As we all know, Delta is constantly trying to move their SkyMiles program to a revenue based model in every way, both on the earning and redeeming side. This is evident based on the fact that there are increasingly ways to redeem miles for things other than flights, and they generally seem to be pegging…
Continue reading: You Can Now Redeem SkyMiles For Delta Gift Cards
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
It’ll never work....
It’s just a radical waste of miles...
What is one to do with gift cards??
My wife and kids each have 7500 skymiles, and I considered getting $50 Delta gift cards until I browsed Delta flights and saw short haul one-way trips (NY to Baltimore) for 5500 miles. I’m guessing We’ll hold onto the points.
Where exactly can I use the Delta gift card ?? I was told by Delta that I couldn’t pay taxes on award travel with it
Buy a $250 gift card for 35,700 SkyMiles
Buy a $500 gift card for 71,450 SkyMiles
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So in this case it's better to buy $250 card twice, and save 50 miles,tho it's only 50 miles,but for some people every mile might be important.
I sometimes buy airline gift cards as actual gifts with cash; in this case, wouldn't it just be better to buy someone a fully refundable flight using pay with miles, have the recipient cancel the flight and have the voucher accrue to the gift recipient?
This has been available since at least December. I needed to fly to Denmark a bit last minute, so I can provide lots of extra info that wasn't in the post as to why this might or might not be a good option:
Pay with miles isn't available on all Delta flights - particularly international flights on their partners. That's why I redeemed my miles for a gift card to use for that particular flight - outright buying the ticket last minute wasn't in the budget, so I went with the gift card.
Also, if you want the card shipped to you quickly, you have to pay for expedited shipping. If you go with non-expedited shipping, it takes two weeks. Like, actually two weeks. It's a bit ridiculous.
Also, you may know this, but you actually can't combine gift cards and the 'pay with miles' feature, so if you're ever planning to do that on a booking you won't be able to.
Here is a perfect reason someone would do this: my elderly neighbor who is hanging up her flying travel wings offered me her remaining 43k+ skymiles. I don't want to pay cash to transfer them (1 cent per +$30) but she can now get me a gift card I CAN use. Thanks for the post!
Also the redemption of miles with delta is a PURE joke. Most oversea oneway ticket need 200k+ miles, other airlines charge 35k miles.
Giftcard is the general best way to redeem miles.
The value of a mile with delta is around 0.3 cents except for giftcards, there the value is better
I can't fly anymore because of health. If I convert Skymiles to a DElta gift card, can I give the gift card to a friend or family for them to use?
I signed up for a Delta Skymiles Amex card to get the 90,000 miles promised. The card comes with a steep $550 annual fee. Now, two trips later, I find that the miles are virtually useless. I've tried to use them on trips to Spain and France and in both cases the Delta points requirement is double what I have to spend on American. Plus, I tried to use them on a trip to Costa Rica, where I go frequently, and the only affordable flights are more than 12 hours long for a flight I can get on American in 6 hours. I'm now trying to convert my miles to a gift card and that is even tricky to do as they don't make it easy to find on their website. I'm going to convert them to a gift card, cancel the card and NEVER fly Delta again.
Final point- even when you pay cash Delta's restrictions are ridiculous. I booked flights to Paris well in advance for this December. They changed the flight time on me so that I would miss my connecting flight and when I tried to change the original flight to arrive a day earlier, I had to cancel the original flight, take a hit on the payment and rebook a new flight for more money. NEVER DELTA AGAIN!
Just learned that Delta no longer allows you to convert Skymiles to gift cards even though this site says you can (last updated in June 2023). They have not promoted this change- you actually have to talk to a representative to find this out- it just disappeared from their website all of a sudden.
I am looking at pursuing a class-action suit over this if anyone else has experienced this issue let me kow.