It allows you to redeem a fixed amount of miles to get a cash discount on your Delta-operated flight. Pay with Miles is a feature available exclusively to cobranded Delta Amex cardholders. If you cancel your award, you’ll get the miles purchased deposited into your account. Note, m ileage purchases in Miles + Cash transactions are nonrefundable.
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Related: How to earn Delta Medallion elite status without flying (Photo courtesy of Delta) The remaining 15,500 miles you need to pay are worth about $171 based on our valuations, so you’ll effectively be paying $346 for a $268 flight - not a good deal. In this example, you’re buying 7,500 miles for about 1.9 cents apiece.
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For instance, there’s a flight from New York-JFK to Cancun (CUN) available for $268 or 15,500 miles plus $175. However, for some redemptions, you’ll get far less value from your miles. So you’re essentially redeeming $6 worth of miles to save $12, though you won’t earn any miles for your flight. The cash price of the ticket above is about $108. That’s higher than TPG’s valuation of 1.1 cents per SkyMile, but still significantly less than the 3.5 cents per mile Delta usually charges to buy them outright. In the example above, you’re buying 5,000 miles for $90, which comes out to 1.8 cents apiece. Related: Everything you need to know about maximizing Delta SkyMiles award tickets (Photo courtesy of Delta)īut how good of a deal will you get? It depends. Then, at the top of the results page, under “show price in,” click “Miles + Cash.” Some flights are available for as little as 500 miles out of pocket. To book one of these tickets, search for a flight on Delta’s site as you normally would. Unlike with some other programs, Delta’s Miles + Cash tickets have set rates, so there’s no slider to customize exactly how many miles you’d like to use. As such, these bookings are still considered award tickets, meaning you won’t earn any miles are elite-qualifying credit. You’re essentially buying a set number of miles so that you can book your flight. It’s not available for basic economy or partner flights. It’s available to all SkyMiles members on select main cabin, first class and Delta One flights operated by Delta, Delta Connection and Delta Shuttle. (Photo by AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images) What are Miles + Cash tickets?Įxactly as it sounds, this option allows you to pay for flights using a combination of miles and cash. As you’re going to see, these redemptions are very different from one another.įor more TPG news, deals and points and miles tips delivered each morning to your inbox, subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll also touch on how upgrades work with each of these ticket types. Today, we’re going to dive into these redemption options, discuss what types of tickets are eligible and compare the value they offer. You could fast-track your award by leveraging Delta’s Miles + Cash option or if you’re a Delta credit card holder, the Pay with Miles option. It’s the default option when you check the “shop with miles” box on Delta’s site.īut what if you don’t have enough SkyMiles to cover the entire flight you want? While you could quickly boost your balance by buying miles or transferring them from the Membership Rewards program, those aren’t your only options. This is when you redeem miles to cover the entire ticket fare, save for taxes and fees. The most common Delta mileage ticket is a standard award ticket.