The Delta SkyMiles program is one of the world’s largest. While members have a wide range of options to earn and redeem points, Delta’s program has long been criticized for expensive redemption options and a lack of partner airline award space (particularly in premium cabins). However, there are still plenty of Delta Air Lines partners you can book with SkyMiles at a decent value.
Here’s how.
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Delta Air Lines partner airlines
Delta is a member of the SkyTeam airline alliance and the mileage earnings vary by member. There’s a group of “Core Global Airline Partners,” which includes Aeromexico, Air France, China Eastern, KLM, Korean Air, and Virgin Atlantic. LATAM is also a “Core Partner,” but they’re not yet a member of SkyTeam. “Core Partners” are those that accept Delta’s Global Upgrade Certificates.
Delta SkyTeam partners
SkyTeam gives Delta SkyMiles members global reach across Europe, South America, Asia, and Africa via member carrier hubs in each region. SkyTeam members also allow mileage earning and redemption, and reciprocal recognition of elite status.
- Aeromexico
- Aerolineas Argentinas
- Air Europa
- Air France
- China Airlines
- China Eastern
- Czech Airlines
- Garuda Indonesia
- ITA Airways
- Kenya Airways
- KLM
- Korean Air
- Middle East Airlines
- Saudia
- TAROM
- Vietnam Airlines
- Virgin Atlantic
- Xiamen Air
Other Delta Air Lines airline partners
These partners offer mileage earning and/or redemption in limited circumstances, or on a limited number of flights.
- Air Baltic
- El Al
- Cape Air
- Hawaiian Airlines
- WestJet
Other Delta Air Lines travel partners
- Delta Vacations – Prepaid vacation packages including airfare, car, hotel, and activities
- Delta Stays – Delta’s dedicated hotel booking engine
- Delta Car Rentals – Delta’s dedicated car rental booking engine
- Delta Cruises – Delta’s portal for booking cruises
- SkyMiles Shopping – Delta’s retail portal for earning miles while shopping online
- SkyMiles Dining – Members can register a credit card to automatically earn SkyMiles when paying with that card at a participating restaurant
- Car rental partners: Hertz, Dollar, Thrifty, Alamo, National , Enterprise, Avis, Budget, Payless, Lyft, Turo, EuropCar, Sixt
- Accommodation partners: Airbnb, Marriott Bonvoy, IHG, Accor Hotels, World of Hyatt, Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts
How many SkyMiles points you need for a flight
The number of points needed for a flight on Delta or a partner can often be a moving target. It helps to frequently check Delta’s website for availability, but we’ve broken down some general ranges here.
On Delta Air Lines
It’s been several years since Delta ditched a formal award chart for SkyMiles redemptions. They now employ what’s called “dynamic pricing,” meaning the number of miles needed for an award ticket will vary for each individual flight based on factors like demand. While there’s not a direct conversion, as a general rule, flights that are cheaper in dollars can also be cheaper for mileage redemption, but without a set value for redemptions on an award chart, as the saying goes, your mileage may vary.
SkyMiles also periodically offers reduced redemptions via SkyMiles Deals. Simply put the origin and destination region to see what cities are currently on offer and for which dates. The deals come up as both cash fares and SkyMiles redemptions, so you can compare values. A recent search found mileage redemptions from the US to Europe for as little as 52,000 miles roundtrip.
On Delta’s partner airlines
Delta SkyMiles are famously difficult to redeem for high value, especially for premium cabins, earning them the moniker “SkyPesos” among some frequent flyers. As a general rule, miles are easier to redeem on Delta-operated flights and more difficult to redeem on partners, particularly on long-haul flights in premium cabins. In markets where Delta operates flights, Delta will generally display their own flights, even when partner carriers have itineraries over the same routings. Premium cabin award space is also difficult to find on partner carriers on flights departing the United States, although flights between regions where Delta doesn’t offer their own service (e.g. Europe to South America or Asia) will often have much better availability in both economy and premium cabins.
On Delta-operated flights, there are typically redemption options across all of Delta’s fare products (Basic Economy, Main, Comfort Plus, Premium Select, Delta One). On partners, however, economy may be the only available option. The only time we tend to find premium cabins available on Delta partners is as connections from long-haul Delta flights in Delta One (e.g. Seattle/Tacoma to Seoul on Delta and onward to Bangkok on Korean Air).
The best place to find non-Delta options is in cities where a SkyTeam partner operates a nonstop and only connecting service is available on Delta. Examples might include Dallas/Fort Worth to Paris nonstop on Air France or Las Vegas to Mexico City on Aeromexico. The redemptions may not be any cheaper, but they’ll be for nonstop flights instead of connections.
