Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is happening now! Follow us as Greg, Nick, and Stephen compete to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines before November 23rd. Who will complete the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
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Delta is offering an amazing promotion on Vacation Packages, giving you 2 cents per mile in value when booking vacation packages through Friday, August 30 September 6, 2019. That’s a great deal for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that you can often get a better deal on a vacation package than you can when booking the flight alone. You’ll also earn miles on these bookings as though they were paid tickets. If you can find a deal that works, this could be an epic SkyMiles redemption and may even be good enough to justify transferring Membership Rewards points.
The Deal
- Delta is offering double the usual value for SkyMiles (i.e. get 2 cents per SkyMile) when using SkyMiles to pay for Delta Vacation Packages
- Direct link to this promotion
Key Terms
- Must book by Friday, September 6, 2019 at 11:59pm ET
- Minimum 2-night hotel stay required.
- Offer is redeemable up to 999,999 miles on flight and hotel packages to any Delta Vacations destination.
- If you cancel your reservation, miles will not be redeposited into your SkyMiles account. The SkyMiles account holder will receive a Delta Vacations voucher for the value of the miles at the time of they were applied to the booking as payment.
- See full terms here
Quick Thoughts
First of all, if you’ll be transferring from Membership Rewards to Delta, remember that Amex charges a fee when transferring to US-based mileage programs.
That said, you wouldn’t be crazy for considering a transfer to Delta SkyMiles here. As Greg noted in this morning’s post on the Best ways to get to Hawaii from the US mainland, airline vacation packages can sometimes be cheaper than booking the flight alone — meaning that throwing away the hotel or car rental portion of the package might still save you money over booking the flight alone. Note that this deal requires a hotel booking for a minimum of 2 nights.
As an example, Greg took a look at Detroit to London from May 10-14, 2020. The best nonstop price per person for those dates is $2639 per person.
If you’re willing to make a few stops, the cheapest flights available right now are $1644 per person.
However, booking through Delta vacations, you can get that same trip for two people with hotel for $1,555.58 total. That’s $778 each. Or it’s bookable with 77,779 SkyMiles total.
You might be able to do even better by calling in and saying that you only need 2 nights of hotel. A phone agent should be able to help you book the hotel for just part of your trip, reducing the cost even further.
Furthermore, these flights will earn redeemable miles and MQMs for those chasing after Delta status. Unfortunately, these special deals are for non-published fares. That means that you can’t upgrade with miles or with global upgrade certs.
Deals abound to the various parts of the world where Delta flies and in different cabin classes, so it’s worth taking a look if you have Delta miles to burn.
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Hey @Nick Reyes – Any chance you think we’ll see this again? I booked a great vacation during this and WOULD LOVE to take advantage of it again.
Can also recommend the Palafitos for a great vacation
I booked a vacation with this deal for travel this summer. It now looks like at least some of my flights have been canceled by the carrier(KLM in this instance). Does anyone know how refunds are handled? I know getting my miles redeposited is not likely. I really don’t want a voucher thought.
[…] Amazing Delta vacation packages promo: get 2c per mile + earn miles […]
[…] Amazing Delta vacation packages promo: get 2c per mile + earn miles […]
Has anyone cancelled online? I was just able to and shows:
Payment Summary
Type Ends With Payment Date Amount
Visa 6236 8/30/19 $0.01
SkyMiles 9090 8/30/19 $2044.94 (102,247 SkyMiles)
Payment Total $2,044.95
The T&Cs show “***Miles used as payment are refunded as a voucher.”.
Hope this is in fact what happens!
Where did you find the option to cancel online? When I tried last week, I couldn’t find the option anywhere
It was literally at the top right. I couldn’t see it but CTRL+F and it was right there. I was surprised I missed it too as it seemed obvious but only after I located it.
Would adding a companion certificate to this deal work?
No, you can’t apply a companion certificate to a vacation package
Greg, About the cancellation, as you mentioned it states “The SkyMiles account holder will receive a Delta Vacations voucher for the value of the miles at the time of they were applied to the booking as payment.”
