Guide to Delta SkyMiles

Delta is one of the largest airlines in the world. They offer many routes both in the United States and across the globe. In addition to their own flights, Delta also has partnerships with many other airlines worldwide. This gives you even more options for booking award flights through Delta SkyMiles.

While the number of flights you can book is great, the cost of booking award flights with Delta can be unpredictable, to say the least. Their pricing model means that prices vary widely and change frequently. This article is all about the ins and outs of the SkyMiles program to help you get the most out of your Delta SkyMiles and find an award flight that works for you!

How to Get Delta SkyMiles

The most obvious way to earn Delta SkyMiles is to fly on Delta, but there are actually several ways you can earn SkyMiles!

Fly Delta

When you fly with Delta, you earn miles based on the price of the ticket. For non-elite members, the rate is 5x Skymiles per dollar spent. If you hold elite status, you can earn even more.

The portion of the fare that covers government taxes and fees is excluded from earning miles.

Fly Delta Partners

You can earn Delta SkyMiles when you fly with Delta partners like Flying Blue or Virgin Atlantic. The way to do this is to attach your Delta SkyMiles number to the reservation as the loyalty number when booking.

If you book the flight through Delta, you’ll earn the same 5x rate you would when flying on Delta. For example, if you book through Delta but fly on Air France.

If you book through the partner airline (e.g., book through Air France and fly on Air France), you’ll typically earn miles based on the distance flown. The exact rate varies depending on which airline you’re flying.

Transfer from American Express

American Express is the only credit card issuer that transfers to Delta. Points transfer at a 1:1 ratio.

American Express charges an excise fee when transferring to Delta. The fee is $0.0006 per point, with a maximum fee of $99 per transaction.

You can calculate the fee by multiplying 0.0006 by the number of miles you want to transfer. For example, 0.0006 x 100,000 miles = $60 excise fee.

Open Delta Co-branded Cards

One of the easiest ways to earn a lot of SkyMiles quickly is to open a new card offering a welcome bonus. American Express issues seven different Delta co-branded cards. Four personal cards and three business cards.

Delta Personal Cards:

• Delta SkyMiles® Blue American Express Card
• Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card
• Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card
• Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card

Delta Business Cards:

• Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business American Express Card
• Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card
• Delta Reserve for Business Credit Card

A note on eligibility with American Express

American Express is somewhat particular when it comes to card eligibility. They have what’s known as “lifetime language” which means you’re typically only eligible to earn a welcome offer on a card one time.

If you want to get each of the Delta cards, you’ll want to apply in a certain order. That’s because you’re not eligible to receive a bonus if you’ve earned a bonus on a higher-tier card in the same family. For example, if you get the SkyMiles Platinum card first, you won’t be eligible to earn a bonus on the Blue or Gold cards. In order to be eligible to earn a bonus on each card, start with Blue, then Gold, then Platinum, and get the Reserve last.

Note: Many people skip the Blue card and start with Gold. If the Blue card doesn’t interest you, it’s fine to start with the Gold card instead.

The Delta personal cards are one family, and the business cards are a separate family.

We have a full post on card eligibility where you can learn more.

Spend on Delta Cards

After earning the initial welcome bonus, you can earn more SkyMiles by putting regular spend on your Delta credit cards.

Delta Bags On Time Guarantee

If your checked bag doesn’t arrive at the carousel within 20 minutes of your plane parking at the gate on a domestic flight, you get 2,500 miles per person who checked a bag. You have to go to the baggage office or submit a form online to claim this. Claims have to be submitted within two hours of your flight’s arrival to get the miles, so make sure to do it right away!

This isn’t a huge way to earn miles, but it’s worth knowing about.

SkyMiles Shopping

With SkyMiles Shopping, you earn points on everyday purchases. Just go to  SkyMiles Shopping.com and sign up. Then before you make a purchase, click through the SkyMiles shopping site for the retailer you want to shop at.

Rates vary and change regularly. You can often find elevated offers around holidays.

SkyMiles Dining

Earn miles for eating out when you link your credit card to the SkyMiles Dining program.

Go to the SkyMiles Dining page and sign up with your Delta account. Add a credit card to start earning miles. You can add as many cards as you like. When you eat at a participating restaurant and pay with a linked card, you automatically earn Delta SkyMiles. Different restaurants have different earning rates. You can earn up to 5 miles per dollar spent.

