMiles.
Whether you’re booking with cash or miles, flying Delta Basic Economy means you can’t select a complimentary seat. You cannot exchange these tickets, and canceling them will forfeit nearly 20,000 SkyMiles. You will also not receive credit for Delta Medallion Status.
After repeatedly increasing award rates for almost all Business Class redemptions and increasing fares on all partner airlines, this is another devaluation of SkyMiles. While Basic Economy looks like it will cost you fewer SkyMiles on paper, it’s a mirage: Delta will charge you the same number of miles on these routes…but give you fewer. Even the cheapest Delta SkyMiles flash sales are less interesting.
With this simple change, your SkyMiles are suddenly worth less. Delta recently did its Amex cardholders a huge favor by introducing a 15% discount on all Delta flights when redeeming miles. But this negative change could easily outweigh this benefit.
Basic Economy has spread like wildfire to almost every airline flying to most corners of the world over the past decade, but no other major airline sells these fares when travelers redeem miles — only Delta. And now those pesky fares are even spreading to Delta’s long-haul international routes when using SkyMiles.
That is hard. Consider this: You can book a flight from Los Angeles (LAX) to Sydney (SYD) on American Airlines for 94,000 AAdvantage miles. You can choose your seat, get two free bags, and with a Main Cabin ticket you can cancel online for free and get your miles back.
If you book the same route with Delta, you’ll need 94,000 SkyMiles… for a one-way economy fare. That means paying an extra fee to choose where you want to go — or rolling the dice on an auto-assignment, hoping you don’t get stuck between strangers on a 15-hour flight. Do you want to cancel? You would lose 19,900 of the SkyMiles you previously booked thanks to Delta’s Basic Economy cancellation fee.
The spread of Delta’s Basic Economy award tickets has been slow but steady. It started in late 2018 when these fares appeared on select domestic flights before spreading to most flights across the country. In late 2019, SkyMiles fares in Basic Economy also spread to the Caribbean and Central and South America. International long-distance connections were the next step.
We’re not yet seeing Basic Economy award fares on every major international Delta route—nor on every date they’ll be introduced. Previously, you will not see Basic Economy awards when redeeming SkyMiles on partner airlines such as Air France, KLM or Virgin Atlantic. But both Delta non-stop routes and connecting international routes suddenly get basic economy treatment when you use SkyMiles.
At the time of publication, we’re still seeing main cabin fares at the lowest prices on many flights — particularly to Europe, like these round-trip Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Amsterdam (AMS).
But that’s likely to change soon, like this route from Atlanta (ATL) to Amsterdam. Delta may introduce these new Basic Economy award fares over time.
Even selected flights to Tokyo-Haneda (HND) are suddenly booked in Basic Economy. The same applies to the ultra-long-haul flights to destinations across Africa such as Cape Town (CPT), Johannesburg (JNB), Accra (ACC) and others. Have to pay nearly 150,000 SkyMiles for an economy ticket but still can’t choose a seat? Ouch.
bottom line
Using airline miles has long been a great way to avoid the pain of basic economics. Although basic economy fares are common almost worldwide, most airline award tickets are your old standard economy fare.
But not with Delta. With this latest addition, basic economy fares become inevitable, whether paying with cash or using SkyMiles. While these scarce fares aren’t bookable with miles on every international route and on every date, it’s probably only a matter of time before that changes.
And that’s a bad thing for SkyMiles.
Leading photo courtesy of Chris Lundberg via Flickr
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