It can be hard to get good value from your Delta SkyMiles if you want to travel in business class, so much so that we jokingly refer to them as “SkyPennies.”
However, there’s currently decent availability in Delta One when flying to Seoul, South Korea in July, August, and early-September. Depending on your departure city and whether you have a Delta credit card, you could book one-way flights starting at only 110,500 SkyMiles. If that’s a little too rich for your SkyMiles stash, premium economy can be had for as little as 62,900 SkyMiles each way.
The Deal
- Book Delta One to Seoul from 110,500 SkyMiles one-way.
- Available from Seattle, Minneapolis, Detroit, Salt Lake City & many more cities for weekday departures in July, August, and early-September.
Quick Thoughts
The cheapest award pricing that I’m seeing is available when flying nonstop from Seattle, Salt Lake City and Minneapolis, which are all 130,000 SkyMiles for Delta one and 74,000 for premium economy. If you have a Delta card, you get a 15% discount on award flights which reduces that to 110,500 for business and 62,900 for premium economy. Availability from all cities at the “lower” rate seems to be from Mon-Thurs.
Here’s the Seattle – Seoul calendar in July/August:
Flights from Detroit in Delta One are 140K (119K with cardholder discount) and flights from Atlanta are 150K (127.5K with discount).
Here’s Delta One availability from Detroit in July/August (rates shown are for a Delta cardholder):
Premium economy from Detroit is completely wide-open:
Opportunities to redeem SkyMiles for a reasonable rate in business class can be few and far between, so it’s worth booking ASAP if you’re interested; availability will almost surely dry up quickly.
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I returned a few days ago from a trip in Delta Premium Select (premium economy) leaving JFT to Taipei via Seattle and returning Seoul to JFK via Atlanta. Round trip cost was 142,800 miles plus $49.40, which is an average of 71,400 SkyMiles each way (not on sale). So, it seems like 79,900 in Premium Economy from Detroit is OK but nothing special. Food wasn’t bad (I think the main meal in Premium Select is the same as Delta One without the appetizer or choice of dessert), but bizarrely, there is three inches less room in height under the seat in front of you in Premium Select than economy (8.8 inches in economy vs. 5.5 inches in Premium Select–see the Delta specs on their own web site for their A350-900), which means many backpacks that fit fine under the seat in economy won’t fit under the seat in Premium Select. It also means that the footrest won’t work since it will hit your backpack if it doesn’t fit under the seat.