David K

I'm going from NYC to LAX on Dec 23 - 30. I have about 180k miles with Delta. Silver status. Looks like there are various flight options for 50k miles. Normally, I've only ever used miles for saver awards. I suppose this is personal preference but would you go for it and use the miles or pay for a $600+ flight and save the miles for later?

I ran some searches on Delta.com for round trips to Central and upper South America for kicks. Seems those trips, at least in random dates in January, go for 60k-80k miles or $700-$1100. So, at least in my limited searches, all these flights are available at high miles levels, not savers.

I don't have immediate plans for international travel, though it's always a possibility. I typically travel internationally for work and add a few extra vacation days.

Edit: I also have about 37k miles with United but I ran searches and the only option with miles under my balance is a 6am flight on the 23rd, which won't work. There are 50k miles flights but the cost to buy the extra miles offsets the benefits quite a bit. My only other miles are with AA and the balance is around 10k so no leverage there.

Thanks,
David K

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

"My only other miles are with AA and the balance is around 10k so no leverage there."

How "around" 10K is your AA balance? For 12.5K you can get a one-way, if you can find SAAver seats on AA/US/AS. UA miles could be used for the one-way in the opposite direction.

JPG3392

Only you can decide whether it's worth it, since much depends on what else you would do with the miles (and the cash). In judging, I would suggest comparing with the cost of saver awards, since saver awards can be obtained for most trips (in my experience) with sufficient advance planning and some flexibility. To offer one comparison (important only if the route attracts you): UA and AA both offer saver awards one-way USA-Europe for 30k (AA is only 20k off-season); cash prices, especially during the summer, are higher than the prices NYC-LAX.

nomii

Use the miles. Even if it isn't saver, you never know when miles will devalue or when you'll get saver space for the exact flights you want in the future.

A bird in hand is better than future bird and such.

Yes, you can get a better redemption to Europe etc, but really, that assumes its in your plans to go to Europe and spend money on hotels and stuff there - this is a christmas trip you pretty much have to take so take it now.

If you ever need more miles for a europe etc trip later on Saver, you can always get another credit card.

David K

I was wrong. My AA balance is 18k. But I checked one-ways from NYC to LAX and from LAX to NYC, and the only tickets available are 30k miles each. So it doesn't seem using AA miles is a good option for me.

I think I'll just book on Delta with miles.

steveman518

Except DL prices one-way awards as a round-trip (at least until next year), so using only DL miles for the round-trip is the only mileage option

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

I never suggested that the OP use DL miles for a one-way. And it wasn't clear if the OP knew that he could redeem AA and UA miles for one-ways.

But if the OP can't find a Saver one-way with AA miles, and a Saver one-way the other way with UA miles, then you're right: it's either redeem DL miles for a poor redemption value of about 1.2 cents/mile, or pay cash for the roundtrip.

I wonder if the OP has checked fares at southwest.com out of LGA/EWR/ISP?

David K

OP here. I checked southwest. Cheapest tickets were $700.

David K

OP here -checked southwest but no good deals. $700+

sdsearch

The terminology "saver" is for airlines that only have two tiers, "standard' and "saver".

But Delta has for several years had 3 tiers, and in 2015 plans to have 5 tiers, so at Delta the term "saver" doesn't really apply, and it's three levels of pricing soon to be five. It's more like "best", "ok', "so-so", "worse", "worst".

You very rarely see the bottom tier at Delta, but the second tier up is much better than the highest tier there IMHO. (But you seem to have the highest tier.)

Still, Delta miles are in general hard to redeem at good value (ie, at the lowest tier), so if Delta miles is what you have to use up, it may make sense to use them up that way (especially as you won't come close yet to draining your Delta account doing this).

In the future, be aware that booking a lot further out for Christmas transcon travel, you can often get business/first "saver" for the same 50k as "last seat" economy. But by now, only 2 months out, that may be very tricky, though you may want to a search just to see. (If you have to use that many miles, you might well take a few minutes to see if you can get a business/first lowest-tier for about the same number of miles. The reason this can work, btw: Business travel drop off drasctically around the Christmas holidays, so front cabins are not quite as heavily booked.)

David K

OP here. The Delta flight that fits my schedule best is now $750 (incl fees,taxes) - but it's still available for 50k miles. Paying cash on any airline, the best deal that works with my schedule is still around $600.

I fly a couple times a year from NYC to SFO. I did a search for kicks in mid Feb and mid April and tickets that leave late in the day -- not requiring an extra vacation day -- are around $340 or 25,000 miles in Feb and $340 or 32,500 miles in April on Delta.

So, based on that quick estimate 50k miles for a $600 flight isn't great but the other rates for the NYC-SFO flight aren't necessarily much better (one rate is actually worse).

As others have said, you're not getting much in value with Delta on domestic flights. I usually tack international vacation onto overseas work trips so... I'm going to go ahead and buy the Delta flight with miles. Not a great deal but I think it makes sense.