Travelers love their Delta SkyMiles, but one thing's for sure: The airline doesn't always make it easy to use Delta SkyMiles well.
Understanding SkyMiles can be a chore because Delta stopped publishing an award chart years ago. So without that cheat sheet that tells you how many miles you should spend to fly from point A to point B, prices change constantly. And the airline has given members rude reminders of that fact by drastically increasing award rates to book partner airlines, sky-high prices to book business class abroad, and stingy basic economy award tickets spreading worldwide.
For many travelers and even diehard Delta fans, the state of Delta SkyMiles is sad. But there are some important factors to keep in mind to make sure you're using your SkyMiles wisely.
Follow these tips, and you'll be set.
Use the Price Calendar
Many airlines have award charts that can tell you how many miles you'll need to book any flight. Delta isn't one of them.
That means the amount of SkyMiles you need to book a flight is often unpredictable, swinging wildly day by day. So how can you ensure you're getting a good deal?
The key is to use Delta's price calendar and/or five-week search function. This allows you to look at prices for – you guessed it – five weeks' worth of flights. This option should show up after you've started your initial search.
Scroll through a few months, and you'll start to get a good sense of what the normal price is. That way you can ensure you're getting the best deal possible – and not getting hosed by booking a day too early or too late. This price calendar feature is invaluable for ensuring you're not overpaying on any flight, like these roundtrip fares from New York City (JFK) to Bogota (BOG).
As you can see, shifting by just a day or two can be the difference between paying 32,000 SkyMiles and 42,000 SkyMiles – or even 52,000 or more!
Read our guide to finding and booking the best Delta SkyMiles deals!
Avoid Delta Hubs When You Can
It may seem counterintuitive, but odds are you're going to overpay if you're flying from one of Delta's hubs.
Whether you're departing from Atlanta (ATL), Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP), Detroit (DTW), or Salt Lake City (SLC), you'll often miss out on the lowest rates when using your SkyMiles.
We call it the Delta Hub Penalty. Delta flyers are loyal, and Delta knows it. When they don’t have options for a flight on other airlines – as is often the case with flights from its major hubs – Delta can charge more. And that's exactly what they do.
As an example, let's look at flights from Seattle (SEA) to Salt Lake City (SLC), a Delta hub. A roundtrip award will typically clock in for at least 14,000 SkyMiles … if not much more.
Meanwhile, the longer flight from Seattle to Denver (DEN) – a United hub – is easy to book for just 10,000 SkyMiles.
That's just one example, but the same principle holds up for almost any flight you book with SkyMiles – domestic or international. So what's the solution?
You can often save some serious SkyMiles by departing from another airport – especially on international flight deals. For example, on a recent SkyMiles flash sale on flights to Cancún (CUN), the best deal out of Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) was … somewhere in the neighborhood of 50,000 SkyMiles. But by popping over to Chicago-O'Hare (ORD), that dropped to 18,000 SkyMiles.
It's always worth checking out neighboring airports and hub airports from other airlines. Even after adding in a connecting flight, you may still come out ahead.
Watch for SkyMiles Flash Sales
While Delta's confusing, dynamic pricing system is frustrating, there's a tremendous upside: Delta SkyMiles flash sales.
Untethered from an award chart, Delta is free to slash SkyMiles award rates as it pleases. And the result is some screaming hot deals that are easily the best way to use your Delta SkyMiles. They sometimes publish available sales on their site, but many of the best deals are never advertised. Either way, we're constantly searching for unpublished flash sales and sending them to our Thrifty Traveler Premium members.
These amazing deals disappeared a year ago or so … but they've made a comeback lately. It doesn't get much better than this.
Want more award alerts like this one? Try out Thrifty Traveler Premium!
SkyMiles can be frustrating, but this is where they shine. While most airlines charge 60,000 miles or more for roundtrip flights to Europe, Delta briefly slashed award rates as low as 25,000 SkyMiles! And that's just one of the stellar recent deals we've seen:
But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Here’s a quick recap of some of the best SkyMiles we’ve seen over the last year or so:
- How about one of the best SkyMiles flash sales of all time: Just 37,000 SkyMiles to fly all the way to Auckland (AKL) this year!
- You can always count on a great deal to Maui (OGG) and other Hawaiian islands, with roundtrip fares from across the country this summer and fall starting as low as 21,200 SkyMiles!
