Delta SkyMiles is one of the least valuable frequent flyer programs for mileage earning and redemption. It’s that way intentionally. But it has been even worse for Europeans, and for members who want to book one-way tickets back from Europe.
That’s because not only does Delta charge sky high mileage prices for its awards – even for saver awards, and even when partner programs charge a fraction of the miles for the same flight – but they’ve also added fuel surcharges to tickets that originate in Europe.
Fortunately, Delta has stopped adding these cash co-pays to redemption tickets for travel on Delta flights originating in Europe. So you can book one-ways back from Europe without these fees, and roundtrips originating in Europe without these fees, which you couldn’t do before. That may save you over $150 on a one-way award.
- Delta used to think, why offer more value to Europeans? Their home programs add surcharges so we should stick it to them, too!
- But Delta’s program has gotten so much worse. It offers far less value than partner Air France KLM Flying Blue, for instance (which has reduced its own surcharges).
- And one-ways aren’t just for Europeans, besides Delta’s situation is very different than Air France’s (credit card interchange is capped in Europe). Why make redemption a terrible experience for co-brand cardmembers and potential cardmembers, turning them off to Amex spend?
It is simply not accurate to say, as Ben Smithson suggests at The Points Guy, that fuel surcharges on awards were driven by the ‘high cost of fuel’ (when first introduced). In fact, British Airways got into some trouble making this marketing claim, because they were never in any way tied to the cost of fuel. They were a cash grab from a captive audience, already stuck with their loyalty currency.
The rebranding of these fees came as a result of legal cost to BA (many members benefited from a class action settlement which took over 5 years to reach and some of this site’s readers were involved in from the start).
Bear in mind that if you have already-ticketed awards from Europe and want your money back you’ll have to rebook tickets at currently-available pricing. You can’t just call and ask for the surcharges back.
While some members shrug their shoulders and will say that Delta awards are still useless, even without the surcharges, remember that you should consider throwaway ticketing – book a one-way award from Europe to Mexico, for instance, connecting in the United States. Then don’t take the flight to Mexico. Delta award pricing is much better if the origin and destination of your ticket do not involve the United States.
And while you’ll almost certainly pay fewer miles for most awards through competitor programs, American Airlines and Alaska Airlines are still stuck collecting surcharges on British Airways award itineraries – even though BA now offers less award space to American and Alaska than they do to loyalty programs using Avios as a currency.
(HT: Dan’s Deals)
Good. Delta must see the writing on the wall that economic strife is coming and it’s real. They and we need to constantly adapt, or we’re going to get left behind. For real though, these fuel surcharges have always been a lie–just another way to cheat us consumers into paying more. These companies often break their promises to us and others, and I just hope more of us ‘wake up’ and realize that they constantly screw with actual contracts and the overall social contract with us all the time. We deserve better.
On Ben Smithson’s comments, totally agree with Gary on this. Please take lightly whatever those corporate shills over at TPG say–over the years, it’s sad to witness how they’ve become ‘bought and paid for’–like, they can’t even have a comment section anymore because enough folks called them out on their b.s. At least Gary can handle the heat, actually supports and encourages speech, even if it is a different opinion. For that reason, I respect what he’s doing with VFTW more than most if not all other sites related to these industries and related hobbies.
Any time these updates are shared and discussed, I’m thinking: “Gary! It’s happening! The so-called ‘deals’ are coming! The recession ‘deals’! You called it! Forgive us for ever doubting you, sir.”
It reminds me of the opener of the first episode of Rick & Morty. Gary is like drunk Rick waking up Morty in the middle of the night for ‘an adventure’ which happens to be Rick’s idea to destroy the world. Gary is like, (theses deals)… gonna ‘create a fresh start’… (he) wants us to have ‘a thing.’ Meanwhile, most of us know that a recession is not woth such ‘deals,’ so we are like Morty who eventually has to ‘take the wheel’ and prevent the (economic) calamity, well, I hope.
Yay for Delta. They finally noticed that they’ve been crapping continually on passengers, so they effectively gave us a single wet wipe and expect that rectifies the situation. #hardpass
@ Gary — Beware…Delta charges change and cancel fees for flights not originating in the 51 US states.
@Gene — I see what you did there. *wink* Official policy: “There are no change fees for travel originating within the 50 United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.” So literally, yes, 50 states, US territories, plus Canada. Bah!
@ 1990 — What about Greenland?
@Gene — Give it time, sir. According to OMAAT, ‘as of June 14, 2025, United Airlines plans to launch a seasonal, twice weekly flight between Newark (EWR) and Nuuk, Greenland (GOH).’ So, Delta hasn’t caught on yet, but if they do, perhaps, they’ll drop change fees on that route as well, though they’d probably go with JFK-GOH. Of course, personally, I am opposed to such absurd abuses of power in geopolitics, especially against our (former) allies and NATO partners, like Canada, Denmark, etc. Separate but related, how about Panama City (the country, not the city in Florida). Pretty sure DL flies ATL-PTY, nice 4.5 hour flight, daily. If we take back the Canal, will Delta waive change fees for there? It would seem appropriate as corporate policy for the airline, regardless the utter absurdity of the underling geopolitics, yet again. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do. This is what retirement should be like, shooting the shit, banter, fun times.
