Delta SkyMiles Program Review

Who Is Delta SkyMiles Good For?

Delta has been taking flak from frequent flyers for years, for a variety of valid reasons: Their awards are much harder to come by than those of most major domestic airlines; you cant book one-way awards without a huge penalty; and its often a huge time suck to find the award you want to book on their website.

But many uber-frequent travelers have stayed incredibly loyal to them as well, in no small part because of the incredible variety of comfy airlines with great perks that Delta points give you access to, starting with Delta’s sister airlines Air France and KLM (they’re all one company but fly under different names).

Starting in 2015, Delta will be straining loyalties even further with a number of sweeping changes to its award program, beginning with revenue-based SkyMiles earning and extending into an increasingly complex awards chart that will have five redemption categories instead of three, and that will incorporate several key devaluations.

On the bright side, the new award chart, which will kick in on January 1, 2015, will allow one-way awards and cash + points redemptions.

Hubs:

• Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport
• Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
• John F. Kennedy International Airport
• LaGuardia Airport
• Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport

How Can You Use Delta SkyMiles?

Beyond the lack of one-way awards, one of the big gripes is the difficulty of booking Delta award flights, so Ill tell you right now: Use Air France to search for inventory, not Delta.com.

Beyond that, though, Delta’s partner network offers some really great redemptions within Europe and South America, so for short hops to hard-to-reach destinations that can easily run you a great amount of cash back or you can cruise over in business class on earned with credit cards miles.

Now that American has abruptly scrapped its incredibly valuable One World Explorer awards that offered great award redemption rates for round-the-world travel, Delta’s round-the-world awards are some of the only ones still kicking, and you can use them to easily get to especially out-of-the-way places like Tahiti, the Maldives and Australia through partner airlines.

Program Perks:

• No fee for last-minute bookings
• Hold tickets until 11:59 pm the following day if you do not have enough miles in your account
• One stopover or open-jaw per round-trip award
• Three stopovers per continent on round-the-world awards
• Miles do not expire
• Eight segments permitted per award flight

Booking Quirks:

• No one-way awards currently, but that changes in 2015 (you’ll be charged the round-trip price to book one until then)
• More expensive awards do not carry additional benefits, like Americans AAnytime awards
• Delta.com only books flights on AeroMexico, Aeroflot, Aerolineas Argentinas, Air France, Alaska Airlines, Alitalia, China Airlines, China Eastern, China Southern, Delta Air Lines, Garuda Indonesia, Hawaiian Airlines, KLM, Korean Air, Middle East Airlines, Saudia Airlines, Vietnam Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia
• Cancellations must be made more than 72 hours before departure to redeposit miles
• Maximum permitted mileage (something airlines use to keep travelers from adding too many stopovers in disparate places) is known to be randomly enforced by phone agents

Best Value Awards:

For the perennial dilemma of how to get to London without paying frightfully high fuel surcharges, Delta is one airline that offers a simple answer. You can redeem Delta points on Virgin Atlantic with minimal surcharges, and Virgin Atlantic has a great product on these flights, employing double-decker 747-400s that have economy spots on the back of the top deck. There’s no extra fee to snag them, but you get preferential boarding, a much better flight-attendant-and-bathroom-to-passenger ratio and extra storage space in the window seats.

Worst Value Awards:

One-ways. Often if you’re low on points on a certain airline, or having trouble finding low-level redemptions in both directions on the flights you need, it makes sense to split your itinerary on two airlines, but there’s no point doing this with Delta.

The award chart really confuses this point, because it shows you the number of miles needed for one direction of travel. But, that is the one-way redemption rate based on round-trip travel. If you want a simple one-way, they’ll charge you the number of miles required for a round-trip flight!

The Good Stuff: Upgrades and Elite Status

For frequent flyers who love their upgrades, Delta elite status is a great thing to have. If you book a Y fare, no matter what status level you have, you can get a complimentary upgrade at the time of booking. On other fare categories, unlimited complimentary upgrades are also available, but within a certain number of days of departure, according to status level.

Otherwise, its quite straightforward to upgrade, with two upgrade rates, one for full fare seats and one for select other fares. You have to call to see if your fare qualifies, but if it does, the rate is comparable to the difference between economy and upper class seats on the general award chart.

Delta SkyMiles Medallion Elite Levels and Perks

• Silver: Unlimited complimentary upgrades on full fares and award tickets, complimentary upgrades on discount fares one day in advance, solid bonus miles, free checked baggage, priority check-in and boarding
• Gold: Complimentary upgrades on discount fares three days in advance, huge bonus miles, priority security line access, priority baggage handling, SkyTeam lounge access, waived ticket change fees
• Platinum: Complimentary upgrades on discount fares five days in advance, one choice benefit such as extra miles or lounge passes, waived award cancellation fees
• Diamond: exceptionally valuable percent bonus miles, free Delta SkyClub membership, VIP service line, two choice benefits

Associated Credit Cards

All of Delta’s co-branded credit cards are issued through American Express, and you have four options, each with a different focus, according to Delta: Delta SkyMiles Credit Card, Gold Delta SkyMiles Credit Card (earn miles faster), Platinum Delta SkyMiles Credit Card (achieve Medallion status) and the Delta Reserve Credit Card (elevate Medallion status).

The cards are very different. Let’s start with the Delta Reserve Credit Card. Earn 10,000 Medallion® Qualification Miles (MQMs) and 40,000 bonus miles after you spend $3,000 in purchases on your new Card in your first 3 months.

The Platinum Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card brings you more benefits. Earn 10,000 Medallion® Qualification Miles (MQMs)and 50,000 bonus miles after you spend $3,000 in purchases on your new Card in your first 3 months. In addition, earn a $100 statement credit after you make a Delta purchase with your new Card within your first 3 months.

All cards offer:

• Double miles on Delta purchases and one mile per dollar on everything else
• Generous percent statement credit on in-flight purchases

All cards except the basic card offer:

• First checked bag free for you and up to eight others
• Priority boarding
• Reduced entrance fee for the Delta Sky Club (except the reserve card, which includes a complimentary membership)
• No foreign transaction fees

Annual fees vary quite a bit, with only the Gold card is coming with $0 intro fee, then $95.
The Platinum Card carries a $195 fee, and the Reserve a $450 fee, because it includes club access, concierge services and a companion certificate upon renewal eligible for first class travel.