Any Delta SkyMiles members here?

[bubbasmom99]

I am contemplating accepting a credit card offer that will give me SkyMiles as rewards and I was wondering what your experience is with it... is it difficult to get flights using miles? Anything I should be aware of? Thanks!!

 

[lalasmomallie]

DH and I have a card that accummulates points/miles. For the most part we have been pretty happy but did experience some restrictions trying to fly into Orlando. Some destinations ( more popular ones) have more restrictions as to when you can use them , on what dates, and limits on certain flights. Good luck!

 

[peg2001]

Joy,

I have the Delta Airlines Skymiles American Express credit card. We have been very happy with it. Both my DH and I put almost all of our expenses on the card and then pay it off at month's end. By doing this, we are able to rack up quite a few miles for only the cost of the annual fee.

Opportunities for bonuses come up every month or two so keep your eyes open for those (on the Delta webpage, view the Skymiles specials offers often). These range from a bonus for using the card the first time to "double miles for shopping at Walmart" to bonuses for using their kiosk for check-in, and even bonus miles for referring family and friends to join the Skymiles program. It is with these bonuses that the miles really start to pile up.

To use the miles, you are better off planning way ahead and being flexible about flight times and convenience. For example, I used my Skymiles to get 2 tickets from Nashville to Sacramento for July 2003. I did this months ago to maximize the chance to get the dates and flights that I want. Nevertheless, we have very early departing flights (6 AM) and change planes twice each way. Still, it is free with a $10 fee/tax so I'm not complaining.

Any other questions I can answer?

Peggy

 

[bubbasmom99]

Thanks for the info!!

We are DVC members so our planning begins a year in advance. By 11 months out, we know our exact travel dates, so would that be enough time to get seats using miles? We would typically be travelling during April or early December.

 

[Eeyore1954]

11 months out should be plenty of time. As someone else said, be flexible on travel times. I earn both United and Delta miles and both are pretty good at letting you use them if you plan ahead.

 

[TheWho]

I'm not happy with the Sky Miles. I have an Amex which gives me points for Delta Sky miles. I charge all our family expenses and have accumulated a lot of points. However, I have not had any luck getting flights over the years. I'm also a DVC member. I'll admit, I'm not real flexible with my flights. I have two little kids and I do not want any stop overs. I live in NJ and a flight to Orlando means a quick 2+ hr trip for the kids. Keep in mind, I'm paying 80/year in annual fees for the Amex and one airline tix is around $200 (It takes me two years to accumulate enough pts for a ticket).

If I'm sounding too negative, it's because Delta has ended their relationship with Hilton Honors last Friday. You used to get 2 Hilton points for one Delta point. That was working well for me in regard to getting free car rentals.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I'm not seeing the variety for usage from Sky miles that I see from others (like Hilton).

 

[CarolA]

I think that with ANY of the free tickets (besides SW) flexibility is the key. I use most of my skymiles for Europe and I really do book 330 days in advance of my return flight and I often still can't get my first choice. What I do is book what I can and waitlist the first choice. In almost every case I have gotten my waitlist. The other option is last minute travel because sometimes tickets come open, but that is hard with a family.

If you have SW and are willing to fly them they have the EASIEST frequent flyer redemption. If there are seats you can have them. They have a Visa card for points.

 

[TreeOfLife]

There's PLENTY of Skymiles members here!

I L O V E my card. I have the gold Skymiles card and get double miles for purchases at the grocery store, post office, pharmacy, gas stations and others. I use it everywhere! If you buy tickets online you rack up double or even triple miles depending on the promo. If you use the kiosks at the airport you rack up more miles.

This year, the three of us are flying and one ticket we got virtually on points awarded by offers alone! That was 25,000 points... Just for applying we got 10,000 pts! MCI, AT&T, Earthlink each gave me 5,000 pts when I signed on. Now AT&T gives me 5 miles per dollar on my phone bill...

I have not had any luck getting flights over the years.

Oh the trick is to plan early! I know, you never know what may come but if you cancel your trip for whatever reason you do not pay a penalty with your skymiles.
I called right on the 331st day ahead of our departure and return flights and got to select tickets in non-stop flights, even our seats. *I* told the airline what I wanted and they gave it to me. There were absolutely no restrictions at all.

I checked the price of those tickets yesterday, for the same flight and had we purchased them we'd have to dish out nearly $1,200! It was ssssweet to use our rewards!

 

[SamR]

I'm also a long-time holder of the Amex SkyMiles card. We use it instead of cash/check/debit cards for most purchases, including groceries, gas, and certainly larger expenditures like airline tickets, hotel bills, etc. We even used it for our 20% down payment on our initial DVC purchase one year ago. I always pay the full balance each month, so using it has no effect on monthly cash flow, but allows me to rack up a lot of frequent flyer miles.

My biggest gripe with Delta is with their policy on using miles for upgrades. The booking classes that they will allow you to upgrade from are much more limited than what I have seen with American Airlines (the other airline frequent-flyer program that I have experience with).

I may be about to back-burner the SkyMiles card for awhile anyway. I just applied for the Disney Visa card (the DVC version), and after looking over their reward structure (details of which I'm supposed to receive when I get the card) I may switch to using it for most purchases in an attempt to rack up points to use towards Disney admission media, etc.

 

[peg2001]

SamR,

I would appreciate it if you would share your findings when you compare the value of the Disney credit card to the Skymiles Amex. I am considering the same thing but have not yet ordered the Disney card.

Peggy

 

[TreeOfLife]

I may be about to back-burner the SkyMiles card for awhile anyway. I just applied for the Disney Visa card (the DVC version), and after looking over their reward structure (details of which I'm supposed to receive when I get the card) I may switch to using it for most purchases in an attempt to rack up points to use towards Disney admission media, etc.

At this point, just about any "mutt" card gives you what the Disney Visa has to offer...

1% of purchases and nothing more does not motivate me to make it the main card. I get teh feeling they'll have a rude awakening before they begin to offer decent incentives to use that card.

I'll stick to my Skymiles until something else gives me substantial rewards that match what this one does, with purchases virtually everywhere!

 

[PatMcDuck]

The best way to rack up miles for us, is the special offers..... for example, my long distance carrier. I don't really use my home phone for long distance, and don't care which carrier I have (I use my celll that has free long distance) SO I did MCI switch, got 10000 miles. then after while, I switched back to AT&T, for no real reason. MCI BEGGED us to come back, we got another 10000 miles! Now AT&T is the preffered carrier, and they gave us 5000 to switch to them......... you get the idea.

We redeemed for 3 free tickets last summer. We got direct flights to Orlando, but could not get out of Newark, had to go to JFK. (worth it for free flights)