Delta SkyMiles Introduction (1) - Award Redemption Highlights

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Delta SkyMiles (SkyMiles), nicknamed 'sky pesos' or "Skypeso," refers to how its miles are not worth much, and the number of miles required for redemptions is huge — even domestic flights can cost a 'sky-high' number of miles. Still, as a big player in ~~Mongrel~~ SkyTeam (for more on airline alliances, see my article Introduction to Airline Alliances), Delta miles can still book a lot of flights, and many awards can be booked online. Delta's own website is simple and easy to use for redemptions, so it can be a powerful tool for searching award space within SkyTeam. SkyTeam also includes well-known partners such as China Eastern, China Southern, Xiamen Air, China Airlines, and Korean Air.

Delta Air Lines membership signup page: https://www.delta.com/profile/enrolllanding.action

【4/8 Update】According to Lucky's post, Delta suddenly and without warning raised the mileage price for partner flights on some routes. For example, on the China-U.S. route, a one-way economy award went from 35,000 to 40,000, and business class from 80,000 to 95,000. 【4/17 Update】Mixed-segment glitch fixed. See Gripe 4: The Sudden Devaluation for details.

Contents [Hide]

1 Points Sources
2 Basic Rules
3 China-U.S. Routes
4 Highlight: China Domestic Routes
5 Highlight 3: Limited-Time Redemption Promotions
6 Gripe 1: The Website Can't Build Its Own Itineraries (Married Segments)
7 Gripe 2: Some Partner Airlines Have Blackout Dates on Award Tickets
8 Drawback #3: Fuel Surcharges (YQ/YR)
9 Drawback #4: Unannounced Devaluation
10 Related Articles

Points Sources

Flight earning: Every time I look at the earning charts between SkyTeam partners, I feel the deep malice of the 'Mongrel Alliance.' Korean Air, also a SkyTeam founding member, earns DL miles at 0% for a huge number of fare classes, and China Southern isn't much better. Among the Greater China partners, China Eastern (MU), which has the strongest relationship, is still decent. If you fly China Eastern, you can try crediting to Delta (update: but remember to find your booking class and check the earn rate on wheretocredit.com; shop around). Delta's mileage earning at home is tied to fare and elite status:

Delta miles are a transfer partner of SPG points, 20,000 SPG points = 25,000 DL miles. Like other mileage transfers, it doesn't post instantly. For those of us who are not traveling for work, the main source of SPG points is spending on the AMEX SPG credit card.
DL miles have an important North American partner — AMEX Membership Rewards — with a transfer ratio of 1,000:1,000. In testing, transfers post instantly. MR points mainly come from sign-up bonuses or regular spending on the Everyday Preferred credit card.
AMEX has the AMEX Delta co-branded card trio: Gold Delta SkyMiles^® Credit Card — spend $2,000 within the first three months and you can get 40,000 DL miles. If you use this card for Delta purchases within the first three months, you can also get a $50 credit, and the first-year $95 annual fee is waived, so you can try keeping it for a year and decide when the second annual fee comes due whether it is worth keeping. This is our recommended application link. Platinum Delta SkyMiles^® Credit Card — spend $3,000 within the first three months and you can get 50,000 Delta miles + 10,000 MQM (for elite status). If you use this card for Delta purchases within the first three months, you can also get a $100 credit, and the $195 first-year annual fee is not waived. Each year you can receive one companion ticket within the 48 contiguous U.S. states. This is our recommended application link. Delta Reserve^® Credit Card — after your first purchase, you get 10,000 DL miles and 10,000 MQM, with a $450 annual fee. You can enter Delta lounges unlimited times.

Basic Rules

Delta award redemptions can be one-way, but stopovers are not allowed.

China-U.S. Routes

DL miles redemptions for China-U.S. routes are only so-so. Delta does not publish an award chart, but in practice a one-way saver award between China and the U.S. is generally 35,000 miles in economy (40,000 on partner airlines) and 80,000 miles in business (95,000 on partner airlines). There are still quite a few China Eastern seats, and China Southern and Korean Air both have blackout dates (we'll discuss those below).

