Delta might as well label its SkyMiles sales “the clearance bin.” Liquidation sale, everything must go: Get it before it’s gone … or goes bad.
The headline seems provocative – and maybe it is. But you can, in fact, get a good deal buying a great cut of meat just before it goes bad … just like you can still get a more-than-solid deal redeeming SkyMiles, despite their reputation for being “worthless” and the ensuing (not-so-friendly) nicknames frequently attached to Delta’s mileage program.
It just pays to know exactly what you’re buying – and why it’s on sale in the first place. With Delta, it’s a two-part formula:
- The airline slashes SkyMiles rates on underperforming routes or during off-peak travel periods in a bid to fill seats that would surely otherwise go out empty. That includes dirt-cheap economy redemptions to Europe for less than 30,000 SkyMiles roundtrip as well as some shockingly cheap Delta One business class fares to Southeast Asia
- Delta touts those deals, trusting that travelers (including sites and services like ours) will help spread the word, giving SkyMiles’ reputation a booster … and hopefully convincing them to continue swiping their Delta Amex cards and keep earning SkyMiles
SkyMiles may not be nearly as valuable as American AAdvantage miles or even United miles. But to the extent SkyMiles can be valuable, these clearance-style sales are the name of the game.
Examples Galore
Like many of you, we had all but resigned ourselves to the regular rates of 400,000 SkyMiles or more for a business class seat with Delta. But in just the last few months alone, we’ve seen an unbelievable resurgence of deeply discounted Delta One deals.
But the fingerprints of Delta’s clearance pricing strategy are all over them.
Yes, paying just 83,000 SkyMiles and change each way for 13-plus hours in a Delta One Suite is a bargain for Delta. But the airline’s new Seattle-to-Taipei route is the only one you can reliably find those prices. That’s no coincidence: Delta is struggling to fill seats on that route, duking it out against three other airlines that keep adding more and more flights.
Get this: Just 45% of Delta’s seats on that route went out full in September, the latest month for which there’s federal data available. That’s led to deals like this:
Occasionally (and I have to stress occasionally), we see flights to Seoul (ICN) at similar rates. But that’s likely just a different page in the same playbook: Between Delta and its close partner Korean Air – who operate in tandem across the Pacific Ocean thanks to a joint venture – there are a ton of seats to fill there, too.
Across the other ocean, we recently found the lowest Delta One award rates we’d seen in more than a year: As low as 166,000 SkyMiles roundtrip for travelers with a co-branded Amex card! Want those rates to fly in style? You’ll have to make your way to Europe in January, February, or March – when transatlantic travel demand is at its lowest.
Is that still a bargain? For Delta, without question. But it’s also obvious why Delta’s offering it in the first place.
Finding award space to book a lie-flat seat to Europe isn’t exactly a walk in the park with other airlines, but it can be done – we found gobs of it over this past summer. Meanwhile, here’s what you’re far more likely to see trying to fly Delta One to London, Paris, Amsterdam or Rome next summer using your SkyMiles.
The same goes for dirt-cheap economy redemptions, too:
- When there were too many seats flying around the U.S. this past summer, Delta domestic SkyMiles sales were better than ever.
- Just like with business class, flying Delta economy to Taipei is a reliable bargain with prices dipping as low as 34,000 SkyMiles roundtrip – and the way things are trending right now, you might get a full row all to yourself!
- Months after announcing it would fly nonstop from Los Angeles (LAX) to Auckland (AKL), word started to spread last year that it wasn’t selling well. One easy way to fix that: Sell tickets for as low as 37,000 SkyMiles roundtrip!
- We love a good Delta SkyMiles sale to Europe, but you won’t find pricing under 80,000 SkyMiles unless you’re willing to head overseas in the late fall, winter, or very early spring
Dissecting Delta’s Clearance Pricing Strategy
Delta is not the only airline offloading tickets before they go bad. Far from it.
That’s a fixture with other airline programs: Often, the best time to book when using airline miles is just weeks (if not days) before departure: Airlines accept they’ve got seats that would go unsold, finally releasing that all-important award availability to book with miles. Every carrier on the planet would much rather sell a ticket to someone paying cold, hard cash than redeeming points.
But as Delta has nuked sweet spots, raised award rates to book partner carriers like Air France or Virgin Atlantic, and hiked prices to book virtually any business class seat to unthinkable levels, these clearance bin deals are about all Delta flyers have to get value from their SkyMiles. Otherwise, you’re left upgrading to Delta Comfort Plus or first class, changing in your miles for a penny apiece.
Hey, we’ll take it! But it’s important to recognize this is where we’re at.
Read more about finding and booking Delta SkyMiles flash sales!
Finding these sales is another matter. Delta occasionally advertises its SkyMiles sales, including a recent, pre-Christmas sale with cheaper fares to Europe and Taiwan. But far more often, the airline quietly slashes award rates. We still find those deals for Thrifty Traveler Premium members anyway.
These targeted sales aren’t accidental: They’re by design, a core part of Delta’s overarching strategy for its loyalty program. The airline’s top executive overseeing the entire SkyMiles program has said so himself.
“Our focus here is to provide consistent and sustainable value where customers want to use their miles. We are not necessarily trying to play the game with customers or with bloggers,” Prashant Sharma, Delta’s vice president of loyalty, said in an interview a few years back. “We continue to have opportunities for customers, depending on where they want to go and when they want to go. (SkyMiles sales) will remain important to us.”
These SkyMiles sales have long been a silver lining with Delta’s frustrating frequent flyer program – a way to surprise and delight flyers with a dirt-cheap trip to Europe or Asia for half (or less!) the miles they’d normally pay. Yes, you have be flexible in order to take advantage. But the deals are out there! Flying to Europe for under 30,000 SkyMiles or lie-flat across the Pacific Ocean for 83,000 SkyMiles can be done.
But let’s be honest about what we’re getting: As Sharma said, it depends on where and when you want to go. And more importantly: It hinges entirely on where Delta is willing to throw you a bone.
Bottom Line
Despite what you’ve heard or even read here, SkyMiles are not worthless. If you’re flexible – with both when you’re going and where – you can still get a solid deal with a Delta SkyMiles flash sale.
Years ago, we’d have said those sales were unpredictable. “Who knows what route Delta would discount next?”
Nowadays, it’s clear what’s driving those deals: They’re clearance bin deals, Delta’s last-ditch attempt to fill some seats while convincing customers their miles are worth more.