- Even Delta One business class flash sales are back, like Taipei (TPE) in Delta One suites for just 83,000 SkyMiles, Seoul (ICN) for 110,000 SkyMiles, Australia from 123,000 SkyMiles each way, and more!
- We also saw fares to Cancùn (CUN) tumble as low as 9,000 SkyMiles roundtrip!
We could go on and on and on. There have been so many of these outstanding Delta SkyMiles flash sales over the years. We're just hoping this trend keeps up, as they're easily the best way to use your SkyMiles.
Read more: Got SkyMiles? Delta One Business Class Deals are Back
Focus on Domestic Flights
While we generally warn travelers against using their miles for short domestic flights, it's a sweet spot with Delta. And even when there isn't a hot SkyMiles flash sale, you can regularly snag a good deal with SkyMiles.
Shorter routes are fairly easy to find for roughly 10,000 SkyMiles roundtrip. Flights shorter than 750 miles seem to be easiest to snag at this price, but even some longer flights make the cut. Be sure to book well ahead of your flight to ensure the lowest-priced SkyMiles award space is available.
For all the faults of Delta SkyMiles, you'll rarely find roundtrip domestic flights this cheap through other airline programs. Booking a cheap domestic flight for just a few thousand miles is one of the best you can make with SkyMiles.
Check out our roundup of the cheapest domestic SkyMiles deals we've found lately!
Use Flying Blue Miles Instead
We've had a rule for years here at Thrifty Traveler: When Delta is charging a boatload of SkyMiles, look at Virgin Atlantic. Sadly, after decimating sweet spots and devaluing others, those days are over.
But don't despair. There's another workaround to book Delta flights for less: Use Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles instead. You'll use far fewer miles than booking with SkyMiles – and with the ability to transfer credit card points from all the major banks to Flying Blue, they're even easier to earn.
First, some basics. While Delta's pricing jumps all over the place based largely on the cash price, Air France/KLM Flying Blue award rates is much more stable for booking Delta flights. Generally speaking, the longer your Delta flight, the more Flying Blue miles you may need to book it:
- Short one-way Delta flights will cost you as low as 6,500 miles – though sometimes, closer to 15,000 miles each way.
- Flights to Hawaii and back start at roughly 37,000 miles roundtrip from the West Coast to as much as 55,000 miles or more roundtrip from the Midwest and East Coast
- Trips to Mexico and the Caribbean with Delta will typically cost you 30,000 to 40,000 miles roundtrip
- Flying Blue is now the best way to book Delta One business class to Europe (at least when you can find the award space to actually book it) with rates starting from 64,000 miles and just $10 or so in taxes and fees
Read more: This is Now the Best Workaround to Book Delta Flights for Fewer Points
Let's look at an example of just how powerful this workaround is.
For a roundtrip flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Honolulu (HNL) this winter, you'd need to fork over more than 100,000 SkyMiles. Ouch.
But by searching and booking through Flying Blue instead, you can book those exact same flights to Hawaii for as low as 55,000 Flying Blue miles roundtrip and about $60 in taxes and fees. That's right: The same trip for early half the points!
Once a sweet spot for booking Delta One for fewer points, Virgin Atlantic recently raised award rates and added a cash surcharge of more than $1,000 on each and every Delta business class redemption to Europe. Air France/KLM Flying Blue, meanwhile, still charges low cash fees on top of your miles.
While finding availability on any of Delta's nonstop routes from Europe can be a challenge, we recently alerted our Thrifty Traveler Premium members to multiple deals flying Delta One from New York (JFK) to London-Heathrow Airport (LHR) for just 63,5000 miles one-way.
That's right: Taxes and fees are just $10 one-way or around $333 roundtrip – drastically lower than the $1,000-plus in fees you'd pay to fly Delta One to Europe each way using Virgin points. And you'll pay even lower fees when flying to other cities in Europe, like Amsterdam or Dublin.
Read next: The Best Ways to Book Delta One Business Class for Fewer Points
You can't transfer your Delta SkyMiles over to an Air France/KLM account, unfortunately. But it's easy to get the Flying Blue miles you need: They're a Chase transfer partner, Amex transfer partner, Capital One transfer partner, a Citi transfer partner, and even a Bilt transfer partner and Wells Fargo transfer partner, too. That means you can instantly transfer points from cards like the *chase sapphire preferred*, the *amex gold*, or the *venture x* straight to a Flying Blue account to get the points you need to book.