How to earn SkyMiles miles
There are plenty of ways to earn SkyMiles, from flying Delta or its airline partners, shopping, dining, staying in hotels, or renting cars. You can also earn miles with SkyMiles credit cards issued by American Express.
SkyMiles members have four American Express cards to choose from:
- Delta SkyMiles® Blue American Express Card – A miles-earning card with no annual fee.
- Delta SkyMiles® Gold Card – ($150 annual fee) a discount when redeeming miles for Delta flights, a free checked bag, and priority boarding.
- Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Credit Card – ($350 annual fee) all the benefits of the gold card plus a coach domestic companion certificate, Hertz status, credits for rideshares and restaurants, Global Entry or TSA PreCheck fee statement credit, and Medallion Qualifying Dollars.
- Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card – ($650 annual fee) all the benefits of the platinum card plus Delta SkyClub access when flying Delta, access to Amex Centurion lounges when flying on a Delta flight purchased with the card, coach or First North America companion certificate.
Benefits of SkyMiles status
SkyTeam, the alliance that Delta belongs to, has two tiers of elite status that correspond to Delta SkyMiles Medallion elite tiers:
Elite (Silver Medallion): This includes priority waitlist, preferred seating, priority check-in counters, priority boarding, and extra baggage allowance when traveling on a member carrier.
Elite Plus (Gold Medallion, Platinum Medallion, Diamond Medallion, and Delta 360): This includes all the benefits of Elite, plus airport lounge access when traveling on international flights, but with a significant catch – it doesn’t include the Caribbean, and it doesn’t include Delta Elite Plus members wanting to access a Delta SkyClub. Elite Plus members on other SkyTeam programs can access Delta SkyClubs on international flights, and Delta Elite Plus members can access other SkyTeam member carrier lounges, but not SkyClubs. Elite Plus also includes priority baggage handling and extra baggage allowance.
The best partners to redeem SkyMiles points on
SkyMiles are generally best redeemed for Delta flights. When it comes to partner redemptions, they’re often most available in conjunction with a Delta-operated flight. Virgin Atlantic and Air France can be good value redemptions for specific flights to or via their hub cities.
Airline partners
Virgin Atlantic can sometimes be a good partner for Delta redemptions, as there is sometimes better award availability via Manchester. Some searches for flights to Paris found availability on Virgin Atlantic flights to Manchester, connecting to Air France flights onward to Paris.
Air France can also be a good option for nonstop redemptions to Paris (with onward connections throughout Europe) from non-Delta hubs, such as Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, Dallas, or Denver, but availability is typically limited to the Economy cabin.
A geographic “sweet spot” for points redemptions is Europe to/from Asia (if you’re planning a round-the-world itinerary). We recently found redemptions between Paris and Singapore on Air France (nonstop), Vietnam Airlines (via Ho Chi Minh City), and KLM (via Amsterdam), with economy redemptions from 50,000 miles and business redemptions from 80,000 miles.
Flights within Europe can also be a good value (particularly longer ones like Paris-Athens or those to islands like Nice-Dublin) starting at 10,000 each way for economy or 25,000 each way for business.
Shorter flights in North America in competitive markets like Seattle-San Francisco or Los Angeles-San Francisco can be gotten for cheap: sometimes just 3,000 or 4,000 miles for a Basic Economy ticket.
How to redeem SkyMiles points on partner airlines
Most SkyMiles partner awards can be booked online. You can book partner awards by going to delta.com and clicking the toggle to indicate you want to search for flights using miles. By clicking “My dates are flexible,” you’ll get an award calendar showing available flights across a month. If you’re looking for premium cabin seats, be sure to indicate that in the “advanced search” drop-down box.
For award travel on Kenya Airways, Air Europa, and CSA Czech Airlines, you’ll need to call Delta directly.
You can sometimes find additional options by calling Delta directly, as the website doesn’t always show all the available award redemptions, particularly with longer layovers or other stopovers otherwise allowed by the fare rules. For example, the fare rules may allow for an overnight or multi-day stopover in a gateway city such as Seattle or New York, but those options typically won’t show up online.
Delta reservations agents can also share details on why certain partners aren’t showing up, as they have plenty of experience booking SkyMiles award travel. So if you can’t find it on the website, it’s always worth a call.
Summary
Delta has a wide range of options for using your points, but Delta-operated flights are where you will generally get the best value, particularly short-haul flights in North America. SkyMiles generally lags behind other US carrier programs when it comes to redeeming for partner flights, particularly for long-haul flights in premium cabins departing from North America, but for members booking travel in other regions of the world, the program tends to be a better value, particularly for premium cabin redemptions on partner airlines.
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