How Good Are Delta Sky Mile Tickets?
Delta Airlines is one of the leading US airlines that provides both domestic and international flights. Like most other large international airlines, Delta has its own internal frequent flyer program known as SkyMiles. The SkyMiles program is a loyalty program that enables members to earn miles on flights and other products or services provided by Delta and its partners. These earned miles can be used to get free tickets and upgrades as well as flight tickets in Delta and other associate airlines. But how valuable are these SkyMile flight tickets? Let’s take a look.
What sets Delta SkyMiles apart is that its points do not expire. This means that the more you earn or redeem your SkyMiles, the better, and it is advisable to ensure you transact at least once within 24 months to keep your miles valid. This is still better than some other airline mileage programs where the miles are wiped out after 12–24 months of inactivity in the account. Whether for award redemptions or other promotions, the Delta SkyMiles program offers its members plenty of freedom in terms of earning and spending miles.
In general, Delta tickets that are bought with SkyMiles offer reasonable value. However, they do provide you with the best value fares, next to cash fares most of the time, especially when buying the Main Cabin tickets for economy class trips within the continental United States. When it comes to travel in business, first class, and Comfort+, the miles-based pricing is often more competitive than with other airlines’ reward programs. It is when you come across the SkyMiles Award Sale that the value that can be derived from the miles is immeasurable.
SkyMiles has displayed its award chart on its website showing how many miles you require for a one-way ticket in the economy, business, or first class depending on the location. This award chart can then be used to easily estimate the required number of miles for a particular redemption flight ticket. SkyMiles does not have any restricted dates for the flight tickets; hence, you have many options on the dates you wish to travel. Miles tickets may become limited nearer the travel time, especially during the holiday seasons, but they are normally well stocked for both domestic and international travel.
Another benefit of having a SkyMiles membership and sufficient miles to balance is that upgrades are another benefit of having a SkyMiles membership and sufficient miles to balance. Delta Medallion members can get free upgrades using the number of miles in an already booked flight ticket. Main Cabin passengers who have not been issued a Medallion number can also use their miles to get an upgrade to Comfort+ or First Class when making their bookings. Flight upgrades are also an excellent opportunity to use SkyMiles for those who may not have enough to redeem for an award flight ticket.
One of the things that Delta offers is great Member Rewards as part of the SkyMiles program. There are opportunities such as choosing the Miles+Cash option that provides the traveler with a chance to pay less amount of miles for the award flight in exchange for paying the rest of the amount in cash. There are also monthly double miles on Delta credit card sign-ups and SkyMiles dining and shopping portal offers. These help members accumulate miles fast for that ultimate redemption holiday.
Yes, Delta has raised the SkyMiles across multiple partner award flight redemptions; there is still potential to get a lot from the program. Domestic US, round-trip, and one-way flights of less than 700 miles can be booked through Delta Pay With Miles. You can use as few as 5,000 SkyMiles while you pay the taxes for award bookings for these short flights. This can save you good money compared to buying the ticket with the cash you have at hand in the market.
However, they have raised Delta award ticket prices for partner airlines such as Korean Air, Air France-KLM, Virgin Australia, etc., but still, booking the premium cabin partner awards, especially in business class, is considered to be a good value in the SkyMiles program. You can travel with some of the world’s best integrated first- and business-class travel companies using your SkyMiles at a slightly improved fee.
So for family travel, Delta Miles tickets can be said to be of reasonable value. Children below the age of 2 years can travel on Delta flights for free, provided they sit on an adult’s lap. Award tickets for older children between 2 and 12 years also attract cheaper miles, and you only pay for taxes for the flights. Bundled-up travelers, those who are organizing group holidays domestically or to international destinations, get more value out of their SkyMiles this way. Domestic travelers in groups of 10 or more traveling together can also get SkyMiles pricing that tends to lower the charges.
Unfortunately, Delta does not permit free stopovers or groundbreaking open jaw on international award tickets but they do allow one fee-free date change as long as the origin and destination airports are the same. This little bit of freedom enables you to change your travel dates in case of emergencies before you set off on your trip. Changing dates with other airline companies often attract a given fee.
In summary, it can be said that Delta SkyMiles are still rather valuable for frequent program participants, although there have been some changes for the worse. There are no mileage expiration, plenty of award seats in the mostly domestic economy, and reasonable redemption rates in premium cabins that every type of traveler can appreciate.
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