Originally Posted by
flyerfirsts
they are worthless but earn quickly. You would never transfer points to delta, but if you're say platinum and you earn 9 skymiles per dollar it's basically just a 10% rebate program. Usually in the dec to feb timeframe (flying, not booking) you can find 160k miles in delta one to Europe, other than that mostly they're just good for domestic trips. Every now and then I see some good redemptions out of Seattle too.
I have found with both Delta and United that by far the very best deals on points are with their partners. They seem to have no problem practically giving away flights from airlines that are not them.
I get insane deals using Skymiles on Westjet flights out of Canada to the Caribbean and Mexico.
If you want to actually be flying Delta, going from the US or Canada to South America has some really great deals (50k to Buenos Aires or Rio).