Delta Eliminates Stopovers on Award Travel and Announces 2015 Global Award Chart

As Jan. 1, 2015 draws closer, Delta Airlines announces that as part of the new SkyMiles program, stopovers will no longer be allowed on award travel booked on or after Jan. 1, 2015 and all open jaw itineraries will be priced based on one-way award travel booking rules.

Delta SkyMiles also has posted the new global award chart online, conveniently with separate charts showing redemption rates for travel booked before Jan. 1, 2015 and rates for travel booked on or after Jan. 1, 2015. The new rates are a mixed bag with about a dozen zone pairs requiring less miles than before and over 50 going up in price. The good news is that most zones that increased in price only increased incrementally, for example Central America to Europe increased from 62,500 miles to 65,000 miles and Europe to Africa increased from 50,000 miles to 65,000 miles. The award chart for travel originating from the U.S. and Canada was released in March with only minor increases in redemption rates. To view the new global award chart, click HERE.

Delta also recently introduced a newly improved award calendar with new features including the ability to search with flexible dates over a five-week calendar, the ability to search exclusively for non-stop award flights and unlike the award calendar of the past, the new award calendar displays award space availability on some partner airlines. While the new award calendar does not display available award space from all partner airlines, it is a useful new tool for searching SkyTeam award space. To search for award travel using the improved award calendar, click HERE.