The Points Guy reported last night on some wide open Delta One award space to Seoul, South Korea. I’m surprised to see that this space has stuck around today. While 125,000-135,000 miles one way is not a screaming deal to get to Asia, this represents a rare chance to get great value out of your delta points for a business class flight (and Delta cardholders get a 15% discount, dropping the price to as few as 110,500 miles one way). Again, this is less about the price being better than competitors and more about the price being far better than what Delta ordinarily charges. The bottom line is that this is still a very good value compared to cash rates to fly business class to Asia.
Update: Detroit to Seoul is pricing at 125K each way and has availability for at least two seats for much of July & August, which is an even better deal and drops the price to 106.5K as a cardholder.
The Deal
- Delta has wide open business class award availability between the US and Seoul, South Korea in July and August (in many cases for 4 or more passengers). Prices start at 130K (and are only about 135K from many connecting airports in the US).
- Delta cardholders qualify for a 15% discount and will see that reflected when logged in
Quick Thoughts
As noted at the outset, this is not among the best ways to get to Asia using miles and points simply because competitors charge far fewer miles or points. For example, you could pay just 60,000 American Airlines miles one way for Japan Airlines business class to Asia. ANA charges from 100,000 miles round trip on its own metal (though with moderately high surcharges). By comparison, 130K Delta miles seems expensive on the surface. However, Delta miles are typically only worth around or slightly above $0.01 per point toward most fares. In this case, you’re getting significantly better than that since a business class one-way flight to Asia would ordinarily be far more expensive than $1300 (which is the 1cpp equivalent).
It’s also worth noting that Delta One suites represent a very comfortable way to travel the long distance to/from Asia. I’m not sure that all included routes here will feature those Delta One suites, but as an example these nonstops from Atlanta to Seoul in the latter half of July are (I believe) all operated on an A350-900 with Delta One suites.
Notably, this award space is widespread in the second half of both July and August and not only from the main hubs. Connecting space costs 135K, but I had no trouble finding New York to Seoul (mostly via Atlanta) for four passengers for 135,000 miles one way.
I was even more surprised to find similar space from my home airport of Albany, NY…..and even for four passengers.
In other words, regardless of where you are based, if you are interested in a summertime trip to Korea and you’re flush with Delta miles, it would be worth taking a look at Delta right now. If you can’t find something from your home airport, keep in mind that it could be worth a separate positioning flight. According to TPG, quite a few gateway airports are featuring availability here, so it’s worth looking around a bit.
In many cases, the same seats are also available via Air France / KLM Flying Blue, though at a cost starting around 141.5K and an extra ~$27 one-way.
Keep in mind that Delta offers free cancellations. I therefore wouldn’t be overly concerned with finding matching space in both directions but rather if you find one direction that works, it can be worth booking right away and then monitoring for a return through another airline program.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Nick: Just to clarify that 100-110K miles on ANA is to Japan only. To Korea, it’s 105-115K. Elsewhere in Asia, it’s 105-135K.