We’ll cover every aspect of Delta Air Lines’ SkyMiles frequent flyer program, including how to earn Delta miles quickly in large amounts, how beginners can use Delta miles, the best redemption range for Delta miles, Delta Air Lines elite status, and more.

About Delta Air Lines

Delta Air Lines is the oldest operating airline in the United States. The company was founded in 1925. Delta is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and most of its traffic comes from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which is still the world’s busiest passenger airport. In addition to its hub in central Georgia, Delta also has hubs in New York City (LaGuardia and JFK), Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, and Seattle/Tacoma. In short, the airline offers broad coverage across the United States.

In addition to its many domestic routes, Delta also has an excellent international network. As a founding member of SkyTeam, Delta has partner airlines on every inhabited continent except Australia. Major partners in Europe and Asia make Delta award tickets useful for reaching most of the world. SkyTeam has more than 20 member airlines in total.

You can sign up for a Delta frequent flyer account directly on the official website

How to Earn Delta Miles

Here we’ll cover the main ways to earn Delta miles; some secondary methods will be mentioned later.

Credit Cards

Delta has long partnered with AMEX to offer co-branded credit cards. You can earn miles through card spending, and these cards often come with large welcome bonuses—apply a few times and you can earn enough for free award tickets. In addition, cardholders enjoy free checked bags, priority boarding, and discounts on inflight purchases when flying Delta. Details are as follows:

There are also three business credit cards:

The welcome bonuses on these cards change from time to time. For beginners, applying for the Delta Gold is the best choice: the first year annual fee is waived, and the welcome bonus is also very generous.

Apply now

Full review

AMEX Gold Delta Card

First two checked bags free; Delta flight perks, plus $100 hotel reimbursement each year

  • Welcome bonus: Up to 80,000 miles (spend $2,000 in six months)
  • Rewards: Delta purchases, supermarkets, restaurants 2x; everything else 1x
  • Redemption: Redeem for Delta flights and SkyTeam partner award tickets; 15% off redemptions
  • Annual fee: $150（Annual fee waived for the first year）
  • Apply now>>

Transfers

In addition to earning Delta miles directly, you can also transfer other points into Delta miles. For example, AMEX points can be transferred to Delta miles instantly at a 1:1 ratio, with no waiting time. If that still isn’t enough, you can consider Marriott’s 3:1 transfer. The other hotel transfer partners are not really recommended; the value is too poor, and booking hotels directly is better.

Flying

Of course, flying Delta is also a very important source. Like UA, Delta mileage earning is now tied entirely to ticket price and no longer to distance. You earn 5 Delta miles per $1 of base fare. Base fare is the ticket price before taxes and fees. Elite status also earns additional mileage bonuses:

  • General member: 5 miles per $1 spent
  • Silver member: 7 miles per $1 spent
  • Gold member: 8 miles per $1 spent
  • Platinum member: 9 miles per $1 spent
  • Diamond member: 11 miles per $1 spent

For example, a round-trip ticket from Portland, Oregon (PDX) via Salt Lake City (SLC) to London Heathrow (LHR) costs $883.41. The base fare is $620.00, and taxes and fees are $263.41. If you are a general member, you can earn 3,100 Delta miles (5 x 620). If you are a Platinum member, earning 9 Delta miles per $1 spent, you can earn 5,580 Delta miles.

In addition to flying Delta itself, you can also earn Delta miles on flights operated by SkyTeam member airlines. Each partner has different earning rules, and earning rates also vary by cabin, so we won’t go into detail here. The following airlines are relatively good for crediting flights to Delta. Of course, for beginners, you can simply credit all SkyTeam flights to Delta, which is also more convenient:

  • Aeromexico
  • Air France
  • China Eastern Airlines
  • KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
  • Korean Air
  • LATAM
  • Virgin Atlantic

Delta Award Tickets

First, you should understand that Delta miles can be used not only for Delta-operated flights, but also for SkyTeam and partner airline tickets. To search for awards, just use Delta’s official website:

If you check “Flexible dates,” it will show award availability for the week before and after the selected date.

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You can also choose the “Price Calendar” to view a full month.

