As reported by One Mile at a Time, Delta has devalued SkyMiles again. On the podcast we recorded yesterday for publication tomorrow, we talked about the unadvertised Delta sale this week and how confused we were that Delta wouldn’t want to advertise the chance to get great value out of SkyMiles. I even noted that Delta must be aware of its reputation for having a low-value currency, but as I said that, I didn’t imagine that today I would be writing that they are now charging 120,000 SkyMiles one-way for business class to Europe on partner airlines. That’s insane. Unfortunately, other regions are affected as well.
The devaluations
We had reported last fall when Delta devalued partner awards (egregiously so for flights close to departure), and they have done it again. Here is a look at changes:
Europe
- In October 2020: One-way partner awards to Europe in business class started at 95K miles one-way more than 21 days in advance of departure (up from 75K) or varied as high as 195K one-way within 21 days
- In February 2021: One-way partner awards to Europe in business class now start at 120K miles one-way more than 21 days in advance of departure.
For the best ways to get to Europe in business class for many fewer miles than Delta will charge you, see our Best ways to get to Europe using miles..
North Asia
- October 2020: Award prices started at 102.5K one-way in business class
- February 2021: Award prices start at 120K one-way in business class
For the best ways to get to Asia in business class for many fewer miles than Delta will charge you, see our Best ways to get to Asia using miles (premium cabins).
India
- October 2020: Award prices started at 102.5K one-way in business class
- February 2021: Award prices start at 120K one-way in business class
India is a tricky destination because different mileage programs categorize fit under “Asia”, “Central Asia”, or “Indian subcontinent” and as such prices vary, but I’m not immediately aware of any mileage program charging more miles for a one-way business class ticket than Delta is here. One of the best options for business class to India is via Turkish Miles and Smiles, which should cost just 52,500 miles one way in business class on Star Alliance partners, though they do pass on fuel surcharges so you’ll want to avoid the partners with high charges. As we reported earlier today, those miles are on sale from 1.71c each right now.
Southeast Asia
- October 2020: Award prices started at 147.5K one-way in business class
- February 2021: Award prices start at 165K one-way in business class
Again, for the best ways to get to Asia in business class for many fewer miles than Delta will charge you, see our Best ways to get to Asia using miles (premium cabins).
Truthfully, those prices are ludicrous for saver business class awards. In my opinion, there is very little value in collecting Delta SkyMiles apart from using them to fly Delta when Delta happens to have an unannounced sale that lines up with your plans.
Bottom line
Delta is devaluing business class awards big time at a time when few people are looking at international business class awards. Yesterday, when we wrote about Marriott’s latest hotel category changes, one reader expressed anger that more bloggers weren’t outraged that any of Marriott’s properties increased in price during a time that has seen such a sharp decrease in travel. In response, I noted that I was glad that Marriott hadn’t gone the other way and decided that it was a good time to broadly raise award costs since relatively few people are focused on travel and so negative changes would draw less attention. Unfortunately, it seems that Delta was following exactly the playbook I had feared we could see. In my view, this makes the collection of Delta SkyMiles a highly questionable proposition, particularly when we consider the fact that they have devalued twice in less than 4 months. Sorry Greg, I just can’t see spending for Delta Diamond as a winning proposition moving forward.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
[…] Leave it to Delta of course to devalue again in the middle of the biggest global pandemic to hit us in the past 102 years. Skypesos are a joke. If you have Delta credit cards in your wallet you are not being smart here. At all. Cancel them and get yourselves a 2% cash back card instead. Airlines tend to imitate Delta so the outlooks is not very good here. But make no mistake, expert miles points travel financial product salesmen will enthusiastically sell Delta credit cards again! Ouch: Big Delta devaluation on partner awards. […]
Food for thought:
I have some accumulated Skymiles, but always find it hard to use them for my limited set of desired overseas destinations. So I have to pay with money if I fly Delta.
