Delta Airlines is considered one of the big "three" in the US (alongside American Airlines and United Airlines) and also boasts one of the oldest loyalty programs out there: SkyMiles.
However, Delta has made several strategic moves to its frequent flyer program over the last decade that have caused SkyMiles to be colloquially known as "SkyPesos." There is a reason why we at Roame rarely feature Delta deals (there are very few of them out there, if any).
In this article, we will talk about the various ways to earn Delta miles (without flying), SkyMiles expiration policies, how Delta prices its award flights, award redemption sweet spots, and cancellation policies.
How To Earn Delta SkyMiles
Fly On Delta Airlines
The most obvious way to earn Delta miles is by flying paid fares. Depending on your status, you'll earn more/less SkyMiles for each $1 spent on flights in Main Cabin or above.
Fly On SkyTeam Partner Airlines
Earning on SkyTeam partner airlines is typically a function of the fare class and distance traveled. For example, if you fly Korean Airlines deep discounted economy N class, you'd earn just 25% of the miles traveled as SkyMiles. Done correctly, you can still get some tremendous value out of flying SkyTeam partners.
Credit Card Transfer Partners
Delta partners with solely American Express for both its cobranded credit cards and for transfer partners, meaning AMEX is Delta's only transfer partner:
Unfortunately, American Express charges an "excise tax offset fee" whenever you transfer Membership Rewards points to any US airline (including Delta). The fee is $0.0006 per point, capped at $99 per transaction. So, if you transfer 100,000 AMEX pts to Delta, it will incur an additional fee of $60 USD. Overall, this fee is a bit silly in my opinion, as it dilutes the value of AMEX points and discourages domestic US transfers.
Buy Delta SkyMiles
Like all major airlines, Delta allows you to purchase SkyMiles. However, the cost of these miles is not typically very friendly—in fact, they're actually quite expensive overall, especially considering how bad the value of them is when redeeming.
If you buy in bulk, I see pricing as low as 2.85 CPP. However, buying smaller batches leads to a 3.5 CPP, which is, again, not particularly great.
Spend On Delta Cobranded Credit Cards
Delta Airlines and American Express cobrand credit cards together, which allow you to accumulate Delta SkyMiles when spending on their credit cards. While you might be earning Delta miles, there's a pretty significant opportunity cost because Delta miles are generally not worth a lot in the grand scheme of things.
Do Delta SkyMiles Expire?
Simply put—Delta SkyMiles do not expire.
How To Earn Delta Airlines Status
Delta changed its status system in 2024 and it is now solely based on the "Medallion Qualification Dollars (MQD)" system:
You earn 1 MQD for every $1 spent on either Delta flights or on partner airline flights. Basic economy tickets are not eligible to earn SkyMiles/MQDs.
You can also get MQDs via credit card spend and by holding the right cards.
Who Are Delta Airline's Partners?
Delta is a part of the SkyTeam alliance, which is currently comprised of 19 airlines servicing 437+ million passengers per year. Some major partners in this alliance include Delta, Air France/KLM, and Vietnam Airlines. When flying on any SkyTeam partner, you're eligible to earn Virgin Atlantic miles and will receive reciprocal benefits where offered.
How Delta Prices Award Flights
Here's where things take a turn for the worst.
A few years back, Delta removed its award chart, which enables it to price award flights on a dynamic basis. This gives immense flexibility to price flights based the supply/demand for that route as opposed to needing to follow a specific award chart. Generally speaking, Delta now prices its flights on a revenue basis, where a single Delta mile will get you about 1.2 cents per point or less.
Furthermore, partner awards are also not priced on a fixed award chart basis; rather, they are dynamically priced (yet again), which can make for difficulties in finding reasonable deals.
What Is TakeOff 15?
A side benefit of having a Delta card (only certain Delta cards qualify) is that you can get 15% off whenever booking award travel with miles on Delta flights. This can help you save some miles where necessary, but it still doesn't help the overall problem with Delta miles.
Notably, this 15% discount only applies to itineraries flown entirely by Delta.
Delta Airlines Sweet Spots
This section is going to be quite short. Unfortunately, Delta SkyMiles are nearly impossible to redeem for reasonable value. With business class flights to Europe/Japan typically costing over 300,000 points one way, there's just not a lot you can get out of SkyMiles if you're flying internationally.
SkyMiles Flash Sales
Delta sometimes run SkyMiles sales and doesn't even advertise them. Whenever you hear about one of these sales, it's most definitely worth taking a look since these are typically the (only?) ways to get more than 1.5–2 CPP on your Delta miles. Here are some SkyMiles flash sales we've seen in the past:
- USA <> Auckland (AKL): 37,400 SkyMiles roundtrip in economy
- Roundtrip flights to Alaska: starting at 5,000 SkyMiles roundtrip in economy
- Roundtrip flights to Europe: starting at 27,000 SkyMiles + 33,000 SkyMiles
- Roundtrip domestic flights to LAX, SEA, NYC: starting at 6,000 SkyMiles
- Roundtrip flights to Hawaii: starting as low as 13,600 SkyMiles
These flash sales are the best way to easily get value out of your miles. However, since they are so random and rare, it's hard to consider this a "consistent" sweet spot—you should be wary that crazy opportunities like these do exist and be ready to pounce on them when they come up.
Intra Europe Flights
Delta charges a fixed rate for intra-European flights. On a total point basis, these are not terrible prices by any means. However, considering Virgin Atlantic typically only charges <5k miles for some of these routes, it sometimes doesn't even make sense to go through Delta.
Searched using Roame SkyView
Buy Premium Drinks At Delta SkyClubs
It's generally so difficult to redeem SkyMiles for reasonable value that one of the best ways to get something out of them is via premium drinks at Sky Clubs. When using miles to buy premium drinks, you'll get 1.5 CPP, which is actually higher than what you'd get for most Delta redemptions.
The Ugly Side Of Delta SkyMiles Redemptions
The elephant in the room when it comes to Delta is that getting any semblance of consistent value is difficult. Even getting business class redemptions to Europe/Asia is nearly impossible. For example, using Roame's internal SkyView tool, I did 9+ month search for US to Europe business class using Delta SkyMiles, and the cheapest option I found was 130,000 miles one way...
If you compare that to other options during that time period, it's pretty sad to even consider SkyMiles.
In summary, it is generally hard to get value out of Delta SkyMiles. If you can get more than 1.3+ CPP, then I'd consider yourself to be doing well with this redemption.
Cancellation and Change Policies
Similar to other US domestic airlines, Delta's SkyMiles program gives users tremendous flexibility in cancelling their bookings. Flyers can cancel and redeposit their miles with no fees up until the departure of the flight (assuming you did not buy a basic economy award ticket). Here's Delta's official ruling on this matter:
In addition to eliminating change fees for tickets originating in the United States and Canada to anywhere in the world,* we have also eliminated the redeposit fee for Award Tickets and mileage upgrades originating in the United States or Canada. There are no change fees for travel within the U.S. (including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), international travel originating in the U.S. and Canada and travel between the Caribbean and the U.S.* You may redeposit miles any time prior to departure. A redeposit fee of $150 will still apply for Award Tickets and mileage upgrades for travel originating outside of the United States and Canada.
Conclusion
In terms of redemption potential, Delta Airline's SkyMiles program continues to be one of the worst programs out there. Even transferring AMEX points to Delta stings a little bit because of the additional excise tax. You can soften the blow by getting one of the Delta credit cards, but there's a high opportunity cost associated with that. Generally speaking, if you value miles at all, your best best is to stay away from Delta.