Click through to browse Delta award tickets and routes. Delta allows bookings in various cabins. The lowest cabin from California to Shanghai only costs 40,000 miles, which is a good deal for Delta. The welcome bonus for AMEX Delta Gold often reaches 70,000, which is almost enough for two round-trip China–US tickets. Delta One requires far too many miles, so it is not recommended to book it with Delta miles at all (you may want to consider using miles from other SkyTeam members; we’ll cover that later when we introduce the relevant programs).

Let’s take a look at the value of the miles. Here we’ll use cash tickets for flights on the same date. You can see that 40,000 miles corresponds to a $630 flight, so the value of Delta miles here is about 1.5 cents per point. In general, we consider the average value of Delta miles to be about 1.3 cents per point (the average redemption value for domestic and international flights in the U.S.). Looking at Delta One, the miles required are almost 10 times the base fare, while the cash price is only about 6 times the base fare, so redeeming for Delta One is even less worthwhile.

Delta also supports miles + cash payments. At checkout, 100 Delta miles can be used for $1 of ticket price, so the minimum value of Delta miles is also 1 cent per point.

In terms of fees, Delta does not charge award ticket change or cancellation fees for all tickets departing from the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean, except Basic Economy. Delta used to charge a phone booking fee as well, but that fee has also been eliminated. On the fees front, award tickets departing from Europe often have higher fees. Most award tickets departing from the U.S. do not have surcharges.

Best Delta Miles Redemptions

Overall, Delta is not a program that often delivers amazing value, and it has long been known as “sky pesos.” After dynamic pricing, Delta’s redemption value is a bit lower than UA and AA. Still, the following are some of the better Delta SkyMiles redemptions.

  • Domestic U.S. award tickets: These can still be pretty good when there’s a promotion, but the value isn’t spectacular. I’d say go for it if you can get more than 1.5 cents per point.
  • Business class from Southeast Asia to Europe: Delta charges 80,000 SkyMiles for these flights, usually on Vietnam Airlines and Air China. Taxes and fees are also very low.
  • Business class between Europe and Australia: Starting at 90,000 SkyMiles, this is a very good price for such a long trip. Taxes and fees are low on most airlines.
  • Business class within East Asia and Southeast Asia: For example, a one-way ticket from Tokyo to Singapore costs 40,000 SkyMiles.
  • Economy class within East Asia and Southeast Asia: Some routes are operated by SkyTeam partners, with one-way tickets priced at 22,500 SkyMiles, while cash fares are above $350.
  • Business class between East Asia and South Asia/the Middle East: You can get these seats for 70,000 SkyMiles. Flying in Korean Air business class for more than 7 hours is pretty good.
  • Business class between East Asia and Australia: This option starts at just 65,000 SkyMiles.
  • Business class between Asia and Africa: It requires 135,000 SkyMiles, but the routing may not be great.

Delta Medallion Status

Starting in 2024, the only important metric is spending. You no longer need to track flight count, distance, or anything else. With Delta, you earn 1 MQD for every $1 of base fare you spend. Base fare is the ticket price before taxes and fees. At a minimum, you really need to spend $5,000 on Delta.

  • Silver Medallion: $5,000 MQD
  • Gold Medallion: $10,000 MQD
  • Platinum Medallion: $15,000 MQD
  • Diamond Medallion: $28,000 MQD

However, Delta’s Platinum and Reserve co-branded cards each offer a $2,500 MQD head start every year. Since there are four cards that offer this benefit (two personal cards and two business cards), holding all four cards gives you $10,000 MQD per year. That would immediately move you up to Gold Medallion status. These cards can also earn MQDs through spending, so if you really want to fly Delta and have a lot of credit card spend, you could consider earning elite status through heavy card spending.

Delta Medallion status comes with a range of benefits, depending on the tier you reach. Perks include free checked bags, complimentary upgrades, bonus miles, and more. See:

My Thoughts

I’ve never been a Delta fan, but I’ve still earned a lot of Delta miles through credit cards. Of course, there’s also Membership Rewards, which can be transferred over. So Delta miles are pretty easy to earn from multiple sources. If you mainly travel in economy, Delta is actually a decent program. For business class, use the highlights above as a starting point. Delta’s partner awards are much better than its own flights.

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