Two alternatives:
1. Pay With Miles at 1 cpm (Delta card required, and also not available on partner-operated flights); doesn’t earn any miles for that portion of the flight cost.
2.Then there’s the Skymiles-for-Delta-Gift-Card option, with a terrible 0.7 cpm rate. However, the flight paid for by gift card does earn miles just like cash, and can also be applied to a partner-operated flight.
So which of these two options would come out ahead I wonder… A hypothetical 100,000 Skymiles redeemed for $700 in gift cards, plus the miles earned from the next $700-flight, which could then also be redeemed at .7 cpm plus the new earned miles, etc.
Or 100,000 Skymiles redeemed for $1000 and no miles earned, using Pay With Miles.
It’s frustrating to have to consider these sub-optimal methods, but hanging on to Skymiles is a losing proposition.
Anyone? Nick? Greg?
Pay with Miles comes out way ahead of the gift card option. Think of it this way: if you use Pay with Miles, then lets value miles at 1 cent each. As you said, you’re giving up earning miles per flight. If you have no status, you give up 5 miles per dollar. At top tier Diamond status, you give up 11 miles per dollar. Other status levels are in-between. So worst case, you give up 11X or (at once cent each) 11%. So you can think of it like getting 0.89 cents per mile value if you have Diamond status or 0.95 cents per mile if you have no status.
All that said, in the past year when I’ve looked at award flights flying Delta domestically, I usually see slightly over 1 cent per mile value. 1.2 cpm is common. I’d rather do that and give up earning MQMs than use the miles at 1 cpm. Plus, if you cancel an award ticket it is fully refundable (miles go back into your account) vs a cash ticket where you get a voucher that’s good for a year.
Thanks, Greg; very good analysis. I myself have no status, and never will, and Delta makes it seemingly impossible (or at least very expensive and inconvenient) to find an award ticket to where I want to go, when I want to go (Europe, warm seasons, partner-operated flights, etc.).
I would obviously love to get maximum value for the miles, but convenience (i.e. sub-optimal redemption value) is looking better and better where Delta is concerned. I’ll definitely try and favor other carriers and programs in the future.
The leadership at Delta made a rational decision to peg the value of skymiles to the dollar. Unfortunately they chose the Zimbabwean dollar.
Delta, the only airline who can keep up with the US printing press.
despite the delta devaluations, even if SkyMiles are truly worth 1cpp, I think just about any delta flyer can eek out some value from the delta plat card. $250, a companion ticket and free checked bags for up to 4 people I think is just enough to receive some positive value with a couple RT domestic flights a year,
They have also jacked up domestic 1st class awards through partners or just made it almost impossible to find non stop awards through partners like virgin.
I cancelled my Delta Amex card after the last round of devaluations. Good riddance. Now I just need to try to find some reasonable value redemption (try not to laugh) to burn my miles and forget about this dumpster fire of a program.
Hopefully there’s a big blowback from customers, CC holders etc. Even if it doesn’t convince Delta to change course, we can convince other airlines not to follow suite.
Having been a Delta Diamond for a few years now, I am always looking for decent ways to use Skymiles. I can honestly say I have not once considered using them on their international partners. They were never a great deal, and have just gotten worse and worse. I feel like Delta partner devals stopped being newsworthy to me a while ago.
Delta has had great announced and unannounced flash sales for years, mostly domestic but also international. I have honestly gotten great value overall with their program because I only focus on those redemptions.
I also think there is a difference between Marriott raising prices on properties in their program versus Delta raising partner awards. When international travel will pickup is a still a big question. Many international routes are suspended, and when they resume gets pushed back further and further. If you book a flight with Delta metal, and they cancel one of the segments, they have greater flexibility to reroute you, if you are actually able to fly. With many of the international partners, they have less flexibility, and many people are not going fly those reservations anyways.
Ok, so stop peddling their cards. Whatever ccp you are assuming on Delta skypesos is wrong, because it’s based on present redemptions, not the redemptions you’ll be able to get when you are ready to use your SUB. Delta skypesos now are only useful for domestic Y, but that’s what I had easmarked all my Delta GCs for, so they are worth even less. I switched my amex airline from Delta, and I’m done with Delta CCs unless it is no AF. I’ll never again make an upfront investment in their garbage program.
First, I totally agree that Delta SkyMiles are best for domestic economy class at this point (and indeed it’s been that way for a while).
With regards to our Reasonable Redemption Value for Delta miles, that’s always been our basis for the value of airline miles — partner awards like this have never been part of the equation. There are far too many variables to account for in partner awards to make any meaningful guess as to the value of one mile or another for partner redemptions. Those who claim to create some valuation based on those redemptions are just making up a number and we prefer to make valuations more objectively than that.
Instead, Greg long ago decided upon a way to be as objective as possible with the goal of making first year value for various credit cards on our best offers page as objective as possible also. The data from frequent flyer programs has always shown that the vast majority of miles are redeemed for domestic economy redemptions (which should make sense, far fewer Americans travel internationally than domestically and fewer still are learning how to eke out maximum value through partner redemptions). So Greg has long valued airline miles based on the average cost of a domestic economy class ticket divided by 25,000 miles as that was long the “standard” award price for most programs. For that reason, we have long valued airline miles at a flat 1.4c each across all of the major programs rather than try to make up some arbitrary number for each one. After all, the purpose of our Reasonable Redemption Values is to give a value that you can reasonably expect to get without an onerous amount of effort to maximize as opposed to an absolute average value that would be impossible to maintain. The idea is to have a reasonable litmus test against which to say “Ok, this is a reasonable use of miles” or “no, I should pay cash here” with the acknowledgement that there are certainly opportunities to get far more value for those who work at finding the best redemptions. Here’s a post explaining more about our approach:
https://frequentmiler.com/airline-miles-worth-1-4-cents-simplified-approach-reasonable-redemption-values/
All of that said, I can read your thoughts right now and I know that you’re thinking “But there is no longer any such thing as a 25K “standard” redemption and Delta miles have inched closer and closer to a value of 1c each”. You’re right. I think we need to re-think how we’ve valued all airline miles because of the variable pricing model now in place at American and United as well and because of the fact that it is indeed tough to get 1.4c per mile out of Delta miles unless you find the right sale — though it’s worth noting that they do frequently run those flash sales. I don’t yet know what the right approach is, but I agree that we need to figure that out.
And again, I agree that the main use of Delta SkyMiles at this point is domestic economy awards. If I were going to collect them (and to be clear, I’ve never earned nor redeemed a Delta SkyMile because they haven’t been valuable for my circumstances), I would only collect them for domestic economy flights. I don’t see myself going after their credit cards any time soon — though on the flip side, I can understand how someone who can get 1c or better will still find a 70K welcome bonus worth a lot of money in flights. Certainly not as much as you or I would look to get out of a 70K bonus — but a lot of people would be pretty happy with $700 worth of flights if that’s what can be gotten, so while the Delta cards aren’t for me I know there are people who will find them a better fit than I do.
Totally agreed, I really love Delta (and jetBlue) for domestic redemption, mostly because they have frequent sales. My best use for SkyMiles was actually on Delta vacations when they had a promotion in 2019 where 1 miles=2cents.
Delta miles are really becoming a joke. I earned a nice amount through an Amex signup bonus several years ago, and I still haven’t figured out how I am going to use them. I suppose Delta knows they have the best product of the Big 3, and they figure the majority of their elites are stuck due to their hubs, so they obviously do not see any need to incentivize people to fly with them through a frequent flier program.
No, they ARE a joke.
Good point!
Delta miles are good for only one thing: buying magazines at magsformiles. Got my annual subscription to Barron’s for three years running this way. Still have enough miles for two more years. And definitely not collecting any more Delta miles.
Same!