Cards can only be linked to one dining program at a time, so keep that in mind. For instance, if you have a card linked to Bilt Dining or American Airlines Dining, adding the same card to SkyMiles Dining will remove it from the other program.

Book Travel Through Delta: Cars, Stays, and Cruises

You can earn miles on rental cars, hotels, and vacation rentals when you book through Delta Cars and Stays.

Earn points on cruises by booking through Delta Cruises.

The standard rate is 2 miles per dollar spent, but you can sometimes earn more if there is a special promotion going on.

Earn More with Delta Partners

Earn through Delta partners like Airbnb, Starbucks, Uber, and more by connecting your loyalty accounts. The earnings are small, but it’s an easy way to rack up some extra miles.

Here’s how to set these up.

Airbnb

To earn Delta SkyMiles when you book with Airbnb, go to DeltaAirbnb.com to book. You’ll enter your SkyMiles number and book from that page.

You have to visit DeltaAirbnb.com and enter your SkyMiles number every time you book in order to get points. You earn 1 point for every dollar spent.

Starbucks

To link your accounts and start earning points, go to Deltastarbucks.com. Enter your name and SkyMiles number, then click “link accounts”.

Once your accounts are linked, you automatically earn double stars for purchases at Starbucks on days you have a Delta flight.

You can also earn Skymiles when you reload $25 or more to your Starbucks card in the Starbucks app or at Starbucks.com/rewards.

This is what you can earn:

• Reload $25-$49.99, earn 25 miles
• Reload $50-$74.99, earn 75 miles
• Reload $75-$99.99, earn 125 miles
• Reload $100+, earn 200 miles

Uber

Link Uber and Delta in the Uber app.

From the app, go to your account and scroll down until you see “Partner Rewards”.

Here’s what you can earn:

Uber Rides:

•  1 mile per dollar on UberX airport rides
• 2 miles per dollar on Premium rides (Comfort, Uber XL, SUV and Black)
• 3 miles per dollar on Uber Reserve rides

Uber Eats:

• 1 mile per dollar on qualifying Uber Eats orders over $40.

Hertz

You always earn miles on car rentals when you book through Delta Cars, but you earn extra miles when booking with Hertz. To get the miles, you have to book through Delta. Go to carsandstays.delta.com/Cars to book.

Here’s what you can earn:

Delta Hotel Partners

Earn miles when you stay with IHG, Marriott, Hyatt, Accor, and Shangri-La by linking your Delta SkyMiles account with these hotel loyalty programs.

Get specific instructions for linking each hotel partner on the Delta website. From the SkyMiles partners & offers page, go to “Hotels” and scroll down to each hotel program.

Miles Never Expire

This is a nice perk that Delta offers to all of its SkyMiles members, regardless of status.

How Delta Prices Award Flights

Award pricing with Delta is the most volatile of all the airlines. You can certainly find some good deals, but it’s hard to predict.

Dynamic Pricing

Delta uses dynamic pricing for its flights, which means prices change all the time.

The nice thing about dynamic pricing is that you can book any available seat on the plane with miles. The drawback of dynamic pricing is that prices can fluctuate wildly, and often do. A flight that costs 11,000 points one day might cost 40,000 points the next day.

Award Sales

One of the best times to book a Delta flight is during an award sale. Delta regularly offers flash sales to different destinations, but you never know when the next sale will be or what destinations might be offered.

Delta doesn’t always advertise these sales very loudly, so it helps to know where to look.

How to Find a Deal with Delta

One way to save money on a trip is to go where the deal is. Instead of picking your destination first, you can look and see which destinations are on sale or have a good rate when you’re ready to start planning.

Browse Current Deals

Delta has a page on its website dedicated to current flight deals. You can put in your home airport and see many destinations that are offering deals. This page shows you prices in both dollars and miles. You can also browse the SkyMiles award deals page to see just award flights.

Keep an Eye Out for Flash Sales

Flash sales can happen at any time, usually without advance notice.

Signing up for a flight alert service is one of the easiest ways to find award flight sales.

When flights go on sale, these services send an email out to customers with information about the deal. Many sites like Thrifty Traveler and Going offer both free and paid versions of their flight alert services.

