Delta Skymiles

[IhrkeFamily]

We are new to the skymiles program with Delta. Due to the intro offer we have enough at this time for a free ticket. However; I will still have to buy 3 tickets. They are currently at $409 or 32,500 miles. For those experienced travelers, when the price of the ticket goes down do the miles go up? I hate to miss out on the free ticket since with the two cards I currently have enough for 2 free tickets.

[sam_gordon]

Originally Posted by IhrkeFamily

We are new to the skymiles program with Delta. Due to the intro offer we have enough at this time for a free ticket. However; I will still have to buy 3 tickets. They are currently at $409 or 32,500 miles. For those experienced travelers, when the price of the ticket goes down do the miles go up? I hate to miss out on the free ticket since with the two cards I currently have enough for 2 free tickets.

IIRC, you can utilize "pay with miles". Do a search for award tickets and put in for all three. At the checkout spot, you should be able to show how many miles you want to use vs. dollars.

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I'm not sure what you are asking. Are you wondering if the number of miles required for FF tickets changes when the number of lower cost seats sell out? I don't believe so. FF tickets are available for a set amount of miles, depending on whether or not they are saver or regular award tickets.

FYI, Delta is notorious for having very poor award ticket availability. If you can find a saver award for your dates, grab it.

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

No, there is not a relationship between what the fare is and the FF ticket milage, but...there are limited "cheap milage" tickets on any one flight and often once they are gone, that is it.

As to the pay with miles option. Remember you don't earn miles on that ticket. It is often not a good deal.

[Greysword]

You should read the Rookie section of the Delta Points blog:
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/deltapoints/

There is good info on maximizing you miles and the Delta card.

Delta has an option to pay for tickets with miles at a $0.01 per mile, with caveats (like no mileage earning on these seats). In the example you noted, pay with miles would be 40,060 miles, so the regular award would be better.

Check out the blog for some solid answers.

If you want to get more info, you can read the Delta forum on FlyerTalk boards.

Good luck!

[sam_gordon]

Originally Posted by OrangeCountyCommuter

No, there is not a relationship between what the fare is and the FF ticket milage, but...there are limited "cheap milage" tickets on any one flight and often once they are gone, that is it.

As to the pay with miles option. Remember you don't earn miles on that ticket. It is often not a good deal.

OCC is probably correct. I just want to share my story.

Booking for flight in June 2013. Started looking in July 2012. Award flights were either 40K or 32,500 (can't remember which) miles each. The tickets were just around $200 each. DW had just over 40K miles. We used "Pay with miles" so we ended up paying $40 for two round trip tickets.

It might have been a "bad deal", but we don't fly that much, we don't put much on CC, so stockpiling miles for use for a "good deal" is basically not going to happen.

A more seasoned traveler would probably say we "wasted" our miles. It works for us, and that's what matters.

[Lewisc]

FOR The OP. Delta has three different mileage levels; low, medium and high. For continental US, Alaska and Canada the R/T requirements are 25,000 40,000 and 60,000. People knowledgeable about award travel call them "skypesos" since availability of saver flights (25K) is very limited. It's probably fair to say flights which only have high priced tickets available for sale are not likely to have saver seats available. The reverse may not be true.

Delta changes award inventory. You need to keep checking.

Originally Posted by sam_gordon

It might have been a "bad deal", but we don't fly that much, we don't put much on CC, so stockpiling miles for use for a "good deal" is basically not going to happen.

A more seasoned traveler would probably say we "wasted" our miles. It works for us, and that's what matters.

There are two types of "experts". Those who think their way is the only way and those who understand different people have different reasons for making a decision. The experts all say saver business class flights to Europe is the "best" use of miles. Others might prefer to use the same miles to take two trips. The cents per mile value won't be as high but two trips might offer more enjoyable use of miles.

You might see if a straight cash reward card works better for. I heard one of the mileage guys speak at a seminar. He said people who don't want to play all the redemption games are better off with a cash rebate card.

[Greysword]

Originally Posted by sam_gordon

A more seasoned traveler would probably say we "wasted" our miles. It works for us, and that's what matters.

There was a thread about this on Flyer Talk last week, where the gang mentality was piling up. Page 4 saw a decent amount of rebuttle, and I called them "pretentious" on page 6 (I think) .

As I've said on here before, value is a personal concept. What is of value for me may not be for others. I just redeemed 50k delta miles to fly DW & DD on a shuttle flight to SNA from PDX for our mid-year Disneyland trip. Not a waste to me, since my ticket cost $250, thus saving us $500 we can use towards park tickets or meals/souvenirs.

Shoot, last year we used our Wells Fargo card points to buy gift cards at the $0.01 per point/mile level, which paid for Christmas gifts. Nice not to have bills from the holidays!

As such, if an "expert" tells you that you (the common DIS you, not you you) are wasting your miles, tell them to piss off. There are so many opportunities to use miles/points to fill a need, and if the gap is filled, then it is a great use!

[Lewisc]

Originally Posted by Greysword

There was a thread about this on Flyer Talk last week, where the gang mentality was piling up. Page 4 saw a decent amount of rebuttle, and I called them "pretentious" on page 6 (I think) .

As I've said on here before, value is a personal concept. What is of value for me may not be for others. I just redeemed 50k delta miles to fly DW & DD on a shuttle flight to SNA from PDX for our mid-year Disneyland trip. Not a waste to me, since my ticket cost $250, thus saving us $500 we can use towards park tickets or meals/souvenirs.

Shoot, last year we used our Wells Fargo card points to buy gift cards at the $0.01 per point/mile level, which paid for Christmas gifts. Nice not to have bills from the holidays!

As such, if an "expert" tells you that you (the common DIS you, not you you) are wasting your miles, tell them to piss off. There are so many opportunities to use miles/points to fill a need, and if the gap is filled, then it is a great use!

Many of the strategies suggested by the "pretentious" folks on FT don't make sense to us normal fliers. I'm thinking of the suggestions of taking extra connections, indirect connections and having to take different flights then my wife. I'm thinking of a 2.5 hour N/S flight taking 10-12 hours.

Gift cards at .01 per mile make sense on a one time basis but you're better off with a different credit card if that's the way you normally like to use your reward points.

[Greysword]

Originally Posted by Lewisc

Gift cards at .01 per mile make sense on a one time basis but you're better off with a different credit card if that's the way you normally like to use your reward points.

Yep, my personal strategy was actually born out of the desire to save on travel costs, so we switched to the following:

1) Delta AMEX Platinum card (companion certificate, free bag for 8 people, boarding Zone 1 for 8 (very valuable for overhead bin space), 40k sign up bonus Skymiles, and other things)

2) Hilton AMEX card (solid signup bonus, I stay at Hampton Inns when traveling for work, no annual fee, valuable for cash & points option, Gold status for $20k annual spend). Usually a daily spend card due to bonus on Gas, groceries, restaurants (now), internet/phone (past), and build up enough points for pre-Disney beach stay.

3) Hyatt Chase card for annual free night at category 4 hotel (like the Hyatt in MCO and Platinum status as a backup hotel option).

4) Use an AMEX for car rental, as premium service is primary for $25 (yes, I could use other cards like United Explorer, but I like AMEX).

Like the OP, this is my plan with Delta to help save some money traveling to Disney (both parks).

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Originally Posted by Greysword

As such, if an "expert" tells you that you (the common DIS you, not you you) are wasting your miles, tell them to piss off. There are so many opportunities to use miles/points to fill a need, and if the gap is filled, then it is a great use!

Why would anyone think it necessary to use a vulgar expression just because they don't agree with someone else's opinion? Ignore and use your miles any way you please.

[sam_gordon]

Originally Posted by Greysword

There was a thread about this on Flyer Talk last week, where the gang mentality was piling up. Page 4 saw a decent amount of rebuttle, and I called them "pretentious" on page 6 (I think) .

As I've said on here before, value is a personal concept. What is of value for me may not be for others. I just redeemed 50k delta miles to fly DW & DD on a shuttle flight to SNA from PDX for our mid-year Disneyland trip. Not a waste to me, since my ticket cost $250, thus saving us $500 we can use towards park tickets or meals/souvenirs.

Shoot, last year we used our Wells Fargo card points to buy gift cards at the $0.01 per point/mile level, which paid for Christmas gifts. Nice not to have bills from the holidays!

As such, if an "expert" tells you that you (the common DIS you, not you you) are wasting your miles, tell them to piss off. There are so many opportunities to use miles/points to fill a need, and if the gap is filled, then it is a great use!

Yea, I went on flyertalk to ask about using miles for hotel or rental car and 3/4 of the responses were "you shouldn't do that, it's not a good use of miles".

I don't bother with flyertalk anymore.

[Greysword]

Originally Posted by sam_gordon

Yea, I went on flyertalk to ask about using miles for hotel or rental car and 3/4 of the responses were "you shouldn't do that, it's not a good use of miles".

I don't bother with flyertalk anymore.

Kind of like someone on here asking if they should park at the Poly or CR to spend the day at MK

[IhrkeFamily]

Thanks for all the great advice! I feel much better knowing I can wait a few weeks to purchase tickets and that I should still get 2 free tickets. I figure use the miles and get 2 free tickets. That's only 3 more to purchase for the rest of the fam at $1200 versus buying 5 tickets $2000. I love saving money since I just now charge to AX and pay them off each week.