How many Delta miles for a free international flight?

  • Jul 18, 2024
How many Delta miles for a free international flight?

It may take a while to accumulate sufficient frequent flyer miles to cover a free international flight, but the Delta SkyMiles program makes it very possible. The Delta SkyMiles program is fair and transparent with its award charts, there are numerous ways to earn miles not only through flying but also through several other Delta partners, and there are frequent promotions that make it possible for many flyers to accumulate enough miles to get a free flight overseas.

What Are Delta SkyMiles?

Delta SkyMiles are the points that one is given when flying with Delta or its affiliated partners. Delta Airlines SkyMiles can be used to get free flights, upgrades, and many other privileges. The applicable miles required for an award flight vary based on the distance of the flight, cabin class selected (first, business, or economy) and at times based on the time/season you wish to travel. Delta has its award charts where they list down the amounts of SkyMiles needed to redeem.

A traveler who is planning for an international award flight would like to know how many miles they should be acquiring in their program to get an international award flight at a certain number of points.

For an economy-class international award flight on Delta Metal, you’ll typically need:

  • Northern South America Region (places like Colombia, and Peru): Hence, it costs approximately $40,000-$45000 for the round trip.

  • Europe Region (most countries): The one-way distance would range from 50,000 to 70,000 miles, and the round-trip distance would be approximately 100,000 to 140,000 miles.

  • Asia/India Region (places like China, Thailand, India): This trip covers between 55,000-80,000 miles round-trip.

  • Middle East Region (Dubai, Israel): Region: 62,500-90,000 roundtrip

    It may also be important to note that, when you are booking a business class award ticket then the mileage required is much higher, often above 100, 000 miles for round-trip travel. Converting to business class starts at a cheaper value of between 44,000-88,000 roundtrip for miles.

    Scooping first-class awards is extremely rare and even when they are available, they always come with steep required mileage of more than 300,000 SkyMiles.

    Of course, as you can tell from the above, Delta does not have a single fixed mileage number for international award flights. Thus, it depends on the routing, demand, cabin class, and many other factors at an average level of $0. 01 to $0. 03 per ASK. It is advisable to visit Delta’s interface for the award redemption to get a clear idea of the current range of miles pricing.

    Strategies to Earn Miles

    The actualization of earning free SkyMiles for a flight requires the accumulation of enough SkyMiles through the various activities the airline has set out as a means of accumulating SkyMiles.

    Here are some of the best ways:

    Fly Frequently with Delta, Of course, accumulating miles while flying frequently with Delta will add the flight miles within a short span. Wine lovers, who frequently fly for business purposes on Delta, are eligible to achieve elite status levels to earn more bonus miles while flying. Leisure travelers possibly occasional in nature may require other earning strategies in addition to the Delta flights.

    You must be a Delta SkyMiles Credit Card Member With a co-branded Delta SkyMiles credit card from American Express you can make a high amount of miles from typical spending very easily. Credit card promotions such as the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card give fifty thousand bonus miles when you meet these minimum spending thresholds. The spending on the card then earns between 2-3 % miles per dollar on Delta purchases and 1-2% miles on other purchases. Even the occasional and moderate use of it can accrue thousands of miles per year.

    More to the point of exploiting the partners and promotions that are available. Rather than thinking of Delta flights and the Delta card only, make sure to take advantage of other partners and bonus points. Delta works with a wide range of hotels, car rental companies, Lyft, Airbnb, and others – all of which allow earning SkyMiles for travel and other activities. Sometimes they also offer a limited-time offer to gain more bonus miles through taking many surveys, eating at restaurants, shopping online, etc.

    Transfer Points from Amex If you’re using a Membership Rewards-earning card from American Express such as the American Express® Gold Card or The Platinum Card® from American Express, the points can be easily transferred to Delta SkyMiles at a rate of 1:1. For those who have already already been using American Express cards, this is a convenient way to add to your Delta miles.

    Buy Miles During Sales, However, when Delta has buy miles for less than 1-2 cents each deal people can take advantage of the sale to add more miles to their account. Simply do not buy any miles at the same price at which ‘miles’ would cost you for it is generally not a wise thing to do.

    Is it Worth it to Use Your ‘Miles’ for International Flights?

    A typical question that is asked is whether it is more efficient to redeem the miles on a long international flight that can be more cheaply flown on a domestic flight in the United States. As with any approach, there are advantages and disadvantages, but the key is the goals of redemption that are significant to you.

    It is true that if all one wants from a frequent flyer program is to score as many free flights as possible, all at the lowest cost possible, then yes, the domestic economy awards are usually the best value per mile. But if your key priority is to travel overseas in a premium cabin without spending too much then it is worth it to focus on mileage redemptions.

    Cashing in an award for an international business or first class may cost you tens of thousands of dollars and booking an award will give it a perceived value. This has a bearing on the fact that getting to enjoy the luxuries of comfortable and quality service on long journeys may be worth sacrificing going on more trips for. The majority of frequent fliers do not factor in their decision miles mostly to get the very best mathematical rate of return, but to make certain kinds of journeys happen as well as get a good overall rate of return.

    Another approach is to use a combination of domestic and international awards as these may provide maximum value while offering distinct experiences. Book in miles for the long flights, say across the oceans and then use cash for more frequent domestic flights. This allows for the optimization of the different legs of a round differently.

    Bottom Line

    But how many Delta miles are required to get a free international flight, if ever, will still depend on the destination and class preference. This means that the award prices go from as low as 40,000 miles for an economy-class ticket going up to over 300,000 miles for a first-class ticket. That may sound like quite a lot of miles, and it is, but it can be achieved by flying Delta often, having a Delta credit card, signing up for special offers and partnerships, transferring Amex points, etc. As long as people take their time to plan their strategies over the next 1-3 years, they can easily gain enough miles for mind-blowing overseas experiences.

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