If you're sitting on a stash of Delta SkyMiles or keep swiping your SkyMiles Amex card with dreams of booking a lie-flat flight, I have bad news: Delta SkyMiles are not the best miles to earn if you want to fly business class. Not even close.
Don't get us wrong: Your Delta SkyMiles can still be extremely valuable if you want to fly economy within the U.S. or around the world thanks to regular Delta SkyMiles flash sales. And a few times each year, we find and send our Thrifty Traveler Premium members a deal with some decent rates to book Delta One business class abroad.
But even on a good day, you can book lie-flat seats using far fewer miles from other airlines – and on a regular day, Delta routinely charges 400,000 SkyMiles to book business class overseas … each way. No thank you.
So if a lie-flat seat is on your wish list, it's time to forget about earning Delta SkyMiles and focus on earning flexible points and miles that you can transfer to many different airlines – and you won't get those swiping your Delta Amex card everywhere you go. Change that mindset, and you'll find you can book a business class seat using far fewer points … at least so long as you know where to look and how to book.
That’s where Thrifty Traveler Premium shines. We send our members all the Delta One deals we find. But more importantly, we also send them far more business class deals flying to the same destinations on other carriers – and tell you which points you can use to book them, too.
Let me show you.
Flying Delta One: Points vs. SkyMiles
For 99.99% of travelers, flying Delta One is only really an option when using points and miles. See what I mean?
Ouch. If you're a sane person, you're not forking over $6,800 in cash to fly Delta One, and I don't blame you if your next move is to look at the Delta SkyMiles rates. Spoiler alert: It's not great either!
Even with the TakeOff 15 benefit you get for holding a Delta card, this flight would still cost you more than half a million SkyMiles roundtrip. Please don't spend that many SkyMiles on a flight. If you do, you're the reason Delta charges this much! The airline knows there are people out there willing to pay it.
It's completely preposterous – especially considering not long ago, you could have booked that exact same flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Dublin (DUB) for a fraction of the price.
Look at this.
That's right: Just 50,000 points each way for the exact same Delta One redemption. The trick was using miles from Delta's partner airline, Virgin Atlantic, to book instead. And to make that happen, you'd need to earn transferrable credit card points.
Critically, you can't transfer SkyMiles to Virgin Atlantic. But if you're earning points and miles from credit cards like American Express, Chase, Capital One, Citi, or Bilt, you already have a way to get Virgin Atlantic points whether you know it or not!
Unfortunately, the days of booking Delta business class for 50,000 points are officially over. Virgin recently raised many award rates for Delta business class to Europe … and tacked on a $1,000 surcharge on these flights, to boot.
That hurts. But really, it only underscores the importance of earning transferrable credit card points.
Even though the door to those cheap Delta One awards has closed, there are plenty of other options for cheap business class awards – and many are even better than Delta One.
Non-Delta Business Class From 50K Points
Delta people love Delta. We get it. I love Delta, too!
For my money, it's the most comfortable and reliable U.S. airline – its recent meltdown notwithstanding. But to tie yourself to Delta is to ignore other airlines flying to the same places with equal (if not better) business class seats at far cheaper rates.
Here's some perspective for you. In the world airline rankings put together by SkyTrax every year, Delta has consistently finished first among U.S. airlines in the overall category. What is Delta's ranking worldwide, though? Delta finished 21st this year – not even close to the top 10, or top five for that matter.
It's proof that there are foreign carriers throughout Europe, Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East that deserve your attention. And it costs way less to fly them, too.
Here's an example that's very close to home for Delta: Air France and KLM, Delta's SkyTeam airline alliance partners in Europe.
To fly Air France or KLM business class to Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) or Amsterdam (AMS) respectively, all you need is 50,000 Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles. Earning those 50,000 Flying Blue miles is even easier than racking the 300,000-plus SkyMiles you'd need to fly Delta One. Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase, and Citi points can all be transferred directly to Flying Blue to book these lie-flat seats.
Remember those 300,000-plus SkyMiles business class fares above? Try these on for size instead.
We see this deal pop up every few months: Widespread availability to fly Air France or KLM business class to Europe for just 50,000 each way from cities all over the U.S. You'd have to burn more than three times as many SkyMiles for the same routes.
It gets better. Frequent 25% transfer bonuses to Flying Blue from banks like Chase, American Express, and Capital One can make these deals even sweeter: Time it right, and just 40,000 points is all you'd need.
It's not just Delta partners, though. Look around Europe and you'll find plenty of stellar airlines with excellent business class seats.
SWISS, the reigning 10th best airline in the world, also flies a swanky business class seat you can book for cheap. My wife and I flew SWISS business class last year for just 63,000 Avianca LifeMiles (transferable from Bilt, Amex, and Capital One) each and can confirm it was worth every mile.
But booking through Colombian airline Avianca's quirky LifeMiles program is only one option. If you want something more mainstream, you can also book these SWISS business class seats using United MileagePlus miles (transferable from Chase) or even Air Canada Aeroplan miles (transferable from Chase, Amex, Capital One, and Bilt).
