I fly around 175,000 miles a year but instead of giving my business to one airline I fly whatever is cheapest. Therefore, I’m not super elite on one airline but I do have at least the lowest level elite frequent flier status on three: American, Delta and United. Each of those are members of the three airline alliances: Oneworld, SkyTeam and Star.
What’s nice is that I get perks on all of their partner airlines and I can pretty much book a mileage ticket to anywhere in the world. I’m constantly pricing out award tickets since a good deal of my travel is at a moment’s notice and it’s the best way to save money.
To be honest, I can’t remember the last time I used Delta miles because they have the absolute worst value out of all the major airlines. The points they require are two to three times higher than the other airlines and they don’t even offer a discount for one-way tickets.
My go-to airlines are American and United and to give you an idea of how ridiculous Delta is I priced out two different trips on all three airlines and included screenshots. The first was a roundtrip ticket from Toronto to London leaving Christmas Day and returning New Year’s Eve. The second is a one-way ticket from Los Angeles to New York on January 5th.
Toronto to London departing December 25 and returning December 31:
American Airline’s lowest price was 80,000 miles and $474.60 and one of the segments would be on their partner airline British Airways. What’s amazing is that the outbound flight would cost me just 20,000 miles but the return was 60,000.
United wanted 85,000 miles and $294.80. One of the segments would be on their Star Alliance partner Lufthansa. What’s interesting is that United also offered an alternative to purchase the reservation using all cash. Economy would be $1,803.10 and first class is $7,203.50. BTW: A first class ticket going over and returning in business class was available for 117,500 Miles and $386.50.
Delta’s price for a mileage ticket was a whopping 155,000 miles and $261.60 and that’s for economy. Their price for business class was 325,000 miles and $361.50.
Test 2: One-way Los Angeles to New York on January 5th
American Airlines didn’t have any flights available to JFK but they did offer a reasonable alternative to Newark. The nonstop flight was 12,500 miles and $2.50.
United didn’t have any nonstops but they did have seats available on their partner US Airways through Charlotte for 12,500 miles and $30. Again they showed the price if I just wanted to pay cash: $277.10 for economy and $1,512.10 for first/business.
Delta had nonstop flights available to JFK but the price … 40,000 miles and $2.50. Is that just a rip off or what?! That’s more than three times the miles as American and United wanted.
So there you have it! Please let me know (below in our comments section) if you agree or disagree that Delta has the worst frequent flyer program when it comes to redeeming award tickets.
RELATED: Frequent flier programs are NOT a scam – here’s why you should signup now | Six ways to get the best coach seat on an airplane
Have been a preferred travel agent and Delta customer for many years. Delta is the primary carrier from this region (SDF&CVG) Regardless of lead time or FFM accumulated I have almost never been able to book a reward ticket. My Delta Gold AX card is no longer used and Delta customer service both on the ground and in the air is is really disgraceful. Does anybody remember when flying was fun?????
Years ago my husband did a lot of international business travel and his company always paid for him to fly business class. He usually flew AA, UA or one of their foreign partners. I would often fly with him using my miles. On one trip, he booked Delta because that was the most direct route, and while I didn’t have a problem getting a FF seat, (maybe because he was buying a $7000. ticket?) but the customer service on Delta was so awful….truly dreadful….that we never flew Delta again. We’d rather change planes than deal with them.
Glad I haven’t flown on them in 10 years and glad I don’t have any of their useless miles!
Shocked to hear all the negativity with the Delta Skymiles program. I brought over approx 22,000 ffm from NWA when they merged. I went for the Amex promo for 45,000 ffm to get the Delta Amex card. I figured when all is said and done, I’d have enough ffm for 2 domestic tix. The miles from NWA were acquired when I acted as a courier plus at that time there was a NWA promo “Fly international and get a free domestic ticket.” So far I’m satisfied with the NWA part of the deal. I’ll keep you posted.
delta says all levels at all times. what a farce. i tried to book a trip from miami to portland , maine 11 months in advance. the cheapest ticket was 40,000 miles. i am giving up my delta credit card as this program is useless.
The only way to get “low” international tickets on Delta is to book far in advance to top spots. Also, one must book on their partners to get the low fare. So, in October i booked two round trip business class tickets to JNB from JFK for 140,000 miles on AF with a long stopover in Paris. Enough for a full day of fun. Taxes were $184 each. I would never use miles for tickets to London as the taxes areso ridiculous that you may as well buy a ticket.
