Fastest/cheapest way to get a few skymiles
Dec 2, 2008, 9:15 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 37
Fastest/cheapest way to get a few skymiles
I need a couple hundred skymiles to have enough for an award ticket I'd like to book very soon since if I wait longer, I'll have to pay an additional fee for booking less than 3 weeks to departure. Any ideas on how to cheaply get a couple hundred skymiles posted quickly? I have a delta amex but that'll take too long to post and I don't want to purchase thousands of miles when I only need a couple hundred literally. Thanks for any help.
Dec 2, 2008, 9:31 pm
#2
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: SNA and BNA depending on work and time of year
Programs: UA Silver/ AA EXP/Hyatt Globalist/Marriott Lifetime Titanium/Hilton Diamond
Posts: 2,189
The simple way is buy them. They'll post most likely the next day. 1000 miles is something like $20. It's not a bad deal to get what you need and to get it quickly.
Dec 2, 2008, 9:34 pm
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 37
Thanks for the help, but it'd be almost $60 since it's a 2000 minimum purchase and 2.75 cents per mile plus 7.5% tax. I'm not going to pay $60 for 200 miles that I need.
Dec 2, 2008, 9:47 pm
#4
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: SLC
Programs: Delta PM
Posts: 211
Have you looked at what the fare would be if you search for your flights under the regular reservations tab and chose the "pay with miles" feature? I have found that *sometimes* you can acutally save $$/miles this way. However, this is highly variable on your destination and your desired fare class.
Dec 2, 2008, 9:53 pm
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 37
Have you looked at what the fare would be if you search for your flights under the regular reservations tab and chose the "pay with miles" feature? I have found that *sometimes* you can acutally save $$/miles this way. However, this is highly variable on your destination and your desired fare class.
Dec 3, 2008, 5:27 pm
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 37
So, there aren't any ways to cheapy and quickly top off an account to book an award?
Dec 3, 2008, 5:31 pm
#7
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Orange County and oftentimes London
Programs: Marriott Bonvoy, HH Diamond, AA EXP, VS Gold, BAEC Silver, Global Entry, UK RT
Posts: 539
Dec 3, 2008, 5:37 pm
#8
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 37
So $60 for 200 skymiles is the cheapest way...wouldn't it be cheaper to spend $20 at 1-800-flowers or some other partner? This site is full of "experts" that don't know of any better deals or ways than buying skymiles for 30 cents/mile (since the rest will be useless since I'm done with delta otherwise).
Dec 3, 2008, 5:52 pm
#9
Join Date: May 2008
Programs: DL AA UA
Posts: 2,359
So $60 for 200 skymiles is the cheapest way...wouldn't it be cheaper to spend $20 at 1-800-flowers or some other partner? This site is full of "experts" that don't know of any better deals or ways than buying skymiles for 30 cents/mile (since the rest will be useless since I'm done with delta otherwise).
Dec 3, 2008, 5:54 pm
#10
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: NYC
Programs: Delta DM, SPG Plat, Hyatt Diamond, MTA Rust, Hertz Five Star something or other
Posts: 2,858
The best way would be to transfer AMEX membership rewards into your Skymiles account. The forum to propose a trade is Coupon Connection, but you need to have a minimum number of posts to offer trades there (I think you are about 70 away).
Someone could give them to you, but with that attitude, you may not have any takers.
Know any family members/friends/coworkers with AMEX points? You can link your skymiles number to their account and the transfer is instantaneous.
As others have said- you aren't going to get it from partner activity.. those take days to process (I'm still waiting for my Amex 20% transfer bonus from October)
Know any family members/friends/coworkers with AMEX points? You can link your skymiles number to their account and the transfer is instantaneous.
As others have said- you aren't going to get it from partner activity.. those take days to process (I'm still waiting for my Amex 20% transfer bonus from October)
Dec 3, 2008, 6:17 pm
#11
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 37
Okay, I wasn't looking for someone to give me the miles. I'm not seeing where anybody else mentioned it takes days for partner activity to process. I'm looking for something that I sign up for or pay $5 and get a few hundred miles quickly. To the poster that thinks I should have planned years in advance, uhhh, I have weeks left to do this, but waiting for my amex to post will be a few days late by my calculation of when it posts so this is the planning ahead, but thanks for your "criticism" and posting up Delta's website that anybody who ever signed up for Skymiles knows about. This site has become less and less helpful like people posting up mysterious mile run deals with code words so those big bad outsiders don't cross post.
Dec 3, 2008, 6:27 pm
#12
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Orange County and oftentimes London
Programs: Marriott Bonvoy, HH Diamond, AA EXP, VS Gold, BAEC Silver, Global Entry, UK RT
Posts: 539
So $60 for 200 skymiles is the cheapest way...wouldn't it be cheaper to spend $20 at 1-800-flowers or some other partner? This site is full of "experts" that don't know of any better deals or ways than buying skymiles for 30 cents/mile (since the rest will be useless since I'm done with delta otherwise).
Last edited by fabulousflygirl; Dec 3, 2008 at 6:29 pm Reason: added more info
Dec 3, 2008, 6:36 pm
#13
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 37
Well you say that you want the cheapest AND quickest way to get those miles to post and that can be achieved quickly by purchasing them. Getting miles through purchases through DL's partners can take several days (if not weeks) to credit. So what do you want...quick or cheap?
Dec 3, 2008, 7:17 pm
#14
Join Date: May 2008
Programs: DL AA UA
Posts: 2,359
I'm looking for quick and cheap. Buying them would be quick but not cheap so it doesn't fit the criteria, does it? I thought out of all the "experts" on this site, one of them knew a specific partner or something that had a good deal that would require a small purchase or sign-up to top off an account for a couple hundred skymiles and posts relatively quickly, ie within a couple of weeks. At this point, I'm just annoyed that most of the people on this site either want to code everything to make it as hard as possible to be helpful to others, give bad advice like buy miles (buying miles is a joke at 2.75cents plus 7.5% tax unless there's the 100-150% bonus and even then it's not great and I actually said I'm looking for another way), or not help at all.
Seriously, $60 is relatively cheap. You already advocated buying flowers, so that would run you at least $20. We're talking another $40 and you get the miles you need and have a few extra if you ever decide you aren't done with DL. ...and even though it wasn't your intent, I'm guessing you would have had several offers to gift you the miles if you piped down the 'tude just a touch. You have come here asking for help and it has come across from your duplicate posting of the word "experts" that we at FT collectively have disappointed you. I don't believe it was anyone's intent to do so, but your frustration and disappointment seem a bit misplaced. Just MHO, YMMV.
Dec 3, 2008, 7:19 pm
#15
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Smyrna, GA, USA
Programs: DL FO 1MM
Posts: 1,761
wow...every other poster in this thread (besides me) has offered you useful advice. You asked a vague question and got pretty much the best answers possible. There is no reason to throw it back in the face of the people who tried to help you. You're in a tight spot and your options aren't good. The advice given was solid.