Saving Delta Skymiles

[Liz]

Is there any risk in building up Skymiles and not using them when you have enough for a free ticket? We have 3 people in our family with enough miles for a free ticket but when we can get flights to MCO for less than $250 it seems like we should save them for an emergency (my elderly mom lives in Florida and if something should happen to her...) I mean Delta is in no danger of going out of business or discontinuing the program or anything are they?

Thanks!

 

[javaj]

Just a note about using Delta skymiles (or other air miles) for emergencies, most airlines now have a limited number of seats for standard air miles redemption. This means that most of the time on Delta and lots of other airlines, you have to reserve months in advance to use 25,000 for an airline ticket.

They have unlimited seats for other redemptions but that usually costs twice as many miles. For example, last month, I checked on availability for December for our trip to MCO, and we'd have to use 50,000 for each ticket because all the Skysaver slots are taken for our route for most dates in December.

So unless you are flying a route that isn't very popular, it isn't likely that you'll be able to get a seat using standard air miles at short notice during an emergency.

 

[safetymom]

If the fares are affordable save your ff miles for that emergency. Many times you can use them at the last minute for those emergencies. At least you can with the airline I usually fly.

You want to keep the miles for when the fares are expensive.