I think Delta is a good airline. People choose to fly Delta because their techops manages to keep the airline running on-time and without cancelling as many flights as competitors despite older planes. And they choose to fly Delta because their inflight product is a little better and flight attendants a little friendlier and more helpful.
It makes sense to fly Delta if you live in Atlanta or the Upper Midwest, as well. However anyone who chooses Delta because they think SkyMiles is a better program than competitor frequent flyer programs, though, is in my humble opinion insane.
Nonetheless it’s still possible to get value out of the SkyMiles program and it’s worth highlighting when you’re able to get saver business class award space using those miles. The bizarre thing is that the price of even saver space varies widely on Delta, although sometimes that rebounds to your benefit.
In March and April you’ll find great business class saver award availability for four passengers on the Boston – London Heathrow route using Delta SkyMiles.
There’s good available from New York JFK to London for four passengers in business class in April as well.
If you’re looking for just two seats, New York – London is good January through April.
Note that you’re seeing great space on these charts both at the 75,000 mile level and the 86,000 mile level. Both are saver award business class one way prices. 75,000 is for Virgin Atlantic business class, while 86,000 is for Delta flights.
Now 86,000 miles is a 72% price increase over the last 5 years. Delta claims to offer a revenue-based program but cash prices haven’t risen, they only go up in their own hyperinflating private currency. Delta charges more miles than competitors here, but if you’re looking for decent uses of Delta miles this is one.
Remember though that you do not want to use SkyMiles for one way tickets originating in Europe or you’ll be hit with fuel surcharges. So book your US-Europe itineraries as roundtrips.
and how do you get to NYC or BOS?
for example what does a DTW or ORD flyer do?
And how much would it cost?
Delta the airline is good except for the $$$$$$
Skymiles the program sucks now
Does Virgin let you tack on the domestic leg for no additional? How can you even know if it’s available?
Maybe the hoops are good cuz keeps the kettles from finding value?
I don’t know if anything is worth the hassle
And the damn APD
As with all the programs, there are sweet spots. Delta had some mileage breaks on various routes. I see some terrible routes offered by American especially to Europe. They are not always so generous with award space unless they try to stick you with British Airways and huge surcharges. At the current time it only matters if you can accrue the miles and be flexible in booking tickets for the routes you want.
The most noteworthy thing about this post is that Delta sometimes charges 280,000 miles one-way?! This is precisely the reason why I don’t fly Delta — I’d love to, they run a good airline, but their loyalty program is abysmal.