When booking with Air Canada, Chicago-O'Hare (ORD) to Zurich (ZRH) nonstop on SWISS Business Class is just 70,000 Air Canada points.
That's 140,000 points roundtrip if you want to ride in style both ways. And it's relatively easy to find the award availability to book at those rates!
And if you compare that to flying that same day in Delta One business class using Delta SkyMiles? Look away if you're squeamish!
If you have 442,000 Delta SkyMiles that you're willing to set on fire to book this flight, good for you. But even if money and points are no object for you, by booking this fare, you're just telling Delta that they can continue to charge this much and take flying business class out of the equation for 99.99% of travelers.
It's not just Europe that has great Delta One alternatives, either. When crossing the Pacific Ocean, Delta One fares can reach dizzying heights.
If you want to fly lie-flat to Sydney, Australia (SYD), you can do much better than 624,700 SkyMiles! Here are all the other Australia lie-flat deals we've sent over the last few months instead:
- Cathay Pacific Business Class from 110,000 points each way (bookable with Cathay Pacific miles – transferable from Amex, Bilt, Capital One, or Citi)
- United Polaris business class from 70,000 points each way (bookable with Air Canada, United, Turkish, Avianca, or ANA – or their transfer partners)
- Qantas business class from 109,000 points each way (bookable with Qantas miles – transferable from Amex, Capital One or Citi)
- American Airlines business class from 60,000 miles each way (bookable with American AAdvantage miles)
Even when you add up how much it would cost to fly these seats roundtrip, each option is about one-seventh the cost of flying Delta One roundtrip using your SkyMiles to Australia in 2024.
There are so many incredible airlines in the world. By the rankings, there are at least 19 better than Delta. And while Delta's business class may be great, it's hard to justify spending 500,000 SkyMiles when the business class seats on airlines ranked one through four can all be booked for less than 80,000 points each way.
How to Still Get Maximum Value for Your SkyMiles
If you have a big stash of SkyMiles and your blood is boiling reading this post, this is where we get positive about your SkyMiles.
Despite what the above business class searches have shown, Delta SkyMiles are not worthless! We say it all the time, even as others in the industry refer to them as “SkyPennies” or “SkyPesos.”
Delta SkyMiles have one outsized, tremendous value: Flying economy.
That's especially the case for flying within the U.S. Over the last few months, we've sent flight deals with fares to Las Vegas (LAS), Seattle (SEA), Los Angeles (LAX), Asheville (AVL), New York City (JFK, LGA, EWR), Boston (BOS), Minneapolis (MSP) for less than 19,000 SkyMiles roundtrip. This latest deal we sent was flying to Miami (MIA) over spring break.
This deal to Miami (MIA) connected dozens of U.S. cities to South Beach for Spring Break this year. But your SkyMiles can take you even further – all the way down to Cancún (CUN) in this case!
You can burn a few SkyMiles on a nonstop trip to the beaches of Mexico, too. And you can get even more outsized value from your SkyMiles if you use them flying far, far away. Take this Sydney, Australia (SYD) deal, for instance.
Going down under with less than 80,000 SkyMiles roundtrip is about as good a SkyMile-per-actual-mile rate as you're going to get. Let your SkyMiles fuel your next economy trip for the best value.
Read more on the best ways to redeem Delta SkyMiles!
Booking Delta One with SkyMiles
Booking Delta One with Delta SkyMiles can be expensive and exceedingly hard to find. But it's not impossible – just improbable.
Here at Thrifty Traveler, we have a team of eight, full-time flight deal analysts constantly searching for Delta SkyMiles flash sales in Delta One. Pickings are slim, but if they're out there, we always find them.
Here's the latest example.
We sent this alert to Thrifty Traveler Premium members a few months back. Getting to Taipei (TPE) and back in Delta One Suites for just 146,000 SkyMiles is about as good as it gets. But deals this good with SkyMiles are so rare, we call them unicorn fares. They're not the kind of deals you can count on.
Over the last few years, we've also found flights to Tokyo-Haneda (HND) and Seoul (ICN) bookable for 85,000 SkyMiles each way. But it's been months since we've seen anything this good.
The same goes for this Delta One flight deal to Santiago (SCL) in Chile, which came in at about 70,000 SkyMiles each way. This was a stellar deal, too. We just haven't seen it return since.
Finally, over two years ago, we found this dandy. We may never see it again, but it was incredible while it lasted (for two days).
It was a nationwide sale, meaning you could book from almost every airport in the U.S. with Delta service in Delta One to Europe for 148,000 SkyMiles roundtrip. Delta actually advertised this deal as the airline desperately tried to fill seats coming out of the pandemic.
Long story short: No, it's not impossible to get outsized value from your SkyMiles to fly Delta One. But it's a losing proposition for most travelers.
Bottom Line
If you want to fly business class almost anywhere in the world, earning Delta SkyMiles is not the best strategy. Far from it.
There are many, better ways to book Delta One, fly other business classes, and get better value from your Delta SkyMiles.