I receive compensation for content and many links on this blog. Citibank is an advertising partner of this site, as is American Express, Chase, Barclays and Capital One. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners. I do not write about all credit cards that are available -- instead focusing on miles, points, and cash back (and currencies that can be converted into the same). Terms apply to the offers and benefits listed on this page.
Reader John challenges me to lay out the positives of SkyMiles as well.
You don’t fly Delta because of SkyMiles, you earn SkyMiles as a happenstance for flying them if they’re more convenient or better-priced, or because they’re more reliable with friendlier cabin crew. You don’t choose to earn SkyMiles over other currencies. You don’t spend money on Delta co-brand credit cards unless you need to do so to earn elite qualifying miles, or earn a waiver of the spending requirement for elite status.
Instead you get a Delta credit card for the travel benefits and for generous initial bonuses. And you make the most of the SkyMiles you earn.
Spending money on Delta cards to earn Delta miles doesn’t make sense because even if you want SkyMiles there are several American Express cards that earn points faster, and that let you transfer to Delta miles (or other currencies).
I often find myself playing Don Quixote – “an old man with dementia who thought he could save the world” from an epidemic of devaluation simply by tilting at windmills on a blog.
Hear me now, O thou bleak and unbearable world. Thou art base and debauched as can be. But a knight with his banners all bravely unfurled now hurls down his gauntlet to thee!
When that leaves me to underemphasize the ways of getting superior value out of SkyMiles. And with record-breaking initial bonus offers of 75,000 and 80,000 miles there’s little reason not to stock up.
- Domestic and close-in international flights especially on leisure routes Travel is Free found 792 city pairs where Delta has been offering awards as low as 5000 miles each way at least some of the time.
International redemptions start at 6000 miles for places like Cancun, Los Cabos, and Puerto Vallarta to several US cities; Havana to Florida; Guatemala to Houston; and Mexico City to Vancouver and Toronto. There’s a lot of Caribbean flying available from 7000 and 8000 miles each way.
- Partner international business class still prices based on (hidden) award charts. Even after eliminating award charts Delta has continued to use fixed pricing for partner redemptions and as a result it’s often a better value to redeem for international business class on partners than on Delta itself.
Virgin Atlantic business class usually runs 86,000 miles one way, while it’s rare to see Delta pricing its own saver award space that low.
- Award specials Delta regularly runs award sales. They aren’t always great deals, and they’re often for routes on which you can buy tickets cheaply with cash. Though that’s not always the case, and if you are able to target your redemptions to what’s on sale you’ll stretch your points much further.
- Premium drinks in Sky Clubs. One of the very best uses of Delta SkyMiles is redeeming small numbers of miles for premium drinks. That’s because you generally get 2 cents per mile relative to the price of the drinks. How about a bottle of Dom Perignon, sitting outside plane spotting, for 10,000 miles?
Austin SkyClub
Air France has a flight from CDG to Tunis. Would I be better booking using delta miles or ransfwrrimg Amex to AF?
I only use Skymiles for partners. I have received great value doing this. Two years ago, I needed to get to Hanoi. I tried AA, UA, and my best choice was a Skymiles award. It was one way, ORD to HAN. First class on Alaskan ORD to SEA, then Delta One SEA to ICN, and lastly Vietnam Airways Business ICN to HAN, all for 80,000 miles. It was definitely a high value redemption. I was so happy.
Skymiles is just like Avios. You have to search for the sweet spots. But it also pays to have some miles/points in multiple programs, so one has choices when needed.
I’m impressed that you came up with that many uses.
So, the sign up bonus is basically 7 bottles of Dom that you can only redeem at a Sky Club?
I like to use Sky Pesos to buy burritos on the street in Caracas. They’re about 15,000 each
At the next Freddie Awards you should come on stage as OG Gary Leff and put a rap beat to that Don Quixote rhyme. Awesome.
This is a sad list.
The bonuses are the highest because they’ve devalued to the point of absurdity. One way biz class went from 75k to 105k in like a year. The 100k sign up bonus shows up next year guaranteed.
@ Gary — So, now that there are increased referral bonuses for bloggers to shill this garbage, there is suddenly good value to be had with SkyMiles? Give me a break.
@Gene – I think I am absolutely clear on what I think of SkyMiles. Good bonus to get from the card, if you fly Delta regularly but not enough for status good to have for benefits, but don’t spend on the card. Do I think 75k or 80k miles from a credit card is worth getting a card and meeting minimum spend? Absolutely. Do I still think SkyMiles is inferior to other loyalty programs? Absolutely. But once you have the 75k miles it’s worth thinking about how to use them.
Skymiles is absolutely horrible. The only time that I was able to use them in the past three years was by burning 400,000 SkyMiles on two business-class seats from the US to Australia. Other than that, totally useless. Yesterday, I booked six business-class seats on United from the United States to Chile for 60,000 miles each. Delta — available only to Argentina — charges 180,000 miles each for its lowest-cost award. I see Delta regularly charging three to five times as many miles as other carriers on international business awards. So those 80,000 bonus miles are really around 20,000, from that perspective.
I have a ton of SkyBonus points as well. Also useless. I’ve given up on Delta. I credit my Delta flights now to GOL.