It turns out, sometimes the most valuable way to use your SkyMiles is to not use them at all.
Wanna Fly Biz Class? Focus Elsewhere
Read our lips: SkyMiles are not worthless. But there's one major reason why you might have heard that from other sites and travel influencers: They're focused solely on top-dollar business class redemptions.
And they're not exactly wrong about that. If your primary goal is scoring a lie-flat business class seat, Delta SkyMiles are … not great! And that's putting it lightly.
Consider this:
- Booking a Delta One flight using your SkyMiles now regularly costs 300,000 SkyMiles or more each way to Europe … and much more to Asia or Australia.
- Just a few years ago, booking a one-way to Europe in Air France business class or other partner airlines was 75,000 SkyMiles. Today, those same seats now match whatever Delta is charging for its own flights, meaning they'll now cost at least 300,000 SkyMiles – or much, much more.
- Delta also decimated a sweet spot to fly partner carriers to the Middle East for 85,000 SkyMiles each way. After another devaluation, those regularly top 300,000 SkyMiles now, too.
- A workaround to book cheaper business class awards by starting (or ending) your trip down in Mexico has also been eliminated.
Slowly but surely, Delta has eliminated all the once-reliable redemptions and workarounds to squeeze outsized value out of SkyMiles for top-dollar business class redemptions.
We've seen a recent resurgence of great Delta One SkyMiles flash sales, though those are still relatively few and far between. And you can find decent rates on business class cabins when traveling wholly outside the U.S., like between Europe and Asia.
But the overall trend is clear: If flying business class is at the top of your list, earning Delta SkyMiles shouldn’t be.
Check out some better ways to book business class flights than using SkyMiles.
Book Round Trip, Not One-Ways
While the flexibility of booking one-way flights can be nice, it will cost you with SkyMiles.
With few exceptions – particularly for domestic flights and other short-haul trips like , Delta almost always charges more for booking one-way flights rather than a roundtrip itinerary. Even when you're booking the exact same flights separately, it can cost you substantially more.
For example, take a look at these flights from New York City (JFK) to Athens (ATH) we found a while back. Booking Delta's nonstop flight to Greece would have cost a whopping 120,000 SkyMiles one-way.
But if you booked that exact same flight as part of a roundtrip itinerary, the whole trip dropped to just 32,000 SkyMiles. In this example, you could book three roundtrip flights to Greece for the cost of a single one-way flight!
It's an extreme example, but that pattern plays out again and again across almost any SkyMiles award booking – especially long-haul trips. If you can, book a roundtrip flight – it will save you SkyMiles.
Avoid Booking Last Minute
Without an award chart, Delta SkyMiles function much like cash prices for a flight. And much like when you're using cash, rates can skyrocket in the final two or three weeks before departure.
Look at the next month's worth of flights from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Las Vegas (LAS), and that much is clear. In this case, booking at least a few weeks in advance could be the difference between using just 17,000 SkyMiles roundtrip … or more than double that amount.
Lesson learned: It pays to plan ahead when using your SkyMiles.
Get a Delta Credit Card
These days, having a Delta credit card in your wallet is less about earning SkyMiles and more about unlocking benefits when you fly Delta: free checked bags, Delta companion certificates, and Delta Sky Club access.
But one cardholder benefit is key to book Delta flights for fewer SkyMiles. It's called TakeOff 15, a fairly new perk introduced for most SkyMiles credit cardholders back in early 2023. It provides an automatic 15% discount on award tickets when redeeming SkyMiles for any and all Delta-operated award flights. And Delta cardholders can get that discount an unlimited amount of times.
This benefit couldn't be any simpler: You'll see the discounted price automatically applied when logged into your SkyMiles account and searching for award flights. The discount even applies to additional passengers in your travel party, meaning the savings can add up in a hurry if you're using your SkyMiles to book flights for a group. Unfortunately, this discount is only available to the primary cardholder – authorized users on your card won't get a 15% discount of their own.
To get the discount, you'll just need to have a Delta credit card open and attached to your account. From the *delta skymiles gold card* to the *delta skymiles platinum card* to the top-tier *delta reserve card*, almost any card will do – only the no-annual fee *delta blue* misses the cut.
But if getting the most out of your SkyMiles is your top priority, getting that 15% discount every time you book a Delta flight is key.
Bottom Line
Delta SkyMiles are easy to use, but harder to use well. Follow these tips and you'll be traveling like a pro in no time.