Get a Discount by using your Delta Credit Card

Delta cardholders get a 15% discount when booking an award flight operated by Delta. This is called TakeOff 15 and is available for all Delta credit cards except the Delta SkyMiles® Blue American Express Card. You can find more information on Delta’s website.

Booking Award Flights with Delta

Round Trip or One Way

For many airlines, the award price is the same whether you book a round trip or two one way flights, but Delta is a little bit different.

Delta typically gives a discount when booking a round trip flight. For domestic flights, the price might not be that different, but for international flights, the difference between one round trip or two one way flights can be significant.

You can book however it makes the most sense for your plans, but it’s a good idea to check what the round trip vs. one way pricing would be if you’re thinking about booking the flights separately.

Searching For Availability

When booking a Delta award flight, the Delta website is the best place to start your search. The site offers pretty good functionality, making it easy to search for availability.

Check the box that says “shop with miles” to see point prices. To see more dates at once, check the box that says “my dates are flexible”.

When your dates are flexible, Delta shows you a calendar view to help you see when the cheapest dates are.

Under the “Flexible Dates” view, you’ll be able to see pricing for three days before and three days after the original dates you put in. Sometimes changing one of your dates by a day or two can make a big difference in price!

To see even more options, select “Price Calendar” at the top of the page. That page will show you a full month at a time, with the original dates you selected as the center of the calendar.

You can adjust the total length of your trip to find the absolute lowest price.

The prices you see will be the lowest available price, which is typically the “Main Basic” fare class. This is Delta’s version of basic economy. If you don’t want to see basic fares, you can uncheck the box that says “Include Basic” on the main search page.

Fare Classes

Delta offers four fare classes for domestic flights:

• Main Basic
• Main Classic
• Comfort
• First

Main Basic is the lowest fare class you can book and typically the cheapest. The price difference between Main Basic and Main Classic could be small, or it could be a lot of miles.

Main Basic is the most restrictive, and doesn’t include seat selection. Changes and cancellations are allowed, but for a fee that you’ll have to pay in miles.

I generally don’t recommend booking Basic because of these restrictions.

For international flights, Delta offers slightly different fare classes:

• Main Basic
• Main
• Comfort
• Premium Select
• Delta One

Like with domestic flights, the lowest price offered is typically Main Basic. To upgrade to Main Classic, you’ll have to pay more miles. It could be a few miles, or it could be a lot.

If you book with Delta but fly on another airline, you might see other fare classes offered. This flight is from Miami to Quito, flying on LATAM Airlines:

Taxes and Fees on Award Flights with Delta

For domestic award flights, the only taxes and fees you’ll pay are $5.60 each way.

For international flights, taxes can vary based on where you’re flying and what airline you’re flying on. You’ll see all taxes and fees at the time of booking.

Change and Cancellation Policies for Award Flights with Delta

When booking the Main Basic fare class, changes and cancellations are allowed for a fee. The fee can vary depending on several factors. For award flights, the fee is assessed in miles at the time of the cancellation or change. If you change to a flight that costs more than your original flight, you’ll need to pay the fare difference as well.

For all other fare classes, you can cancel for free and get all of your miles refunded for flights that originate in the US or Canada. Changes are also allowed for free, but you’ll pay the fare difference. This means if the price goes down, you can rebook and get some miles back.

For flights that originate in other regions, there may be a fee to change or cancel your flight. You can see all of the policies on Delta’s website.

Alliance and Partner Airlines

Delta is part of the SkyTeam Alliance, which includes Air France, KLM, Virgin Atlantic, China Airlines, Korean Air, Air Europa, and many more.

Delta also has partnerships with several other airlines that aren’t part of the SkyTeam Alliance. This includes LATAM, WestJet, and more.

You can use Delta SkyMiles to book on any of these airline partners when you book on the Delta website.

Final Thoughts for Booking Delta on Points

Booking an award flight with Delta can mean unpredictable pricing, but you can also find great deals. The Delta website is user-friendly, making it easy to navigate and find good deals.

For more ways to book Delta flights, check out our post on booking Delta flights through its partners Virgin Atlantic and Flying Blue.

Learn more about transfer partners with our points transfer guide.