applegrcoug

My family and I are set to fly Delta in a couple months to Orlando. We haven't normally flown on Delta very often, but the departure time combined with price said Delta.

As a Chase UR person, where should I credit the miles?

Delta: they will just sit there forever or until Delta changes the expiration policy. But since we don't fly tons, they will never really ever get built up. Along with no expiration, they wouldn't be devalued like the partners.

Virgin: Easy enough to keep them alive with a hotel stay or transfer, but egad the fuel surcharges to go to Europe are horrible. What's the point?

KLM: I can park them there, but they would only be good for two years or until we all flew on Delta again. One pro here is we would like to go to Europe again sometime and as of now, their award availability looks really nice and easy. However, my 3y/o son might as well cough his miles up...

Korean: Looks like I can park them here for ten years and pool as a family and hope to get some use out of them. Con is award flights to Europe cost more than KLM; in business one ticket would wipe out the accrued miles we would be trying to save.

Any advice??

mia

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/virg...ub-points.html

sdsearch

Or you could just save a little more money and buy a Basic Economy fare at Delta, and then you wouldn't have to worry about what to do with the miles, because with Basic Economy you don't get any. But of course, there's a few other things you give up with Basic Economy, and those you might miss even more than the miles.

What you're forgetting is that since Delta is a major USA-based airline, there's lots of way besides flying to add to Detla miles. Delta SkyMiles Dining (Delta's equivalent of UA's MileagePlus Dining), Delta shopping mall, Delta credit cards, Membership Rewards credit cards from Amex that transfer to Delta, transfers from hotel programs, etc, etc. And with Delta's lack of expiration, you can take a "slow but steady" approach to adding miles "on the ground" (ie, only doing it when it doesn't disrupt your other "on the ground" earning).

But that ability to add miles from many different on-the-ground sources doesn't exist with most of those airlines. And just flying transcon diagonally like you are, I'm not sure if you'll earn enough by this flight alone to matter much.

Repooc17

Basic Economy (E) fares earn redeemable miles (RDMs) with Delta.

OP: consult with wheretocredit.com

xliioper

Unless you are flying in F, the cheapest DL fare classes (which I'm guessing you are looking at) accrue nothing in KE Skypass, 25% miles in Flying Blue, and 50% in VS Flying Club. I'd just credit them to DL Skymiles accounts. You've already probably wasted more time thinking about this than the miles are actually worth.

Jaimito Cartero

Some Delta miles are actually useful. They have short hop awards for as low as 5000 miles (even less in some market) one way.

applegrcoug

That is probably the best advise yet...

Yeah, I could stash them and try to build them, but I'm already doing that with some UA miles my son has accrued.