Delta has eliminated their close-in award booking fees. So no more charges for booking award tickets less than three weeks prior to travel.
United eliminated these fees last summer.
Delta takes a lot of heat for me here over their poor award availability, especially in premium classes, for their very much broken award pricing engine and website functionality, and for refusing to even publish an award chart for trips that originate outside of North America.
So this is a rare positive move from the Skymiles program, and one that deserves some applause. What’s more, and confusingly, it was done without fanfare. The fees were in place as recently as Monday, and now they’re gone, and I haven’t seen any comment from Delta on the development at all. Naturally, it was noticed on Flyertalk.
American still charges $50 to $100 for awards booked close to travel. Time for American to AAdjust!
Continental charges $75 for close-in awards