I had over 140,000 miles on Delta for the last ten years or so. When I read that the program would soon be changing adversely, Exactly a month ago I decided to use my miles for a European trip. Delta website was impossible to secure tickets from April 30th onward (at least for the 120,000 miles needed for two lowest level round trip to a dozen European destinations – not including Great Britain) as everything out of IAD or back used partner KLM and their flights were not available through the summer. After expending dozens of hours on that futile search, including talking directly with Delta & KLM agents, I got transferred to their Atlanta office and a very helpful agent found the earliest possible departure: a 7/22 Delta flight from DCA to Cincinnati, Delta to CDG and change to Air France continuing on to Budapest. Returning on 8/30 (avoiding what would otherwise have been an 11 hour layover by sacrificing to have a four day layover in Paris). The extra $50 to arrange an itinerary was worth it.
I can’t really generalize from my experience to searches from other US area outside of the District of Columbia/Baltimore area. Nevertheless, Delta’s website for using SkyMiles appears to be nearly comparatively useless for booking European trips on “short” notice. My trip is pure leisure long-term planning possible. It appears that the extra miles required and the extra costs (even though they do have a program too use miles as cash if you are in the right category of at least gold Delta credit card holders) and other disincentives make the program very unattractive. This is especially so in contrast to how easy it was (after Delta had taken over PanAm’s European routes) to book such travel until ten years ago or so ago – when I last easily used my miles for a similar itinerary booked on the exact days I wanted only a couple of months before departure.
Does not eve surprise me. I unfortunately live in ATL and am pretty much stuck with DL for International. Not only are they the worst in FFY miles, but their customer service is atrocious. almost everything about the company is the worst. I cannot believe they are still in business. I can count on one hand the number of times I have had a DL person make me happy over the past 20 yrs I have been flying with them.
Hi Johnny,
Great article as usual ( Yes I am Hooked for life !)
So agreed with the Delta portion of the article. We have signed up for the Amex Delta Reserve card with one goal in mind: to rack up status and miles to visit the folks in France. We booked with 330 days in advance the non stop AF flight for 100000 Miles per person round trip for a trip in November 2011. We now have 300000 miles and were ready to do a repeat booking ( hopefully on AF A380/ the lowest available was 175 000 miles per person Via Amsterdam on KLM ( non regarding of the travel date and at 330 days in advance).
To add insult to injury, We switched to the Amex Delta Gold card with the promise of additional 30 000 bonus miles that was never given since I already was a Delta Amex Card holder. Sadly enough it took 3 calls to be given that reason….Shame on them ( married to a retired Delta employee that was a Chairman’s Club Award recipient and so ready to switch !!!!!
Hi Johnny. It’s nice to know things about this. I will be flying to London next month and I will be choosing the BA. I’m glad you shared a helpful and informative post. Thanks.
This is very informative. I just became a Delta rewards sky miles member and have to agree I have not been very impressed. Its great to know all plans are not the same and I should sign up for American and United too since like you I go with price when I travel vs blind loyalty. Now granted I travel for fun and not for work so only get to do about 9 trips a year but want all the tips I can get, thanks!
After being Gold and Platinum on Delta for at least ten years, I have had enough of the Skymiles award redemption crap, I am out of here! I said this too many times and I always stayed on (live in Detroit). But this time I am doing it. Downgraded to Silver and looking for greener pastures with an airline which does not make me thing I am in idiot when it comes to redeem. Thank you for writing about this, hopefully DL management hears us. I am not going to bet on it!
Hi Johnny!
Happy Holidays to you and congratulations on your first New Year’s together.
Can’t agree with you more. Even though I am Gold on DL, Silver on BA and 1K on UA, my go to for awards has always been UA/BA.
Booked 2 business class tickets to South Africa (SAN-IAD-JNB-CPT*-LVI*-JNB-ZRH-ORD-SAN) for 120 K each = 240K and DL wanted 300K for ONE ticket (SAN-ATL-JNB-ATL-SAN), and no additional stops.
Took another trip this year (SAN-LAX-BKK*-PER*//SYD*-SFO-SAN) for 270K for two business class tickets. DL wouldn’t even allow this routing and offered SAN-LAX-SYD-LAX-SAN for 325K for ONE ticket
* = stop
I use Delta for some domestic tickets and occasional attempt at AF flights. BA with its distance based chart is hit and miss, but much easier to use, even with fuel surcharges.
Thanks Ken for the comment and Merry Christmas! Hope to see you in 2013!