zoomie00

I am very new to using points on any airline. I have planned a family trip to Germany and was hoping to use some of my 102K AMEX points and 22K Skymiles to help with the airfare. I found a great rate on Delta.com - Round Trip ATL to Munich for $654. So I transferred my AMEX points to Skymiles at a 1:1. o 124K miles to use. But when I logged into Delta.com - the price for the exact same ticket was 60K points + $422. Doing the math - the extra $232 to pay cash - that means I am only redeeming each point for 0.38 cents. I went back and chose "money" vs "miles" and the $654 rate came back up. So, I went ahead and paid cash for the tickets (and got 5x points with the Amex Platinum so another 10K miles earned). But I don't know if i made the right choice. If there is always such a disparity between the cash price and mileage "cost" for tickets - how are people reporting these high values for miles - 1 cent to 1.3 cents and higher for these points? Am I missing something? Point veterans - Thank you for any advice.

suvayanr

A few things -

many of of us have a skymiles Amex, which allows for "pay with miles", essentially using miles at a guaranteed 1cpm

you're originating in Europe, which means you get to pay a "surcharge" for the ticket. Otherwise, 60k miles is the lowest level redemption.

Finally, its always good to check the cost of the award ticket before transferring. Now you have 120 skymiles sitting around!

zoomie00

Thank you very much! Good information. Noobie mistake.

davetravels

Did I miss something?!?

xliioper

Maybe OP clicked "Miles + Cash" instead of just "Miles". Although that still doesn't work out as the cash component in that case is $375 ($279 for 15K miles, plus $96 in taxes), not $422.

miraclebear2003

Dave - I don't think it was you. That's exactly what the OP said. But as you know, responses are often made disregarding what has been posted.

suvayanr

ah good catch davetravels. When I saw the 60k and a high dollar amount and Europe somewhere in there I immediately thought the European surcharge. But looks like OP is indeed originating in ATL

TTT

For future reference, Amex allows you to book a "cash" ticket using your Membership Rewards points at 1 cent per point. And since you have the Amex Plat Charge Card you are not charged a booking fee by American Express.

Booking that way would have allowed you to offset the total cost of travel up to $1020 (or just under two tickets) while still allowing you to earn Delta miles, MQMs, and MQDs.

davetravels

I was thinking - - to the original poster:

First of all - WELCOME to FlyerTalk - Delta forum!

If the OP was attempting to book this as 2 one-ways, <ATL/MUC & MUC/ATL>, that could be why the European Origination Surcharge is kicking in - for the return trip.

If you book it together as a ROUND TRIP - JUST using miles, it should work out ti 60,000 miles, and maybe $75-100ish in taxes.

Gig103

It sounds like you thought that Skymiles were redeemed at $0.01 per mile like Membership Rewards are, but they aren't. Miles are redeemed in preset amounts for award tickets, they aren't spent like cash/membership points.

xliioper

Even so, that doesn't explain the $422 surcharge. Taxes on an RT award ticket from the US on the non-stop flights should only be about $96.

orca15

Miles+Cash often results in ridiculous exchange rates like this. It's for suckers, IMO. OP did the right thing by evaluating the poor mile-money exchange and not using it.

Pay with miles, a very different way of entering the payment, is always $0.01 per mile. It has to be chosen early in the booking process [meaning before you get to the payment screen], IIRC.


IMO, OP would have been better off exchanging and buying on the AMEX side. I'd consider calling and seeing is you can reverse the point swap and cancel and repurchase the ticket if within 24 hours.

[added] OP, did you try to go for a straight mileage award? Cheap price may indicate low level award availability, e.g. ~60K RT.