How To Avoic Delta Surcharge With Mileage Ticket?

How to Avoid Delta Surcharges with Mileage Tickets

Delta Airlines is considered to have one of the highest surcharges on award tickets when paid using miles, with the fees starting at $500$ on some global routes. These are sneaky fees that can greatly reduce just how much you’re able to gain when using your well-earned Delta SkyMiles.

The good news is that there are a few tricks frequent flyers can use to get around or minimize these bothersome surcharges when redeeming miles for Delta flights. By getting a little more creative and preparing a bit in advance, you can accumulate SkyMiles and avoid those outrageous fees.

Understand Delta's Surcharge Rules

First, it is useful to know about the surcharge policies of Delta Airways. As of now, Delta does not include fuel surcharges on its award tickets for flights originating within the continental United States. You will only need to pay fractional taxes and fees, often less than $20 each way.

However, Delta often adds massive carrier-imposed surcharges to the award tickets for most of the intercontinental routes, particularly Europe, Asia, and Australia. These surcharges are designed to help airlines recover the cost of offering an award seat. The prices depend on the selected destination, but it can be anywhere from $100 to over $500 for a round-trip in some of the premium cabins.

Delta also recently has eradicated award charts and went to a dynamic model for using miles for awards. Now, award prices can vary up or down based on cash fare prices; the concept of fixed award levels no longer applies. This means that when the cash fares are higher, your miles are less valuable in comparison, which reduces their worth when redeemed.

Partner AirlinPhilippines to Avoid Fees

From experience, the only way to avoid Delta surcharges is if you fly on the partner airlines through SkyTeam and you get to book award tickets. Most SkyTeam members like Air France, KLM, Aeromexico, etc do not add scandalous carrier charges to award tickets as Delta does.

When it comes to using Delta miles, your options are not limited to Delta flights only, as you can redeem your Delta miles for flights operated by any of Delta’s 20+ partners. However, the pricing and the surcharges will depend on that particular carrier’s policies. Most European carriers are subject to small taxes only while flying partners in Asia would involve $100+ in surcharges.

However, the only drawback is that options of its availability are not as flexible compared to Delta flights. You completely rely on the award space of a particular partner. However, if you book as far as possible in advance and are willing to change routings, booking partners without high fees is one of the most effective ways to avoid surcharges.

Pass through destinations with low fares associated with them

Another strategy is to route yourself through the hubs of the airlines that have relatively low carrier surcharges. When connecting to Europe, it is better to avoid Paris on Air France or Amsterdam on KLM because of the painful extra charges, while connecting through London Heathrow on Delta-operated flights is full of charges.

It can also mean fewer surcharges to fly through Seoul on Korean Air instead of Tokyo on Delta metal from North America. Mainly for premium cabin awards, always consider partner hubs and creative connections to minimize the fees, sometimes exceeding $500 in some instances.

Stick to Economy Seating

In most cases, carriers that belong to Delta place more carrier-imposed surcharges on award tickets for partners with higher cabins of service. Delta One business class awards have agonizing fees, while many Main Cabin economy fares do not have surcharges besides government taxes.

When booking an international partner award, you may think twice before paying extra for a premium seat with a lower cash fare, but fee increases are higher. On some occasions, you can comfortably travel at a lesser fare as compared to business class if your main aim is to avoid those hefty surcharges.

Consider Close-in Booking

Delta just changed its partner award pricing strategy along with its new dynamic SkyMiles program. Now, last-minute partner awards made 21 days or less before departure cost fewer miles than before.

Sometimes, although the cash fares may be slightly more expensive, the close-in award rates make your miles more valuable. And when ‘cash prices’ are lower at the minute, your booking through partners may automatically price out lower without painful ‘surcharges’ too.

It is somewhat risky and depends on your starting point, your destination, and the time of travel. However, for the more open-minded ticket seekers, frequent visits at the partner flight check can show that there are better redemptions with fewer or no fees on some routes.

Fly During Off-Peak Dates

Another simple way to avoid painful Delta surcharges is by flying during the Delta’s shoulder and off-peak travel seasons. Delta has a dynamic award pricing system, so if you want to redeem your points during summer or any other holiday season, you are likely to pay a high price.

Traveling in the fall, winter, or spring, however, means you can often find lower-priced awards on Delta or its partners. Reducing the cash fares also means reducing the mileage costs. Any carrier surcharges that may be embedded in the fares should also automatically reduce with the lower ticket price since they are percentages of base fares.

Check Award Pricing Frequently

Remember that award tickets on Delta and SkyTeam partners can sometimes be cheaper and sometimes more expensive. Unlike the old fixed charts, which provided costs throughout the year, costs vary each day depending on cash fares, demand, and other secret sauce pricing aspects.

If you ever find unpleasant surcharges one time, avoid searching for them at that specific time again. Surcharges of more than $500 have been found to fall to $100 for the same route within a week due to the dynamic pricing system used by Delta. A lot of persistence and frequent monitoring can bring out drops that make the high fees more manageable.

Consider Booking One-Ways

The final suggestion I have is to try to book your travel as two one-way awards rather than a round-trip ticket. However, this is not true all the time, especially with big gaps in the base fares and carriers, flying, and cash fares; it can be cheaper to book two one-way tickets as the taxes and surcharges are relatively lower.

One should only focus on stopovers and open jaws allowed on one-way tickets to avoid incurring an extra charge. Given no restrictions on building legal one-way tickets on both segments, this strategy can sometimes help them avoid high roundtrip surcharges.

The Takeaway

Thus, while Delta appears keen on destroying the value of SkyMiles awards through absurdly high carrier surcharges, there are ways to avoid the worst of these nasty fees through partner awards, imaginative routings, and the like. It is possible to get a lot of value out of the program if you are a bit strategic and keep your mind open with your bookings.

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