Everyone with Delta SkyMiles (including yours truly) has felt it at some point: You have plenty of SkyMiles to use but everywhere you look, Delta is asking you to flush away an exorbitant sum … just to fly basic economy.
That's the rub with Delta SkyMiles and its dynamic award pricing. With award rates that change by the minute and routinely sky-high rates to book business class, getting a deal can be tough. You might see flights to San Francisco for something like 50,000 SkyMiles roundtrip or a Delta One business class fare to Europe north of 400,000 SkyMiles each way.
But there's an upside: Delta SkyMiles flash sales. While eye-popping rates might feel like the norm, the airline is also constantly slashing award rates on flights to destinations near and far. They're the best way to use your Delta SkyMiles – by far.
We're looking for these excellent sales all the time for our Thrifty Traveler Premium subscribers – and finding them all the time, too. And while a killer sale can pop up to virtually any destination around the globe, a few spots stand out for routinely offering great redemptions.
Domestic Flights, from 4K RT
The most reliable way to use your Delta SkyMiles for maximum value is to book Delta's domestic flash sales.
At least once a week, we dig up unadvertised flash sales to destinations all over the U.S. How cheap can domestic flights get? Well, while you still might see some exorbitantly expensive Delta redemptions, we're regularly finding roundtrip flights for under 15,000 SkyMiles … and sometimes, less than half that!
Delta is sneaky about these deals – unlike in years past, Delta rarely publicly announces its best sales anymore – but we always catch them anyway. Here are a few examples, including the sunniest of all states: Florida.
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Just a few days ago, we rounded up all the nonstop flight deals to Florida we could find. In fact, almost all Delta's nonstop flights down to Florida were suddenly on sale at incredibly low rates. It's not an unusual occurrence, either: We find Florida SkyMiles deals about five to six times per year!
But if you're based on the West Coast and want a little sun, your best bet is turning to the desert instead. If you live around Seattle (SEA), it might only cost you 4,200 SkyMiles roundtrip to make that possible.
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That's a stunning deal. Heck, you might have 4,200 SkyMiles in your account and not even know it! That's a couple's trip to Phoenix (PHX) for 8,400 SkyMiles roundtrip. A family of four? Only 16,800 SkyMiles! Bring the grandparents, too? Just 25,200 SkyMiles!
To go any higher is where we bump up against my math limitations … but you get the point. And Phoenix isn't the only destination where we regularly find dirt-cheap domestic rates from the Pacific Northwest.
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This flight deal above is a list of flights to Seattle (SEA) and Portland (PDX). Best of all, all these fares work in reverse, too!
And back on the East Coast, there's still a lot to love about these nonstop flights under 8,000 SkyMiles roundtrip from Nashville (BNA) to New York (LGA) – or in reverse, too!
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Use those SkyMiles to hop around the U.S. and you won't be sorry – or out too many SkyMiles, either!
Europe, from 23K RT
If domestic deals are the most frequent, SkyMiles flash sales to Europe are a close runner-up.
Time and time and time again, we're finding and sending dirt-cheap transatlantic SkyMiles deals to our Thrifty Traveler Premium members. Forget forking over 80,000 miles or more to get to Europe and back: If you time it right, you can get there for under 30,000 SkyMiles total.
Here's one of our latest finds.
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We find deals like this one four, five, even six times a year, almost always offering sub-40,000-SkyMile rates. And not just from the big hubs like New York City (JFK) and Boston (BOS), but from airports big and small all around the country!
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This recent deal included fares below 30,000 SkyMiles roundtrip. Just a few days later, we saw the prices from Boston (BOS) and New York City (JFK) drop into the 23,000s roundtrip!
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If you want a lie-flat Delta One seat across the pond, those deals are exceedingly rare. Last year, we found roundtrip fares sunk under 200,000 SkyMiles.
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Tokyo, from 37K RT
Even though seemingly everyone you know is traveling to Japan right now, somehow, Delta SkyMiles fares to Tokyo-Haneda (HND) keep dropping.
It may sound counterintuitive because travel demand to Tokyo is so high. But if you're willing to make your way across the Pacific Ocean in the fall or winter, you can find fares like these during a flash sale.