Highlight: China Domestic Routes

For short-haul one-way awards within mainland China, economy is 6,000 miles and business is 7,500 miles, such as Shanghai-Wuhan and Guangzhou-Changsha:

There is a little trick here. Note that these short-haul awards refer to A and B being close together. As for where you connect between A and B, the price is the same, so nothing stops you from connecting through a distant C airport. Of course, nothing stops you from, while connecting through C, 'not knowing how to take the flight to B airport' either... Still, it is best not to abuse this trick.

Highlight 3: Limited-Time Redemption Promotions

Generally, Delta charges 12,500 miles for a one-way economy award within the U.S., but Delta occasionally runs domestic U.S. promotions. Delta is also a great tool for short domestic hops; see Delta Miles Intro (2) – Cracking U.S. Domestic Redemptions and the Latest Award Promotion and Delta Miles Intro (3) – How to Use 18,000 Delta Miles for a Round Trip Between the East and West Coasts (With Restrictions).

Gripe 1: The Website Can't Build Its Own Itineraries (Married Segments)

It is fine if you're just searching simple point-to-point trips. But how could someone like OneMoreDay, who enjoys squeezing every bit of value out of award tickets, be satisfied with only the search results the website gives me? Delta's system just doesn't like creative people. One advantage of UA's system and AA's system is that sometimes when you search A-C directly, the B-connection option does not show up, but if you separately search A-B and B-C award space and both are available, as long as the A-B-C itinerary fits UA or AA award rules, you can ticket it using multiple destination or by calling customer service. But Delta's website system does not allow you to search segments separately and stitch them into a one-way award (this is what people call Married Segments). If you call customer service, it depends on the agent's skill level. If you get a good agent who is willing to help you find space, hurry up and ~~marry them already~~ ticket it. For example, a same-day China Airlines nonstop from JFK to TPE and a same-day China Airlines nonstop from TPE to PVG can both be found, but searching JFK-PVG won't show the China Airlines flight. In that case, you can book the JFK-TPE flight first, then call customer service and see whether they can add the TPE-PVG flight.

Gripe 2: Some Partner Airlines Have Blackout Dates on Award Tickets

This means that DL miles cannot be used to redeem certain China Southern and Korean Air flights on blackout dates. On the China-U.S. route, the blackout dates in 2016 included:

Moreover, Korean Air only releases one business award seat and two economy award seats per flight to DL, so if you want to redeem for Korean Air flights, you may want to try using Korean Air miles instead. For more details, see our Introduction to Korean Air Miles (1) – Great for Hawaii and One of the Best SkyTeam First Class Redemptions.

Drawback #3: Fuel Surcharges (YQ/YR)

The biggest problem with SkyTeam airline miles is fuel surcharges, or YQ. Delta miles are actually relatively generous here. The following flights do not incur YQ:

North America domestic tickets on DL and Alaska Airlines;
Domestic Greater China tickets on China Southern, China Eastern, China Airlines, and XiamenAir;
Aeromexico flights, Korean Air flights, Virgin Australia (Virgin Austrilia) flights, and China Airlines (China Airlines) flights (many other blogs say China Airlines has YQ, but OneMoreDay tested it personally and found that it does not charge YQ);
U.S.-to-Europe flights on DL and its partners (but Europe-to-U.S. flights on DL and partners do charge YQ).

Redeeming China Eastern and China Southern tickets between the U.S. and China comes with substantial YQ. However, on U.S.-to-China itineraries, you can use the HKG trick to reduce YQ. A nonstop New York-Shanghai ticket requires more than $200 in YQ. But if you set Hong Kong as the destination and get off in Shanghai, the YQ drops to under $120.

Drawback #4: Unannounced Devaluation

【4/8 Update】Delta already had a tradition of overnight devaluations. At the beginning of last year, it directly raised one-way business class on U.S.-China routes from 70,000 miles to 80,000 miles. Then yesterday, Delta once again stooped to a new low and raised the mileage required for awards on some partner flights without any warning. For the U.S.-China routes most people care about, pure partner awards (China Eastern, China Southern, Korean Air, etc.) increased from 35,000 to 40,000 one-way in economy and from 80,000 to 95,000 one-way in business class, while the pricing for DL-operated flights stayed the same. As shown below:

Partner awards on U.S.-Australia and U.S.-Europe routes also increased. One-way business class on U.S.-Europe went from 70,000 to 85,000, and one-way business class on U.S.-Australia went from 95,000 to 115,000: