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Ever since Delta devalued their SkyMiles program, the internet has spared no words in mocking them. Delta has completely done away with award charts and introduced ‘dynamic’ pricing. What that really means is they can charge you whatever they want based on how their computers calculate a ticket price in miles.
Absurd Delta SkyMiles Pricing
The first victim of Delta’s changes has clearly been the pricing of premium cabin award seats. Some of the pricing has been irrational that most people have stopped checking redemption options for premium cabins by using their own mileage currency.
Flash Sales
After devaluing premium cabin redemptions, Delta has come up with ‘flash sales’. I’ve already been critical of these flash sales. I think that it’s largely smoke and mirrors. I’ve outlined reasons in this post as to why I think that these flash sales aren’t really that great.
Partner Redemptions
Many of us have simply transitioned and moved on to using Virgin Atlantic miles for premium cabin redemptions on Delta. I’ve outlined in this post that I tend to fly premium Delta cabins on domestic flights by redeeming my Virgin Atlantic miles instead of Delta’s own miles.
My Redemption
I was looking to book a one way flight from San Diego, CA to Mumbai, India using my Delta SkyMiles. I was not very fussed about flying in business or first. Since I have a decent stash of miles available, I thought that I should give it a shot and see whether it works out.
Flight Options
Delta recently started a direct flight New York City (JFK) to Mumbai. I was initially trying to get an itinerary where I could fly SAN-JFK-BOM. However, thanks to Delta’s pricing, even flights in economy were absurdly priced, anywhere between 78,000-110,000 miles for just one coach ticket one way.
Over the years, I’ve flown on Delta’s partners from the US to India via Europe. Delta’s partners KLM and Air France provide decent connectivity from the West Coast to Europe and onward to India. After the demise of Jet Airways, Virgin Atlantic had recently started flying the LHR-BOM route once again. I looked up flights and to my pleasant surprise, I found one that worked perfectly for me!
Redemption Values
In this case, the best option I was able to find was actually a pretty good deal. I found a flight which actually got my from the West Coast to India in just about 22 hours. That’s pretty excellent travel duration for a flight that long in distance. The itinerary included an initial flight on Delta from San Diego to Los Angeles. After a 1 hour layover, the remaining itinerary was with Virgin Atlantic, with just a one hour layover at London Heathrow.
Valuing miles and points redemptions is always a contentious task. Each one has his own way of looking at it. I looked up the price for the same itinerary found that the redemption value was indeed great in my case!
If you compare the cash price of the ticket to the 50,000 Delta SkyMiles that I redeemed, that’s an amazing 2.46 cents per Delta SkyMile redeemed. Given that Delta SkyMiles are consistently valued anywhere between 1.2-1.3 cents per mile, this redemption almost gave me double the value with my Delta SkyMiles.
Earning Delta SkyMiles
How do you earn Delta SkyMiles? Aside from flying frequently, Amex’s recently refreshed credit cards are offering lucrative welcome bonuses.
| Credit Card | Welcome Bonus | Earns elite status? |
| Delta SkyMiles Blue Card | 15,000 Miles | No |
| Delta SkyMiles Gold Card | 70,000 Miles | No |
| Delta SkyMiles Platinum Card | 100,000 Miles | Yes |
| Delta SkyMiles Reserve Card | 100,000 Miles + 20,000 MQMs | Yes |
| Delta SkyMiles Gold Business Card | 70,000 Miles | No |
| Delta SkyMiles Platinum Business Card | 100,000 Miles | Yes |
| Delta SkyMiles Reserve Business Card | 100,000 Miles + 20,000 MQMs | Yes |
The Pundit’s Mantra
There’s no doubt that Delta’s ‘dynamic’ pricing is pretty absurd. A ticket in coach can cost you 100,000 miles whereas a ticket in Delta One can be priced as high as 200,000! While Delta has clearly muddied the waters by introducing no ceilings when it comes to pricing award tickets, you can still get value from Delta SkyMiles if you poke around and search for different combinations and new destinations.
When I was doing my award search for flights to India, I consistently found better redemption options and values while redeeming with Delta’s partners as opposed to Delta’s own metal. So it might be worthwhile to check for redemption options while flying international routes with Delta’s partners. While redeeming Delta SkyMiles for over 2 cents per point value is amazing, you’ll still have to skip premium cabins as the prices are outrageously high.
Do you still find Delta SkyMiles to be a valuable currency? How do you get outsized value on redemptions using your delta SkyMiles? Let us know in the comments section.
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I was able to get a round-trip from Phoenix to Tokyo for 30k skymiles just a few months ago. Seems to be some deals out there still. Not too bad
Hi Spencer, that’s a great deal for such a long distance flight!
Value and Skymiles are pretty much opposites, particularly in business class, and even more so on international business class. Not so many years ago I was a rabid Delta fan, but their perpetual war on the most engaged customers finally soured me on them. They now view the engaged frequent flier either as an antagonist or as a sucker. I choose to be neither.
It’s generally true that Delta’s own non-economy award prices are generally poor, but there are certain partners where you can consistently find value in business. The two that come to mind are China Airlines and Korean, which usually have a decent number of seats available. But…you do have to be headed to Asia. And you’re still paying 85,000 SkyMiles per ticket, rather than the 60-75K you can with other programs.
How do you redeem Delta miles on their partners? Do you book through Delta or through their partners sites? Even when I look at partner flights on the Delta site it still charged absurd miles.
Hi DoctorP,
Yes, you can book flights with Delta’s partners on Delta.com.
Tons of people (including me) are flying business class to Europe on Delta over the next few months at 49,000 miles each way due to Delta flash sales. They are the best way to redeem SkyMiles
Hi Anthony,
Yes, Delta Flash sales can be extremely useful if your schedule has a lot of flexibility. I haven’t yet been able to use those flash sales yet as work usually dictates when I can travel and I don’t have a ton of flexibility around it.
I was under the impression that Skymiles could only be redeemed for Domestic travel.
Hi Hope,
No, you can fly Delta’s SkyTeam partners by using Delta’s SkyMiles. It’s just that finding the right value takes a while and you have to keep searching for a while to find a good deal.
I was happy to be able to use a flash sale to get 2 tickets @ 25,000 miles each from JFK to Vancouver