Amazing Partner Delta SkyMiles Award Availability
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
Per don't call the airline, Delta Air Lines is currently offering some great partner award availability on many of their partners for low-level business class awards for multiple people. Partner airlines include Virgin Atlantic, Air France, Korean Air, and Virgin Australia to name a few.
In the last year, Delta announced major revisions to the SkyMiles program that just took effect as the calendar flipped to 2015. The changes included:
- A new revenue-based earning program. Starting this year, you'll earn miles based on the cost of your fare and your Medallion status, rather than how far you fly. However, earning Medallion status itself will still depend on the miles flown and the fare class or class of service.
- A revised award calendar. The old award calendar was very buggy and consistently returned inaccurate results. Often the awards priced out far too high, while other times the calendar showed low-level awards that wouldn't materialize when you tried to book them.
- One-way awards. One of the biggest drawbacks of the SkyMiles program was that you could only book round-trip awards (or a one-way for the same price as a round-trip).
- A new award chart. Delta announced a switch from a three-tier award chart to a five-tier chart.
- Increased award availability at the lowest levels. By far the biggest problem faced by most award travel enthusiasts was that Delta published three award tiers, but rarely made awards available at the lowest level. Delta's announcement appeared to be good news, but many people noticed that Delta promised more awards at the lowest mileage levels (plural)—which could be interpreted as the lowest two levels in Delta's new five-tier chart, and not necessarily more seats at the very lowest mileage level.
When it comes to increased award availability, in the past couple of days, there has been some great partner availability. Here's a look at the some of the awards that I was able to book:
New York (JFK)-London on Vigin Atlantic for 4 people in Business Class
Los Angeles- Sydney on Virgin Australia for 4 people in Business Class
Los Angeles- Guangzhou for 4 people in Business on China Southern
Paris- Johannesburg for 4 people in Business on Air France
As a reminder, Delta is a transfer partner of both American Express Membership Rewards and the Starwood Preferred Guest program, but there was rarely any reason to transfer points to SkyMiles in the past. That's no longer the case. Delta has re-established itself as a legitimate (if not great) transfer option, and has similarly boosted the usefulness of its co-branded credit cards, like the Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express and Delta Reserve® Credit Card from American Express.
Feel free to comment below with any great redemptions you find!
TPG featured card
at Bilt's secure site
Terms & restrictions apply. See rates & fees.
| 1X | Choose to earn up to 1X points on rent and mortgage payments with no transaction fee |
| 2X | Earn 2X points + the option to earn 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday purchases |
Pros
- Choice to earn up to 1 Bilt Point per dollar spent on rent and mortgage payments
- Elevated everyday earnings with both Bilt Points and the option to earn Bilt Cash
- $400 Bilt Travel Portal hotel credit per year (up to $200 biannually)
- $200 Bilt Cash annually
- Priority Pass membership
- No foreign transaction fees
Cons
- Moderate annual fee
- Designed primarily for members seeking a premium, all-in-one card
- Earn points on housing with no transaction fee
- Choose to earn 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday spend. Use Bilt Cash to unlock point earnings on rent and mortgage payments with no transaction fee, up to 1X.
- 2X points on everyday spend
- $400 Bilt Travel Hotel credit. Applied twice a year, as $200 statement credits, for qualifying Bilt Travel Portal hotel bookings.
- $200 Bilt Cash (awarded annually). At the end of each calendar year, any Bilt Cash balance over $100 will expire.
- Welcome bonus (subject to approval): 50,000 Bilt Points + Gold Status after spending $4,000 on everyday purchases in the first 90 days + $300 of Bilt Cash.
- Priority Pass ($469/year value). See Guide to Benefits.
- Bilt Point redemptions include airlines, hotels, future rent and mortgage payments, Lyft rides, statement credits, student loan balances, a down payment on a home, and more.