Tag Archives for delta skymiles.
Delta Air Lines announced two changes to the SkyMiles program this morning. SkyMiles award tickets for travel on Delta, which first began counting towards elite status in 2021, will become a permanent feature of the program. And, in an effort to incentivize customers who buy the most expensive tickets, there will no longer be a cap on the miles earn for travel.
Virgin Atlantic award space to Tel Aviv, Israel is outstanding right now. And it can be booked for just 85,000 Delta SkyMiles. On routes like New York JFK – London – Tel Aviv it’s available for at least two passengers nearly every day through mid-December. But it’s also plentiful out of Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Orlando.
You’ll find additional availability from other cities, especially those where Virgin flies but also cities where Delta offers connections (it’s the Delta domestic flight that can be hardest to get).
I didn’t scan a QR code at LAX and don’t have associated flights credited to my SkyMiles account. But Delta says miles are coming in a couple of days. If nothing else, this is a good reason to always stick to the mantra and register for promotions when they’re right in front of you.
Perhaps afraid that someone somewhere actually flying the airline might get value from the SkyMiles program they’ve now devalued even using Skypesos in Delta Air Lines Sky Clubs as well.
Spending points for alcohol in their clubs has gotten 30% more expensive.
Delta is running a sale on coach award tickets to Europe starting at 34,000 miles roundtrip. They haven’t announced the sale, which isn’t surprising since at Delta whatever price they quote you in the moment is the price. Sometimes coach saver awards to Europe are 70,000 miles roundtrip, though I often see them for over 50% above that. SkyMiles is usually a dumpster fire for redeeming points.
We don’t know how long this sale will last, so if you want cheap coach awards to Europe book this now. It’s fully refundable without cost.
There is no truth to the rumor that Delta SkyMiles will cease being an American Express transfer partner. I believe a screenshot purporting to say otherwise must have been faked.
Mary Schlangenstein who covers airlines for Bloomberg asked CEO Ed Bastian during Delta’s earnings call about Southwest’s no-notice 6.5% devaluation of Rapid Rewards points yesterday and whether they’d considering doing something similar.
Bastian offered SkyMiles as a contrast to Southwest, “we’re not considering that, and we’re very excited about the value [of the SkyMiles program].” Wait, wut?
Delta is offering at least a 50% elite qualifying bonus on all travel for the rest of 2021, and a 75% bonus for premium cabin travel, under the banner of Medallion Accelerator. For the first time at Delta award travel will count towards earning elite status from April 1 through December 31, 2021 as well.
Already Wheels Up offers Delta miles for members joining or renewing with their jet card program, as well as SkyMiles elite status.
They plan to introduce benefits and offers to Delta 360, Diamond, and Platinum members and to offer SkyMiles redemptions for private jet travel.
Delta SkyMiles is at it again. They’ve raised the price of award travel on their partner airlines with no one looking. They’ve done it by a lot. And they’ve done it after just raising award prices in October. During a global pandemic when awards should be easier and cheaper to get than ever. In fact Delta is now charging more than double what United and American charge for the best awards in many cases.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
