Is it just me, or is Delta Airlines incredibly stingy about awarding air travel for frequent flyer miles? I don't fly a great deal, but I do accumulate miles every chance I get for credit card use, hotels, rental cars, etc and usually manage a couple FF tickets a year.

With Northwest, it was usually not difficult to get a ticket for 25,000 miles, and they often held promotions awarding seats for 20,000 or even less.

Tried to book a couple tickets today on Delta's site for some pretty routine routes. The lowest asking price? 40,000 per seat.

Wow.

Dunno.

I blew the works in November, booking 5 tickets round trip to Hawaii. Was able to do it for 40,000 miles each. That was with Northwest.

Delta is a whole new ballgame, and appears to see their frequent flyer program as a new revenue opportunity with fees and very few tickets available at the normal "low" level.