Please explain Sky Miles to me....

[Disneyland1084]

I feel really dumb even asking this. I live in Nevada and will be flying to Salt Lake City , Utah multiple times in the next year. Yesterday I joined Delta's Sky Miles program, but am still debating if I want to get their credit card. If I get their credit card and spend $1,000 in the first three months I get 40,000 miles. Something tells me that isn't 40,000 miles in free travel. Any explanations would be appreciated.

 

[bcla]

It’s really points based now and not mile based. These programs used to accumulate mile based points, but now they’re based on ticket price - usually one point per dollar spent.

Travel redemption has changed too, where it used to be fixed points for a range of different travel. Now I believe it’s proportional to the cash fares.

I don’t specifically have SkyMiles experience, but most of these programs are similar these days. Maybe look at this for an idea.

https://thepointsguy.com/guide/sweet-spots-delta-skymiles/

 

[DaniellePoppins]

Hi... I can't help you with Delta specific, but I've been using the United Mileage card for years and have done lots of research on best cards to use so I might be able to help a bit. Two things I would recommend is pricing out buying miles. For example, United runs a promotion during the year where you can buy miles at about a 30% a discount (as opposed to earning them). The more you buy the better the discount. I would estimate $1000 would get you close to 40K miles, if not a little more. You should also know how much your flight is going to cost in miles. Will that many miles get you at least one round trip flight? Or would the cost of the flight be cheaper in $ that the $1000 purchase wouldn't make a better bargain for you .

I'd also look into the benefits of the card outside of the miles earned. For example, my United card has a $99 yearly fee. That might seem like a lot to pay for one person, especially if you don't fly much, but the added benefits to the card pay that fee back plus a lot more. For that $99 a year I get two one-day passes to the club lounge to use. One pass retails for $60 a day. I get one free checked bag for myself and a companion on each flight. That's $35 savings per bag for every flight, no maximum if I fly multiple times in the year. I get priority boarding which means even if I'm at the back of the plane, I can board right after first class and have first dibs on that precious overhead compartment space. I get double miles for all United purchases as well as 25% off in flight purchases. And one of the biggest perks that card offers is a $100 statement credit on TSA pre-check/global entry every 4 years. This was so worth the effort to me. I applied for pre-check and paid for it using my credit card. Within 24 hours I had been refunded back the purchase. If Delta offers some of the same bonuses to their card, it could be worth it to take advantage.

After you do some pros and cons of the Delta card I'd also suggest looking into "travel" cards that aren't tied to one airline. Look at Amex and Capital One cards to see if they offer good travel rewards that don't have to be used exclusively for Delta. You may find one of those comes out as the better option for you, especially if you end up flying other airlines to different locations and Delta wouldn't be as convenient. Hope this helps.

 

[sam_gordon]

I have Delta Skymiles and the CC. The good thing about Delta is your points never expire (other airlines may have the same deal, don't know). You can go to Delta's website, check the "shop with miles" box and search for a flight you might want. I picked a random week in April of next year and round trip was showing from as low as 14k miles (Wed-Wed) to 33k miles (Sun-Sun). So yes, 40k miles is enough for a free flight.

If you have their AmEx card, in addition to getting miles for what you purchase, you also get a free piece of checked luggage for every member of your party. That's free for the first year, then $95/year after.

 

[wvjules]

I have Delta SkyMiles and also the Delta Gold MC. I just cashed in almost 100,000 points for 2 round trip tickets to Maui. So yes, you can definitely get R/T ticket(s) with 40,000 miles. With the card you will get to board earlier than last if you book a basic economy ticket and the free check baggage is a great perk! You can also use miles as "cash" towards Delta vacations (100,000 miles is $1,000)

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

I have a Delta AmEx card. I get 2x miles on dining out or at Delta. Spent about $2k on it since I got it in May; I have almost 14K miles already. My card also has a bunch of different promotions. For example, if I spend $50 at Bare Minerals, I get $10 back; or +1 mile per dollar spent at Macy's. No foreign transfer fees; 20% back on in-flight purchases; car rental loss & damage insurance, and premium car rental protection; and a global assist hotline.

 

[_19disnA]

The value to you of any airline related credit cards depend on: 1) how much you spend annually, 2) how often you fly and 3) where you live in relation to which airlines fly from your local airport. If you never fly on a certain airline or where you live/travel isn't serviced by certain airlines, then their credit card won't be of much value to you. Each airline website has specifics about their program/perks and how many points it takes to either get upgrades or free tickets.

Every credit card is competing for your business, so no one card is always better then another. They make their money from the fees they charge merchants when you make a purchase and any interest you pay on unpaid balances along with their annual fee.

 

[onelove8187]

I feel really dumb even asking this. I live in Nevada and will be flying to Salt Lake City , Utah multiple times in the next year. Yesterday I joined Delta's Sky Miles program, but am still debating if I want to get their credit card. If I get their credit card and spend $1,000 in the first three months I get 40,000 miles. Something tells me that isn't 40,000 miles in free travel. Any explanations would be appreciated.

