Use Your Delta Miles NOW For Award Travel to Europe Next Summer

by Gary Leff

I’ve been a strong critic of Delta SkyMiles. Theirs are one of my least-preferred currencies. I’d much rather have miles with United, American, or Alaska. I’d much rather have miles with Aeroplan, Singapore, or Japan Airlines. I’d much rather have miles with Korean Air in Skyteam.

They say awards may cost more for travel June 1 onward and indeed some awards are mind-bogglingly expensive. Of course we don’t know how much awards are ‘supposed to’ cost, since Delta no longer publishes award charts. Awards cost what Delta says they cost on any given itinerary. Which is super-frustrating because at least historically Delta has regularly mispriced (always overcharging) awards. Now ‘mispriced’ is just ‘priced’.

In fairness Delta says award charts are no longer needed since their award calendar is so good though not all partner airlines are on the website and routes often simply error out.

Yet right now availability for summer business class travel to Europe is quite good at least on some routes. So redeem those Delta SkyMiles now for 62,500 miles each way.


Delta 777 Business Class

Here’s New York JFK – London for 2 passengers in June/July.

Even Atlanta-London availability is pretty good. With the concentration of Delta flyers in Atlanta awards originating there can sometimes be quite hard to get.

Here’s the calendar for London – Atlanta for 2 passengers in July/August.

Availability is broader than London, of course. Here’s New York JFK – Rome.

And here’s Detroit – Munich.

Not every Delta international route has great availability, and there are some flights where you’ll pay the kind of prices you’d expect to see from Air Zimbabwe’s Rainbow Club.

Here’s an Atlanta – Johannesburg itinerary. It’s for non-stop Delta flights, so there are no connections or partners or ‘breaking the fare’. Two passengers roundtrip in business class for the bargain price of 1.1 million points. (Several dates price 375,000 miles one-way per person. When you search roundtrip the price is ‘only’ 550,000. So much for Delta’s one-way awards that cost only half roundtrip.)

(HT: Milecards)

About Gary Leff

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 »

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Comments

  1. 62500 for business to Europe on Delta. If I bothered with Delta I would be burning my miles on this. That’s close to normal pricing on other carriers.

  2. I noticed this too. What’s weird about it is that
    A) It’s all on Delta metal
    B) There’s a surprising paucity of availability on Air France and KLM

    How often do those two things occur?

  3. Yeah, but the taxes & fees from London to NYC are brutal : 345GBP vs United’s 310USD for a one-way trip in J originating from LHR.

  5. @James K – there has been far less partner availability on Air France KLM lately. It used to be that there was plenty of partner space available to airlines OTHER THAN Delta…

  6. Booked my family of 4 in Virgin Atlantic Upper Class using 62,500 delta miles each OKC-ATL-LHR one way. only 5.60 in fees.

  7. Still trying to find decent business class from MCO/TPA to BCN late May on Delta. Website is showing over 200,000 miles.

  8. Candidly, I think I’d rather try to buy 5 domestic coach one-way tickets (perhaps on Alaska) than one biz-class ticket to London. Especially from the East Coast.

    BTW, I think DL domestic award inventory has improved a little the past year. OF course, it couldn’t get any worse. 🙂

  9. thanks for the tip; I am a Delta apologest, but know the end times are coming. I was even able to justify a Amex MR transfer for this, and bottomed out my account with two biz tickets on MSP-LHR and LHR-ATL. I was even able to get me connecting flights to FSD thrown in. (not the sure thing it used to be….) Even flying Virgin on the way back to do something different.

  10. If I want to go from DFW to Europe (Example: DFW via PHL/CLT/ORD to FCO Rome) and pay money, aa.com gives me a wonderful number of choices with good schedules (into Rome in the morning) and no ripoff fuel surcharges.
    However, if I want to use AA miles, aa.com only gives me on BA via LHR. Bad schedule getting me to Rome late in the day, longer trip duration, and with ripoff fuel surcharge.
    Note: Business class MileSaver to FCO Rome available from DFW via all three (PHL/ORD/CLT) but only on BA. No way AA flights are all sold out so far in advance but BA flights are always open.
    So, why can’t I go on AA flights?

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