This appears to be just for Delta metal. Partner award flights originating in Europe still have fuel surcharges.
@ 1990 — Take a look at a world map from the North Pole. Wouldn’t Russia-US-Canada-Greenland make a lovely empire for Mr. Putin? When you view it from this angle, it becomes pretty obvious why Donald Putin is so obsessed with taking over Canada and Greenland. Then, I guess the Panama Canal would come in handy for moving your goods from one side of your World Empire to the other. Wouldn’t wanna be Iceland or Norway…or Finland…or Sweden…or Denmark…or any of those other pesky little countries that might get in the way.
@Gene — Oh, no doubt, Putin wants Alaska back for Russia, along with the entire former USSR and Iron Curtain. After all, he served as a KGB agent working with the Stasi in Dresden, East Germany, for his formative years, 1985-1990, as the world he knew collapsed around him, especially in 1989, during the fall of the Wall. That must have been tough–for him. To ‘lose’ what he was promised. So, sure, in his mind, he must believe he is the Emperor, the tsar, and getting back what was ‘taken’ from him (and his people) and to punish those who took it away from him to begin with (the West). Now, how this relates to ‘fuel surcharges’ is that Putin’s thesis (1997) was literally on energy dependencies and their instrumentalization in foreign policy. Clearly, he implemented that in Europe with the various gas pipelines. And, for a little while, it worked, he kept that gas flowing to much of Europe, keeping the EU from doing anything as he began unjust wars in 2008 Georgia, 2012 Crimea (annexation), 2015 Syria (mercenaries), and all the general interference and psychological warfare in our elections (nearly everywhere) until he made a mistake and got greedy with Ukraine (2022-now). But, he may be absolved by #47, who is basically giving him everything he wants and more, in thanks for all the support before (you know, helping him out of his bankruptcies, all the manipulation of social media, literal coordination via Elon, etc.). So, we know all this, yet many of us, in the US, really are just that dumb to let this all happen, yet again. *deep sigh*
Delta American heroes having destroyed FF mileage programs for many years
Save you 150 the. Charge 500k one way in miles
Crooks
@Dwondermeant — Preach! I know we joke about SkyPesos, and if you’re Greek, SkyDrachmas. Basically, Sky (insert any old-sounding or inferior currency).
In all seriousness, SkyMiles still have value, just not ‘screaming hot deals’ anymore. There are some sweet spots, but not too many anymore on DL metal in premium cabins, but occasionally you find them on some partner airlines.
I just wish Amex did not charge an excise tax to transfer MR to DL. Then again, maybe that’s yet another reason to transfer nothing more than to simply ‘top off’ to reach an award amount. Like, please, heavens no, do not transfer like 100K MR to DL, ever. Yikes.
@ Dwondermeant — Thieves is the appropriate term. They work at every FF program.
@Gene — And the reason it feels that way (that the folks who run these corporate loyalty and frequent flyer programs are ‘thieves’) is that they often abuse their power, change the rules, devalue their programs, and face little to no regulation or consequences for doing so. Obviously, the current administration is not going to fix this at all, likely they’ll make it worse, but, hopefully, at some point, we elect enough responsible leaders who will improve these laws and rules that should better protect consumers. At times, it does feel like a dream, because we’re asleep on this and so many other much more important issues. I meant, nightmare. Wake up!
“… is much better if the origin and destination of your ticket do not involve the United States.”
Everything is much better if it does not involve the United States.
@glenn t — Sorry. We’re working on it. Might be a while. (send help, pls) *nervous laughter*
@ glenn t — Any good suggestions on where to live outside the fallout zone?
@Gene — I’m sure that ‘doctor’ glenn t can write you a script (Rx) on that, but in case you want a ‘second opinion’, I’d say probably the southern hemisphere is a better bet than the northern one. Then again, perhaps, a quick death is preferable to a ‘mediocre’ existence like in MadMax. They do say, ‘only the mad survive.’ Witness me, anyone?
“I miss apartheid era South Africa” Peter Thiel went for New Zealand and tried to convince “I miss apartheid era South Africa” ElMu to do the same.
If only Delta could now get rid of the redposit fee for flights that do not orriginate in the U.S.
@GUWonder — Having frequently visited South Africa since the fall of apartheid, which arguably only happened because of the economic and political boycotting of the former regime, we must admit that the ‘rainbow nation’ has come a long way in its evolution towards a more equitable society, yet it is certainly not without it’s issues (I can gripe on-and-on about the extreme poverty, and frequent rolling blackouts in cities like Johannesburg, for instance), but for them or anyone to wish to return to the era of such violence and segregation, when most of us know or should know better, would be shocking in its complete disregard and re-writing of history, reality, morals, ethics, decency, and fairness. Thiel and Musk are reckless at best, but likely more malicious–they, like Putin, are trying to undo decades of progress, for their own vanity. It’s a preventable tragedy. But at least the Europeans are waking up to this reality, and understand the fight that is ahead of them. We may have lost our way. And because of that, there may be less travel between our continents, thus, Delta is preparing for this by reducing fuel surcharges, etc. See, I brought it all back full-circle. Would anyone like to undercut my position by calling me a silly name? ‘Stupid’?