Delta recently ran a promotion whereby they were offering a 100% bonus on transfers between SkyMiles accounts. This is the second time they ran the promotion, and the second time I took advantage of it.
This is essentially an opportunity to purchase Delta SkyMiles at 1.1 cents per mile. You can transfer miles to another account in increments of up to 30,000 SkyMiles at a time, at a cost of one cent per mile plus a $30 transaction fee (with a maximum of 30,000 miles transferred per account per transaction).
In other words, if I transferred 30,000 SkyMiles from my account to my brother’s account through this promotion, he would receive 60,000 miles with transfer fees of $330, which is a net gain of 30,000 SkyMiles.
While SkyMiles are historically among the most devalued mileage currencies out there, as a relative matter they’re actually becoming much more valuable, given that other airlines seem to be doing everything from devaluing their miles, to adding fuel surcharges to award tickets, to no longer releasing first class award space to their partner airlines… though that’s for a separate post.
In the end my family (I convinced other family members to get in on the deal given that they travel internationally a good bit) purchased roughly 600,000 Delta SkyMiles at just under $6,600.
Now, the whole strategy was an absolute headache, and made me realize just how bad I’ve become at math. Before making the transfer I had to make sure everything I was doing was within the terms, including not transferring more than 150,000 SkyMiles into any one account or transferring more than 300,000 SkyMiles out of any one account, which would have violated the terms.
So in the end I set up a bit of a “triangle,” whereby I transferred miles from account “A,” to account “B,” from account “B” to account “C,” from account “C” to account “D,” and then from account “D” to account “A.” It was a (mild) logistical nightmare, given the number of times I had to log into and out of the various SkyMiles accounts, not to mention the record keeping.
With that in mind, I figured I’d share some of the award redemptions I’m considering with the miles, all of which I’m confident will prove to be excellent values. While I usually only recommend purchasing miles with a specific short-term redemption in mind, I didn’t really follow my advice this time around.
As I continue to build substantial mileage balances in a variety of programs, my strategy has slowly changed to primarily burning miles in a particular program when a devaluation is announced. Here’s to hoping that loyalty programs continue to give lots of advance notice on devaluations! This way I can take advantage of any good mileage deals while not worrying too much about when they’ll devalue.
Anyway, here are some of the awards I’m considering, in no particular order:
Alitalia business class to Italy
I suspect I’m starting with a real head scratcher here, because Alitalia really isn’t viewed as an especially good airline, to put it nicely. But they have a new business class product on their Airbus 330 aircraft, which is fully flat and similar to Delta’s new business class product, and I like Italian food. So at the very least I’m guaranteed a good seat and good food. How much can really go wrong? I’d at least like to try their product to have at least experienced it. At 100,000 SkyMiles, that’s $1,100 plus tax for a business class ticket to Europe through this promotion.
Air France business class to Mauritius with a stop in Paris
Here’s one that really interests me. I’ve always wanted to visit Mauritius, and with One World and Star Alliance it’s not an especially easy destination to get to. However, Air France flies there and has fairly decent award availability in business class, so I’d love to take the flight, of course adding a free stopover in Paris for a few days either on the way out or the way back. At 120,000 SkyMiles, that’s $1,320 plus tax for a business class ticket to Mauritius through this promotion. The only issue is that, as I covered in The Best International Business Class Seats for Sleeping, Air France uses angled flat business class seats, not fully flat ones which would be better for sleeping.
Air France/Air Tahiti Nui business class to Tahiti
The irony with SkyMiles is that while they’re considered one of the less valuable points currencies, they’re best positioned for award tickets to Tahiti, because they partner with both Air France and Air Tahiti Nui, the two airlines that fly nonstop from the mainland of the US to Tahiti. So if you stand a chance at booking a business class award ticket to Tahiti (which can be very tough), there’s no better mileage currency to have than Delta SkyMiles. At 150,000 SkyMiles, that’s $1,650 plus tax for a business class ticket to Tahiti through this promotion.
Delta business class to London
Perhaps this is the least exciting of all the options to most, though London’s one of my favorite cities. Star Alliance options to London are somewhat lacking out of North America, at least with decent business class products. While British Airways belongs to One World, and with the change to Avios they’ve even lowered the points required for East Coast-London redemptions (80K Avios points now, used to be 100K miles) British Airways does impose fuel surcharges on award redemptions, so it’s typically not all that economical to fly with them.
Then there’s Delta, which usually has awful award availability at the “low” level, though for whatever reason London is an exception. Best of all, every one of their flights to London is equipped with their new business class product, which is a fully flat staggered product. At 100,000 SkyMiles, that’s $1,100 plus tax for a business class ticket to London through this promotion.
Korean Air A380 business class to Asia
I don’t know where in Asia I want to go yet, but this is probably the best value of them all, if you have the patience to book a Korean Air award ticket through Delta. On the list of things I don’t want to do, booking an award ticket on Korean Air using Delta SkyMiles ranks just slightly above a root canal. This is because there’s no easy way to check Korean Air award availability online, so you have to call SkyMiles. Let’s just say that half of the time the agents haven’t ever heard of Korean Air. At 120,000 SkyMiles, that’s $1,320 plus tax for a business class ticket to Asia through this promotion… if you have the patience to book it!
There you have it, those are my favorites. I’m also tempted to fly business class to Australia with V Australia, which is a Delta SkyMiles partner (and an award I highlighted in The 10 Best Premium cabin Award Redemption Values), though V Australia’s award availability has gotten considerably worse and fuel surcharges continue to rise, so at this point it’s 150,000 miles plus ~$600 in fuel surcharges. It’s still a great deal, but I’d rather use US Airways miles and fly through Asia instead.
You might want to check out my prior post, for how to find Skyteam Award Space and tips for using Delta Skymiles.
Did anyone else take advantage of this promotion? If so, what do you plan on redeeming your SkyMiles for?
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