To help keep planes full while also reducing the number of outstanding miles, airlines often offer discounted award flights — American has several off-peak periods when awards cost just 40,000 miles round-trip (though there will be fewer after March 22), and United ran its own limited-time Europe award sale, with flights priced at 45,000 miles round-trip. Now, Delta is offering discounted awards of its own, with round-trip flights to Europe running just 45,000 miles — an especially good deal, considering you may struggle to find a domestic round-trip on Delta for that rate.
To take advantage of Delta's current award sale, you must book by January 18 — one week from today — for travel between February 1 and March 24, 2016. Delta's requiring a Saturday night stay, and some blackout dates apply.
Keep in mind that you'll also need to pay relatively steep taxes and fees. In the example above, a round-trip award comes along with $187 in fees.
Meanwhile, a paid fare on the same flight will run you $814 round-trip, plus you'll earn 6,904 MQMs and $587 MQDs, in addition to 2,935 award miles (before elite bonuses). With these specific flights, you'll be saving $627 by redeeming 45,000 miles, giving you a value of 1.39 cents per mile. TPG values Delta miles at 1.2 cents apiece, so on the surface that's not a terrible deal, though you can get much more value out of your miles with partner redemptions. If you have a lot of miles to burn, this could be a worthwhile redemption.
Thanks to TPG reader Leigh R., who shared this news tip by emailing tpgtips@thepointsguy.com. We’ll be sending out a $200 Visa gift card as a token of our appreciation.
Will you be taking advantage of Delta's award sale to London?
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