Each year I book a trip to the Caribbean for the family (6 passengers) for an early Christmas vacation. In the past I have been able to book everyone in 1st class using just sky miles (last year I had to pay $800.00 out of pocket - and I have enjoyed being able to do this for the family as it makes all of my travel seem to have some benefit for my family).

This year Delta wants 110,000 miles per first class round trip ticket. I only have 400,000 in miles in my account currently so I have to pay the difference out of pocket. This year's total came to 360,000 miles plus $7000.00 for the tickets. I can buy first class tickets on American (with no miles or status) for $6000.00.

I am good enough at math to realize that $6k for first class tickets on American is a much better deal than $7000.00 on Delta plus 360,000 sky pesos. This essentially means that my miles on Delta are worth less than zero in this instance. I realize that this is not always the case, but it is making me question my loyalty to Delta when my Skymiles have a much reduced value.

Any suggestion on how to work the system to improve the cost so that I can justify staying on Delta's metal?