Delta is adding a fee to all award tickets starting Aug 15. As a result people have been burning miles and booking flights left and right to avoid it. It made my recent booking for Colombia very difficult to do with almost 3 hours on the phone with 2 different agents.
The hard part was getting the domestic leg of my flight. I am flying ATL - MIA - CTG in each direction. I could easily get MIA - CTG but getting from ATL was a real hassle. I ended up leaving on a Tuesday and returning on a Wednesday (the 2 least popular travel days).
I am pretty sure this will settle down once the fee comes to pass and people return to “normal” booking patterns. I am not happy about this fee either which sparked the booking of this flight now. It has saved me $50 which is no small amount.