Adding Mileage Booster
 

Question for the Delta flyers:

I just hit Silver Medallion by flying for work. My company reimburses my expenses so I get to book my travel on my Delta AMEX. The question I have is this: If I am flying for work and not paying for the flight, is it worth the money for me to buy the Mileage Booster for $60 for 3,000 miles?

The question you're asking is essentially, if someone offered me 3,000 miles for free, is it worth taking them? How could the answer to that be anything other than "yes"?

(Just to be clear, this would get you 3,000 redeemable miles, not 3,000 MQMs towards further Medallion status)

But the question you should be asking is, is it ethical to charge $60 to the company for something that is clearly extraneous to the work purposes of the trip.

Unless your company is run by morons, this would not be an allowable expense, and someone in accounting is going to be spot checking reports and will disallow the $60 if they see it, plus there may be additional consequences.

Sorry vague question. I would be paying the $60 out of my pocket.

Not Worth It Without a Specific Need
 

$60 for 3,000 redeemable miles is two cents per mile. A knowledgeable Delta frequent flyer with free time and not married to a limited number of routes can usually find redemption value equal to two cents a mile. However, getting more than two cents per mile is difficult. Therefore, this "deal" is not worth it -- unless a person is angling for a specific redemption and is just a few miles short.

If you're going to buy miles from DL anyway to top up your FF account for a specific available award ticket, two cents per mile is cheaper. Otherwise, it's probably not worth buying redeemable miles at this price.

I'd estimate that in 99% of circumstances, it's not worth buying DL RDMs at 2 cents per mile. I've been able to find situations where I can redeem them at that value (often in premium cabin travel), but they are few and far between (and, IME, getting less frequent).

I would buy SkyMiles at 1 cents per mile or less, as that's the floor of their value using Pay With Miles. Beyond that, unless you have a specific redemption in mind where you're just short, I wouldn't bother.

Just keep in mind the fact that, even though you are buying miles from DL, after you have purchased the miles DL will maintain that they still own the miles. So, no transfer of miles to a family member if you die.

Also, remember that DL reserves the right to do anything they desire to devalue those miles the day after you purchase them. So, you are giving money to DL on the hopes that you might be able to get a reasonable return on your investment. As others have suggested, based upon current conditions, you might be lucky to break even.

So, does the mileage boost sound like a good idea?

I wasn't thinking about death until now. So thanks for that

^ ^ This is excellent advice.

David

:D

There are only two things that are certain in life:

1) DL will change the SkyMiles program.

2) None of us are going to get out of here alive.

;)

Can you use DL credits to pay for Mileage Booster? I have $25 that will go to waste otherwise (about to expire), but would be willing to pay $4 for 1,000 miles (it costs $29 for 1,000 on my flight).

Perhaps a more interesting question would be whether you can now pay with miles, as you can for most DL fees. <just joking, as you would be giving DL miles in the process>

I suspect these purchases don't count for MQDs, but I wonder whether they would earn double miles if paid with a DL AmEx card.

Finally, if one has a regular AmEx Plat charge card, would this be a DL fee that would be reimbursed? If so, buying mileage booster at the end of the year would be a decent way to use up the $200 credit.

I agree with most of the comments above. Unless there is a threshold you are trying to meet for an award ticket, I would say no. If you are trying to meet a threshold, then sure $60 certainly could be worth it to take that trip!

If I'm aiming to add skymiles to my account, I would rather do it at no additional cost. Maybe that could work for you as well. For example, the last time I bought luggage I checked the Delta skymiles shopping site. There was an eBags promo for 15 miles per $1 spent. So, I clicked through the Delta site to eBags and added 11,000 miles to my account without spending any additional $$$.