For example, if I book using 50,000 SkyMiles worth $1000 and have to cancel for any reason, does that mean does it Certificate is still good for $1000 off?
They are giving many people miles back instead of the voucher so it might not work. If you do get the voucher then yes it will be $1000 and will expire in a year
Thank you for the feedback. I was on the phone with a Delta agent last night and she stated two things:
1. Because it is a Delta vacations package and not simply a Delta flight, a certificate would be issued in the case of a refund.
2. Also, she stated In the event of a cancellation, the amount of the voucher would go back to the
pre-promotion rate. Using my illustration above, the 50,000 SkyMiles would revert back into $500.
Perhaps she just was not well informed on the two matters above.
It’s possible that they changed their policy yesterday but I think it’s more likely she is misinformed
If you cancel and get a voucher, will you be able to make a hotel booking with the voucher that doesn’t include flights?
A phone rep told me yes, but I don’t have proof. You would have to call to book it.
[…] Through Friday evening 8/30, Delta is running a fantastic promotion: SkyMiles are worth double when booking a Delta Vacation. Nick wrote about this deal a few days ago: Amazing Delta vacation packages promo: get 2c per mile + earn miles. […]
Since you earn airline miles, do you know if you are a member of the hotel’s rewards program are you able to take advantage of the elite benefits
You’re not supposed to be able to, but I’ve had some luck in adding my hotel rewards number to the reservation after the fact by calling the hotel
[…] Amazing Delta vacation packages promo: get 2c per mile + earn miles […]
I’m wondering about this: If you cancel your reservation, miles will not be redeposited into your SkyMiles account. The SkyMiles account holder will receive a Delta Vacations voucher for the value of the miles at the time of they were applied to the booking as payment. Is there an opportunity here: can we book now, then cancel later and get a voucher?
That sounds interesting…
Exactly. Does someone know what are the restrictions with such voucher. Do we have to use with in a year or is it only for original passengers. Otherwise this looks like a better option to get the voucher now and use it later.
Reading thread on Dan’s Deals – it works that way IF you purchase the optional insurance.
“You can purchase the travel insurance delta offers if you want to cancel, and then you will get your payment back in the form of a delta vacations gift voucher… So I ended up spending about 95k points on a package including the $180 charge for the insurance. (You can use the miles to over the insurance charge), I can now cancel the booking and get back $1,700 in the form of a voucher valid for 1 year.. Not a bad redemption I think..”
[…] series of deals this week for their ‘Dream It, Live It’ event. Yesterday’s deal (which is still bookable) offered the opportunity to get 2cpp of value from your SkyMiles when booking vacation […]
Will hotels see this as an OTA booking? No points earned/elite benefits?
That’s correct. Note that in some cases you can add your rewards number to the reservation after the fact. You still won’t earn points or elite night credits, but if you’re lucky the hotel will honor your elite benefits (I’ve had luck with this a number of times)
[…] night, we reported on a terrific deal running for the next few days that allows you to redeem Delta Sky Miles at a value of 2 cents each toward vacation packages. That deal is special for two separate but equally important reasons: […]
Detroit to London should be less than $1,000 especially with stops.
The prices Nick described were the best that Google Flights could find for the dates shown. Flight prices would be considerably less if they included a Saturday night stay.
I was just suggesting that the example should use non inflated prices.
I see your point that you’d like to see an example with lower prices. What Greg’s saying is that the example prices aren’t inflated — those are the best prices for those specific days. No matter what the prices are, it’s always possible to hunt for better fares if you can travel on other days — but the point of the example is rather to show that the vacation packages are sometimes a much better deal than booking flights alone. If you need to travel on those dates, you’ll save a ton by booking a package deal. Of course your savings may increase or decrease depending on your travel dates and flexibility, which is a nearly universal truth in travel booking. In my case specifically, I’m almost never tied down to travel at a specific time, so I can almost always hunt for the best airfare deal. Others are tied to the school schedule or work schedule or may be booking for family members to tag along to a foreign city on a work conference, etc. The point here is that you may do really well with a vacation package.