Some of our favorite ways to use Delta SkyMiles

18.09.2024 - 14:13 / thepointsguy.com / Delta Skymiles

As a Delta Diamond Medallion member, I've found that although the value of Delta's award currency has fallen lately, and many of the best outsize value sweet spots are gone, there are still many ways to find value.

Delta SkyMiles is the loyalty program of Delta Air Lines, and I've been collecting the currency for years. While in most cases Delta SkyMiles are worth about 1 cent each, you can sometimes find extra value. TPG's September 2024 valuations peg the value of SkyMiles at 1.2 cents apiece.

Earning Delta SkyMiles is fairly easy, especially with the limited offers available on many cobranded Delta credit cards right now. In fact, several Delta cards currently have best-ever welcome offers. It might be a good time to accumulate a stash of Delta SkyMiles for a rainy day.

While the days of easy 50,000 SkyMiles redemptions for a one-way business-class seat to Europe are long gone (or at least exceedingly rare), the miles retain some value. In fact, there are sweet spots aplenty.

Below are a few of our favorites.

Delta's frequent flash sales, which offer discounted award flights domestically and abroad, can make your miles go really far.

TPG wrote about a Delta flash sale just last week, where you could fly round-trip from various U.S. cities to places like the Bahamas; Tulum, Mexico; Turks and Caicos; and Barbados for as few as 17,000 SkyMiles plus taxes and fees. If you have a Delta-branded American Express credit card, you can save an additional 15% when booking an award flight, which means cardholders could book during this flash sale for as little as 14,400 miles.

It's not all about published flash sales, though. Delta has a SkyMiles Award Deals page where you can often find compelling deals if you are willing to go where the algorithm takes you.

For this article, I did a test choosing San Francisco International Airport (SFO) as my home airport. On the low end, you can book a main cabin round-trip fare from the Bay Area to Seattle for as few as 13,000 miles and $12. If you're willing to book a basic economy fare, the round-trip award cost drops to 7,000 miles. On the higher end, you can fly to Venice, Italy, for as few as 61,000 miles plus $56 round trip or to Auckland for as few as 74,000 miles plus $100 in taxes and fees round trip.

Coach redemptions are not exactly aspirational, but they can represent a good value for your SkyMiles.

Related: How (and why) to calculate award redemption values

I hate to admit it, but I've cashed in my SkyMiles far too often for first-class upgrades. While buying upgrades takes inventory away from Delta elite members like myself, it's getting harder and harder to count on free upgrades these days. Sometimes, if the upgrade offer is cheap enough, I have used