Delta is running a domestic economy (and extra legroom seating) award sale. At least they tell us it’s a sale, which means there are regular prices, even though Delta hides what those regular prices are (“an ignorant customer is their best customer”).
Even without an award sale Delta may prices domestic awards as low as 5000 miles one-way, though even that isn’t always a good value since they tend to cherry pick routes offering availability when a paid ticket might be as low as $69 (and thus you get less than 1.4 cents per mile in value).
For this sale:
- Purchase By July 18, 2016
- Travel between August 23 and February 10, 2017
- September 1-6, November 17-28, and December 14-January 3 are blacked out for all routes. In addition there are route-specific blackout dates:
Between Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN (MSP) and Phoenix, AZ (PHX)
October 6 – October 10, 2016Between Los Angeles, CA (LAX) and Kansas City, MO (MCI)
October 20 – October 24, 2016Between Fort Lauderdale, FL (FLL) and Raleigh-Durham, NC (RDU)
October 13 – October 17, 2016Between Atlanta, GA (ATL) and Chicago, IL (MDW)
October 6 – October 17, 2016Between Detroit, MI (DTW) and San Francisco, CA (SFO)
October 6 – October 17, 2016
October 20 – October 24, 2016 - Must book online at delta.com
- Though the purchase by and travel by dates already account for this, Delta also stipulates 3 week advance purchase required.
Here are the advertised sample city pairs and one-way prices: (though many other cities — “8000+ routes” which is a bit of a marketing stretch — may be on sale)
|
FROM |
TO |
MAIN CABIN AWARD TICKETS* |
DELTA COMFORT+ AWARD TICKETS* |
|||
| (ONE WAY) | (ONE WAY) | |||||
|
Atlanta, GA (ATL) |
Chicago-Midway, IL (MDW) |
5,000 miles |
9,000 miles |
|||
|
Atlanta, GA (ATL) |
Kansas City, MO (MCI) |
10,000 miles |
14,000 miles |
|||
|
Austin, TX (AUS) |
Los Angeles, CA (LAX) |
9,000 miles |
13,000 miles |
|||
|
Boston, MA (BOS) |
Raleigh-Durham, NC (RDU) |
7,500 miles |
11,500 miles |
|||
|
Cincinnati, OH (CVG) |
Chicago, IL (CHI) |
10,000 miles |
14,000 miles |
|||
|
Cincinnati, OH (CVG) |
Las Vegas, NV (LAS) |
11,000 miles |
15,000 miles |
|||
|
Columbus, OH (CMH) |
Los Angeles, CA (LAX) |
11,000 miles |
15,000 miles |
|||
|
Chicago-Midway, IL (MDW) |
Minneapolis, MN (MSP) |
5,000 miles |
9,000 miles |
|||
|
Charleston, SC (CHS) |
New York-Kennedy, NY (JFK) |
7,500 miles |
11,500 miles |
|||
|
Denver, CO (DEN) |
Salt Lake City, UT (SLC) |
10,000 miles |
14,000 miles |
|||
|
Detroit, MI (DTW) |
San Francisco, CA (SFO) |
11,000 miles |
15,000 miles |
|||
|
Fort Lauderdale, FL (FLL) |
Raleigh-Durham, NC (RDU) |
9,500 miles |
13,500 miles |
|||
|
Fort Lauderdale, FL (FLL) |
New York-Kennedy, NY (JFK) |
7,500 miles |
11,500 miles |
|||
|
Jacksonville, FL (JAX) |
New York-LaGuardia, NY (LGA) |
7,500 miles |
11,500 miles |
|||
|
Los Angeles, CA (LAX) |
Kansas City, MO (MCI) |
9,000 miles |
13,000 miles |
|||
|
Los Angeles, CA (LAX) |
Portland, OR (PDX) |
7,000 miles |
11,000 miles |
|||
|
Long Beach, CA (LGB) |
Salt Lake City, UT (SLC) |
7,500 mile |
11,500 miles |
|||
|
Los Angeles, CA (LAX) |
Salt Lake City, UT (SLC) |
10,000 miles |
14,000 miles |
|||
|
Las Vegas, NV (LAS) |
Seattle, WA (SEA) |
7,000 miles |
11,000 miles |
|||
|
Los Angeles, CA (LAX) |
Seattle, WA (SEA) |
7,000 miles |
11,000 miles |
|||
|
Minneapolis, MN (MSP) |
Phoenix, AZ (PHX) |
10,000 miles |
14,000 miles |
|||
|
New York-LaGuardia, NY (LGA) |
Milwaukee, WI (MKE) |
5,500 miles |
9,500 miles |
|||
|
New York-Kennedy, NY (JFK) |
New Orleans, LA (MSY) |
10,000 miles |
14,000 miles |
|||
|
Nashville, TN (BNA) |
New York-LaGuardia, NY (LGA) |
10,000 miles |
14,000 miles |
|||
|
New York-Kennedy, NY (JFK) |
Savannah, GA (SAV) |
7,500 miles |
11,500 miles |
|||
|
Oakland, CA (OAK) |
Salt Lake City, UT (SLC) |
7,500 miles |
11,500 miles |
|||
|
Phoenix, AZ (PHX) |
Seattle, WA (SEA) |
7,000 miles |
11,000 miles |
|||
|
Raleigh-Durham, NC (RDU) |
Tampa, FL (TPA) |
9,500 miles |
13,500 miles |
|||
|
Salt Lake City, UT (SLC) |
Sacramento, CA (SMF) |
10,000 miles |
14,000 miles |
|||
|
San Francisco, CA (SFO) |
Salt Lake City, UT (SLC) |
7,500 miles |
11,500 miles |
|||
At the upper end of value, Chicago Midway – Atlanta is on sale for 5000 miles (and tax of $5.60).
That’s better than paying 12,500 miles of course for the same flight. And its actually a good deal. Normally when we see these sales 5000 mile awards correspond to flights less than $90. This time 5000 miles can save you nearly $200.
That’s a lot better than using your miles for a haircut or at one cent a point against the inflated $250 price Delta charges for a $139 (or less) bottle of Dom Perignon — which really only gets you half a cent a point in value.
(HT: Emily McNutt)
I seriously hate how useless Delta miles are, but that said I don’t have a lot anymore and they just have to get burnt sooner or later. I live in Florida, and nothing is cheap flying in and out when MCO & TPA are go-to airports.
Is this a worthy value, no. Neither are Hilton points (at least as much) anymore. But they’re useful when I just want a couple of free flights and a weekend in NYC.
Gary, when Delta announces a retail sale, how do you know it’s actually a sale with reduced prices?
@DiscoPapa it usually isn’t.
Not impressed.
I am seeing 15,000 from LGA-CLT and 25,000 from LGA-CAE in main cabin. Would like to burn my Delta miles since they are not worth anything, but that is just not good.
Well I got 2 RT Delta award tix for 10,000 miles each between SLC and SUN for a ski trip in January. Think it’s a good enough deal as a paid ticket would cost us over $400 each (it is only a 1-hour Delta connection flight). But it gives us the chance to ski in 2 different places. We’ll fly from BWI to SLC on SW award tix, ski around there for several days and then go to Sun Valley and then back to SLC and ultimately back to BWI — all on award tix. I am satisfied with the sky pesos for this.
@Fran, thanks for the heads up. I just booked something similar for February. Used a reserve companion certificate to book F tickets BWI-SLC-BWI and then added the 5000 mile SLC-SUN-SLC flights to give us a few days in Sun Valley. This was pricing out at over $400 round trip, so about 4 cents per mile in value. Also very satisfied!