Brendan

IMHO it's a good deal (more than neutralizes the fee) if U want to empty out orphan acct.s (esp. those of infrequent flyers such as kids,) a so-so deal to churn for tons of new miles. OK, so it's not AS awesome as some Budget/ Avis deals. Also, I am concerned about possible future devaluations due to too darn many miles existing. Of course it would be better on an airline without so many bogus fees which make award tix no longer free.

So think it over. For people like Hindukid, this offer increases demand for & trading value of DL miles on tCC !

jpdx

Lots of people argue that their miles are worth 3, 5, or even 10 cents. And this may be true, if you use them for international travel in premium classes (of course, this math is off unless you would actually pay $10,000 in cash for the $10,000 SQ F ticket you got with miles). I think for DL miles, a much lower valuation is appropriate, but 1.1 cents is not a bad deal. $1540+ for a SQ F ticket (140k miles) or $1100+ for a C ticket US-EU is not bad value (if you can get them). Even $3500 for a "last seat" award C ticket US-EU may be a great deal under certain circumstances. The minimum value for DL miles is 1 cent (if redeemed for flights with Pay-with-Miles) or about .5 cents (if redeemed for giftcards). Keep in mind, though, that obtaining DL miles is much easier than getting AA miles, and that many options (car rentals, shopping) can yield DL miles at well below 1 cent per mile.

gregorygrady

So basically if you do a 30k transfer you get to move 30k miles from one acct to another and then you basically are "buying" the additional 30k for 1.1 cents apiece. Not a bad deal if you are looking to transfer from one acct to another as others have mentioned, but not a great deal if you are just looking to "buy" miles. The Budget deal is a much cheaper way to "buy" miles. That said, I'll actually probably take advantage of this just to move some miles between accounts and into one single main acct. Much better to have 120k in one acct than 40k in 3 separate accts as it gives much more flexibility if you want to redeem or trade the miles in the future. ^

bomaab

\

Hey reddawngirl - can you please help me out.. I cannot rent cards for $25 - I live in Houston - Care to explain how you are renting cars from Budget for $25 all in!! I would love to get my hand on $100 for 32k miles.... in fact at those prices I would like to spend $500 and get those 160k miles) - heck i would even pay someone a commision if they helped me get 160k miles for 500 bucks.... So please let me know how I can make this work in Houston

thanks

gregorygrady

If you'd like to spend $500 to get 32k miles, then this 100% bonus on transferred miles is right up your alley. Just find somebody to mutually trade with and you'll be set. ^ And it will be even cheaper than $500!!!

MrAndy1369

So, basically, right now, I have 20,500 miles in my account... if I transfer it to another account, that person will get 41,000 miles, NOT me, right?

gregorygrady

Correct.

reddawngrl

I sent you a PM.

mooper

If you do 30,000 miles at a time, then that is *exactly* what you are doing - buying miles for 1.1CPM. If you redeem between 1.5 and 2.0 CPM as I do, it is likely worth it. Using them for less than 1.1 CPM (PWM, for example) or not using them at all is not worth it.

Comparing this offer vs the Budget offer or other means is somewhat apples vs oranges, as this requires a fw mouse clicks and the Budget offer (and others) require some time, activity, and risk (albeit net you a lower cost if done properly).

Recreation

Under the old award structure, I'd probably have used the deal to transfer points from my kids' accounts into mine. However, with the new triple tier award structure, I have no idea how many miles it'll take to get us to Hawaii anymore. Used to be that I knew that if SkySaver failed, SkyChoice would be available at 70k miles. No more.

So, I've decided to simply quit hoarding Delta miles. I've already canceled my husband's gold AMEX SkyMiles cards and switched over to United's program. I don't like uncertainty. Nor did I like the increase to $95 for the card.

mooper

You certainly have an idea - it is one of three levels. I think you meant that "last seat available" awards require more miles now. You should consider the frequency of availability of the cheaper awards both on DL and UA when weighing how much of an impact the premium award change has on you. On a quick check, I am seeing a lot of "low" availability from various DL markets to HNL through the end of this year. I didn't check UA.

As for being risk averse - do you feel that UA presents you with less risk of change (i.e., greater certainty)?

iahphx

My wife and I are CO plats, so our Skymiles are pretty much "orphans." (But perhaps more useful to me when CO bolts for the Star Alliance). I might be interested in "topping off" our accounts with this promo if there was plausible availability at the lowest coach reward tier to Hawaiian and int'l destinations. That's pretty much the only way I could get sufficient value at 1.1 cents per mile.

What has been the recent experience with such reward availability? I'm guessing it's not too good because back when there were 2 tiers and I examined it, DL was a little behind the pack in standard reward availability (and significantly worse than AA or UA, where 1.1 cents/mile would be much more attractive to me).

Thanks for any guidance on this.

asianmanma

Hi,
Does anybody know that whether I can transfer miles from two accounts back and forth to receive many bonus miles? (I know the limitation of 150k to transfer in a year and 300k to receive in a year). To be specific, I want to transfer 30k to my wife's account, then she transfer this 30k back to me, then I transfer 30k to her account again.... (I know the bonus part may not posted until after 10/31)

I do like this because for 60k, I can get a ticket to Asian, but ticket to asian normally cost us $1500.

Any suggestions?

Recreation

Yes, because they own 60% of the Hawaiian market acc. to FlyerTalkers and therefore should have more award seats available. Their flights aren't as convenient for me as Delta's but when I need to fly 4 people, price has to supercede convenience.

Last year when I was booking my flights from CVG->OGG (not HNL), the only seats available on Delta at 331 days out were SkyChoice coach seats at 70k Miles. I reluctantly booked 3 seats and paid for one out of pocket to the tune of $1100. That's when I started to do research on other airlines and discovered that there were tons of Saver seats available on United, even at less than 331 days out. I asked other United Flyertalkers if it was normal to see lots of Saver seats to Hawaii and they said yes. If you plan early you should be able to do it. They also have the added bonus of having E+ seats which will give coach passengers an extra 5 inches of legroom for an extra fee. For coach dwellers like me, 5 inches of legroom is a big deal.

I'm hoping that the Saver seats with United aren't going to dry up like they seemed to do with Delta. In years past, I've been able to book 6 RT Saver seats on Delta to Hawaii by booking at 331 days out. This past time I couldn't find Saver coach seats ever, to either OGG or HNL. (It was for July 12-19, '08). With Choice being double the price of Saver, I've got to go where I feel I have the best chance of getting Saver seats. And that's with United.

asianmanma

Hi,
I looked at the the "terms and conditions" of the budget car rental, one sentence says "...Car must be returned at Airport Locations Only...."-----Do you want to make sure about this? In other words, if you just rent a car from a store near your home (not in an airport), it may not qualify! You may end up with wasting money renting unwanted car getting nothing. Did you make sure with Budget and Delta?
Thanks!