Delta Sky Miles..Can Someone explain

[GOOFY4DONALD]

I get the basics. It's just like any other reward site...you buy and you get X number of miles in your account. What I don't get is the conversion. I am guessing 10,000 miles does not equal 10,000 travel miles so how can I find out the conversion. Also, I see where you can buy miles. How and why would this be a good or bad idea. Is it just to save you money for you or does it actually give you more miles?

 

[skelooch]

My experience has been that the min number of skymiles required to book an award flight is 25000 but it will very depending on dates on flight times. It has become a little easier in recent years to redeem skymiles.

You generally recieve 1 mile for every dollar you charge on your skymiles CC, they do have promotions now and them offering double or triple miles for select merchants, so it will all depend on how much you use the CC and earn miles. Points will expire if not used within a defined period of time, not sure what it is currently.
There are a couple of other perks such as not having to pay for checked bags if you have a Delta Skymiles CC.

Buying miles is good if you are a little short of the required points to book a flight, sometimes they will have offers to buy points and get a 25, 30 or 50 percent bonus, (buy 2000 and get 4000) and could be cheaper than paying the fare.

If you go to Delta's site you can enter the flight dates and select the option for Award ticket and it will tell you how many miles it is to book that flight.
there will be a small fee of $5 to complete the transaction, that you pay for separately.

If you have any problems you can always call them for help.

 

[skiingfast]

You get a skymile per dollar spent. Somtimes there is a special deal to get a higher rate.

When you redeem your miles, a sky mile is not a travel mile. Not even close. Delta has scales, I think it is 25k, 35k or 45k per domestic ticket. So when you have earned 25k skymiles, by spending $25,000 you can get a free ticket(for a 25K miles route/seat). The ticket if you pay cash may only be $300.

You also earn miles when you fly if you pay for a ticket. But if the route is 1238 miles long you only get 1238 skymiles.

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

Thanks. I wasn't really looking into the CC just the sky miles reward card. Actualy don't need another CC, especially if I would have to spend 25K just to get 1 ticket

 

[DebbieB]

Thanks. I wasn't really looking into the CC just the sky miles reward card. Actualy don't need another CC, especially if I would have to spend 25K just to get 1 ticket

Are you talking about miles you get when you fly? If your flight is 1,000 miles, then 1,000 miles are added to your skymiles account. You can also earn miles with participating hotel stays, rental cars, etc. See this link for ways to earn miles:

https://www.delta.com/skymiles/ways_to_get_miles/index.jsp

When you redeem, it depends on the date and flight how many miles you need to get a free ticket. The minimum miles required for a free domestic coach ticket is 25,000 roundtrip but can go as high as 50,000.

 

[a1tinkfans]

just wanted to pass along some info I learned here on DIS and was VERY beneficial for us. We were unable to use our Skymiles each time we tried...not enough seats avail, scheduling...not non stops,,,the list goes on and on....since I make various purchases (no longer have the credit card) thru the Skymiles program (like ordering/sending FTD flowers to keep my miles from expiring) I was able to use Miles in the Delta Marketplace....The marketplace has hotels, cars and a myriad of other items/experiences...best of all you can use Miles AND a cc if you are short some miles. They have DIsney resorts......I used miles for our poly club stay recently, it was simple and went very smoothly.......I am also using some this upcoming trip for Hyatt MCO for our late night arrival.
just another way to use those miles.....for me it was no put of pocket, and thats Good!

 

[Brian Noble]

One alternative to using miles for "award tickets" is "pay with miles". If you have a Delta-branded amex, at gold (or better) you can use miles to pay for seats at effectively one penny per mile.

Particularly for MCO routes, with little "standard" award availability, this can often work out well.