u/Wint3r-Is-H3r3

Just what the title says. What's my biggest bang for the buck following all the changes in partner airline redemptions? DUB will soon no longer be an option with EI pulling out of MSP; KEF used to be a decent option but now a cheap ticket seems to be 90K miles + around $350 in taxes. Fellow Minnesotans in this sub, what are you using your miles on? Only interested in Europe and U.S., so that should narrow things down some.

I'm sure it wasn't like this even a year or two ago. I distinctly remember repricing my MSP-LHR-MSP trip from Christmas-2024 not once, but at least three times, as the prices dropped. But right now I'm sitting on two RTs that are either not budging at all (MSP-LHR-MSP for Thanksgiving, which has been stuck at 102K miles with the 15% discount for the entire month since I'd booked it) or just keep inching up (MSP-ATL-MSP for next March, which started at 48K and has crept up to about 49.6K). Similar story on my one-way from IAD to MSP, despite it actually not being a Delta monopoly route. Is this pretty much the new normal, that the price you see, especially between hubs, is the lowest it's ever going to be, or is there hope yet for a future drop?

Been googling and haven't found much, but would also like some "real life" recommendations for breeders to check out (hopefully this doesn't break Sub Rule 3). We live in Minnesota, but can travel as needed. Thx!

Over the years, I've gotten used to Delta pricing actually being dynamic, whether with miles or cash. Like, a ticket that cost 100K miles on Monday might drop to 80K on Tuesday/Wednesday (yeah, the Tu/Wed thing might be an industry myth, but just run with it for illustrative purposes), then hop back up to 110K by Friday. At a minimum, there'd be some movement. And this phenomenon was still in play relatively recently - even last year I had multiple instances where I'd get my tickets repriced.

Cue July 2026. Found an okay-ish redemption MSP-LHR for Thanksgiving (no Saturday-to-Saturday stay and dates pretty locked in, so have to assume it'll be on the higher side). By the seat map on Delta's website and Expertflyer, most of the seats are empty at the moment, so that might be contributing to the situation (too early for dynamic pricing to truly kick in, so the highest possible rate is being charged to those like me who just had to lock their tickets in), but I've not seen the price budge even 100 miles in over a week. I've tried different devices, not logging in, even asking friends in different countries - nothing.

I guess my question is - are my assumptions in terms of it being too early (despite the flights being less than five months out) correct and should I expect to see prices move one way or another at some point, or is this the new way?

For context, the price I paid was 102.4K (discounted from 120K because I'm a Delta Amex cardholder) for Main Cabin, but I was also able to snag us $295 upgrades to PS for the first leg (the return is $671 at the moment).

I feel like in all my online interactions having to do with companies, 90% of what I do is complain, so here's a contribution to the other 10%.

Called the Skymiles number this morning, needing to do some pretty complicated stuff with an itinerary. Got a time estimate for a callback - nope, won't work, the timing would land right in the middle of a work call. Tried again after the work call - "we will call you back in 21 minutes". Callback came in 23 - basically spot on.

U.S.-based rep - this is important when dealing with complicated stuff. Friendly greeting, like really friendly. Not obviously tiredly reading from a script; when she said "whom am I going to be caring for today?" I actually felt like she GAF. Couldn't help me in the end, although she fully understood what I was trying to do, so she passed me on to the ticketing team.

Also clearly U.S.-based, also clearly understood what I was going for. I actually cracked up out loud when she said "I seem to be saying "no" to everything you're asking, I'm sorry!" In the end, did help me out with one thing (splitting one itinerary into two separate ones), and also told me what I needed to do in order to use my wife's supposedly non-transferrable eCredit for myself (have my wife call, say she wants to "gift" her eCredit to me - Marriott free night award vibes - and then call them to book my ticket using it).

I'm actually used to Delta's CS being a cut above the rest of the American carriers, but, even still, I've had my fair share of baffling interactions with them. Just kicking myself for not thinking to take down the reps' names to send a compliment form in.