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This nearly nationwide sale to Tokyo is exactly why Delta SkyMiles can be so valuable. Many of these flights cost $800, $1,000, or even more roundtrip, making this a stellar use of SkyMiles.
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And if you hold a Delta SkyMiles American Express Card, you get the TakeOff15 benefit: An automatic 15% discount when booking Delta flights with SkyMiles. That brought the lowest fare we sent to Thrifty Traveler Premium members all the way down to 37,000 SkyMiles roundtrip.
Australia & New Zealand, from 37K RT
Some of the longest flights in Delta's network are also some of the cheapest if you book with SkyMiles.
As airlines have added flight after flight to the Land Down Under (and especially New Zealand), competition to ferry U.S. travelers there is fierce. That has driven down SkyMiles rates consistently, resulting in some remarkably cheap Delta deals like this one.
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This first screenshot is to Sydney (SYD), where you can snag roundtrip fares for 66,000 SkyMiles in some cases! But few airports down that way have benefitted from Delta deals more than Auckland (AKL) in New Zealand, including this best-ever fare from a while back.
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While that one was easily among the best SkyMiles flash sales of all time, discounted deals down to Auckland just keep coming. Here's another recent find.
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Both are incredible deals, and Los Angeles (LAX)-based flyers got the best of it – with roundtrip fares coming in at 37,400 and $86 in taxes and fees! That's a ridiculous value. It might cost L.A. flyers more to get to New York!
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Getting a great deal on Delta One business class using SkyMiles is a tall order these days, but Australia has been a surprising exception – especially on the airline's relatively new route to Brisbane (BNE). Delta has routinely swooped in with this kind of sizzling sale of 150,000 SkyMiles for a one-way in lie-flat seats.
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Fly Delta One to Taiwan, from 83K
We have a ground rule here: If you want to fly business class, forget about earning Delta SkyMiles. But rules were made to be broken.
Seattle (SEA) to Taipei, Taiwan (TPE) is one of Delta's newest long-haul routes to Asia. It launched last year and we immediately started seeing some insane deals. They haven't stopped.
If you want to book a business class seat to Asia using your SkyMiles, it doesn't get any better than this.
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We've found a half-dozen deals just like this one over just the last year or so. There's also the occasional Delta One SkyMiles deal to Seoul (ICN), but Taipei is the way to go if you want a bargain on lie-flat seats with your SkyMiles.
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But it's not just Delta One where discounts using SkyMiles are readily available. For economy flyers, Delta slashed fares, too: Just 30,000 SkyMiles roundtrip to fly to Asia is still hard to imagine, but here it is.
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With the 15% discount, you could have snagged these fares for 25,400 SkyMiles roundtrip!
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Mexico & the Caribbean, from 11K RT
Finally, Delta's Mexico and Caribbean network also benefits from some lucrative flash sales. Almost once a month, we find Delta running hugely discounted flights to the sunny beaches of the Gulf and Pacific.
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That New York City (JFK) to Cancún (CUN) nonstop deal above is a great example, coming in at just 16,000 miles roundtrip after the 15% cardholder discount. Yet it got even cheaper on the West Coast: under 12,000 SkyMiles to fly from Seattle to Puerto Vallarta (PVR) and back!
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We see travelers in almost all airports with Delta service benefit from these big sales. This flash sale to Tulum (TQO) was a boon for travelers all over the country with a stash of SkyMiles, for instance.
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And if you want to hit the Caribbean islands instead, we've seen plenty of flash sales to Nassau (NAS), Turks & Caicos (PLS), and more! Just a few weeks ago, we found these nonstop fares to the islands of the Caribbean all under 28,000 roundtrip!
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Bottom Line
If you're having trouble getting good value for your Delta SkyMiles, odds are that you're not looking in the right place.
From Melbourne to Miami to Mexico and beyond, your SkyMiles can still take you far if you time it right with one of these big (and frequent) flash sales. If flying Delta One is your dream, your best bet is easily Taipei (TPE).
As always, our Thrifty Traveler Premium members are always alerted to these deals first so they can make their SkyMiles work for them for a trip this year or next.