FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Worth purchasing 500K Skymiles for ~$1,600?
Old Nov 12, 2015 | 4:37 pm
  #30  
MSPeconomist
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Originally Posted by RealHJ
No, not with SB; so would be only case with SkyMiles in someone elses account. With SB, the "winner" would get an SB cert of an approx value of 500,000 pts issued, which is valid on a specific region award (e.g. US to Europe or US to S. South America or something). The "winner" would then have 365 days from date of issue to go to www.delta.com/redeem to use it, with the flights being booked up to 331 days in advance as of the booking date (so in effect, there's 23 months to use it from the date of issue). The "winner" would book it themselves, all they get is the cert code.

The only thing is, there is no 500,000 point exact award - some potentially desirable ones are just a bit under and just a bit over 500K.
There's also the problem that if you find award inventory you want for some specific regional award, it could vanish by the time you get the certificate. If you then can't find award inventory you want for the same regional certificate, you would have to have the first certificate returned and request a different one for another region. Rinse and repeat. (AFAIK even the enhanced availability isn't last seat.)
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