Skymiles are great... Redemptions do scale with ticket price but it varies a bit, definitely >1 cent per point here though. Whats interesting for disney folk is the deltavacations.com option which allows for redemption towards vacation packages. You can book hotel + car/transfer package that includes the hotel stay and DME using skymiles redeemed for 1 cent per point- disney.com prices come through and discounts show up here as well (where with AA they usually dont and have inflated prices). So if the bonus is 40,000 points, you could use that for $400 towards a disney hotel through them deltavacations. There was a promotion maybe two years ago that allowed for nearly 2 cents per point but to take advantage required jumping through some hoops. With that being said, and if you are thinking that $400+ value after spending $1000 sounds great... it is not. The personal delta amex regularly offers increased bonus of 70,000+ skymiles and sometimes adds a statement credit part of the bonus as well. Currently, I have 5 nights coronado tower booked through delta that I paid 133,000 miles for (not to mention two days at GF and one at Poly, but those were through AA).

 

[fly girl]

I love Delta and I love AMEX so it’s a perfect mix for me.

I think everyone on here who has the card has given you the scoop on earning and redeeming miles, etc. As with all CC’s it comes down to personal preference. I’ve been very happy with mine. AMEX is so good on defending you with charges too. And the have great deals like @Bianca and Bernard pointed out. I currently have one for $10 off restaurant purchases over $25, and it’s been used repeatedly!

If you know you’ll be flying Delta a lot over the next year, I’d look into getting it. You can always cancel the card after the first year of you don’t want to pay the annual fee. But you’ll get free checked bag, and earn miles with purchases too. 40K is not a huge amount, but it can be enough for a coach seat (possibly 2 if you time it right) intercontinental US. If you get the Platinum Delta AMEX the benefits increase including (last I knew) reimbursement for Global Entry and complementary entry into Sky Club Lounges.

 

[bcla]

Again - I haven't done SkyMiles, but I was using United's United Mileage Plus for some time back when they actually accumulated miles. That worked really well for us when we flew on a package tour. We had to send an image of our boarding passes though since we didn't book directly with our account numbers. I used those to get various things including inter-island tickets on Hawaiian Airlines ($10 service fee per ticket I think) and maybe 5000 points per ticket. They had a variety of other things I could get, including Restaurant.com certificates.

I do fly Southwest more than any other airline and for a time I had the Chase Southwest card. Their frequent flier program was always points based on cash fares. However, if you think of points being worth a penny each (that's pretty standard in the industry) there was a discount for redemption.

 

[spiders]

Delta has devalued it's miles over the years so keep that in mind -- what that means is that award trips cost more than they used to.

If you are going to get the credit card then I would highly suggest you get the Platinum instead of the Gold. The Gold only has a $99 annual fee whereas the Platinum has a $250 annual fee. However, the Platinum still comes with an annual companion certificate at renewal which is valid for a domestic continental US trip. If you really want to go all out on the Reserve which is $499 then the companion certificate is valid for first class and you get access to SkyClub.

 

[kdonnel]

Delta no longer publishes a mileage chart like in the old days so it is hard to tell what you can get for 40,000 miles. In other words domestic tickets are no longer a fixed 25,000 miles round trip.

To get an idea of what the bonus 40,000 miles would be worth to you, head to the delta.com website and search for tickets you might want to redeem using the miles.

For example I searched for Atlanta to Orlando in mid/late July. The mile prices listed are round trip, basic economy for certain flights on those days only.




So a fully priced out trip from Atlanta to Orlando could be as cheap as 10,000 miles plus $11.20 in taxes.




The 40,000 miles could be enough for 4 round trip tickets.

A more realistic valuation though would be one or two round trip domestic trips in main cabin.

 

[cobright]

I feel really dumb even asking this. I live in Nevada and will be flying to Salt Lake City , Utah multiple times in the next year. Yesterday I joined Delta's Sky Miles program, but am still debating if I want to get their credit card. If I get their credit card and spend $1,000 in the first three months I get 40,000 miles. Something tells me that isn't 40,000 miles in free travel. Any explanations would be appreciated.

wait until a better promotion comes along. 40k miles is the base offer. I finally pulled the trigger when they offered 80k miles and then went with the amex reserve card to get 100k miles for joining.

40k miles is a single round trip within the contiguous.

the value of each 'mile' is about a penny if put towards a ticket or a vacation package.

The real fun happens when you buy a Disney vacation package through Delta with those points then upgrade your included park tickets to Annual Passes for the difference in price.

 

[TLSnell1981]

Last month I used roughly 40,000 last minute to MCO for a first class ticket that was selling for $700. I can use 4–5 times as many points for a business class ticket to Europe...price around $6000. So yeah... it varies greatly.