Originally Posted by troyb (Post 13648421)

It's going to depend mostly on your travel pattern. I also consider DL miles pretty worthless, but 60,000 is worth, at a minimum, a last minute domestic flight. If you ever find the need to take one of those, the miles will come in handy.

Seems like you are more interested in a US-Asia trip, however. If you haven't already, try looking at partners like Korean and Malaysian. Also try searching starting in cities other than SFO. I think they now fly from SEA, PDX, and of course cities in the midwest and east coast. An unconventional routing may not show up in the award calender, even if it is available.

Originally Posted by mrx900 (Post 13657726)

Malaysian Airlines is a partner ???????

Originally Posted by UA Fan (Post 13658081)

you could get some better solutions if this was in the DL forum.

Originally Posted by brasov02 (Post 13648561)

I've wondered the same thing about my relatively worthless skymiles. But I just discovered their new (?) marketplace site and found you can get some excellent value out of your miles via hotels.

Originally Posted by Ilove2fly (Post 13661875)

Thanks to this thread, now i know about the hotel alternative.

Originally Posted by cyncyn129 (Post 13652621)

If you don't have enough miles, you can use miles + $.

Originally Posted by mooper (Post 13652329)

If you have any use for a domestic trip, use 50K of the miles for two RT tickets within the US. Low/saver availability is widely available for many routings... I redeem dozens per year. If you have sufficient status with DL, you can leverage the value further by redeeming, with no fees, for last-minute flights that often cost a lot otherwise, sometimes achieving CPMs of 3+.

Originally Posted by UA Fan (Post 13658078)

yes thru NW, just like IT.

Originally Posted by UA Fan (Post 13658078)

yes thru NW, just like IT.

Originally Posted by brasov02 (Post 13648561)

I've wondered the same thing about my relatively worthless skymiles. But I just discovered their new (?) marketplace site and found you can get some excellent value out of your miles via hotels. You might check this option out...
https://travelmarketplace.delta.com/travel/arc.cfm

Originally Posted by cardesigner2000 (Post 13663219)

Do any other programs have similar hotel portals?

Originally Posted by hobo13 (Post 13660919)

Nah, if it was moved over there, the DL apologists would just tell the OP that his 57k miles are worth GOLD!

Originally Posted by brasov02 (Post 13648561)

I've wondered the same thing about my relatively worthless skymiles. But I just discovered their new (?) marketplace site and found you can get some excellent value out of your miles via hotels. You might check this option out...
https://travelmarketplace.delta.com/travel/arc.cfm
They have tons of hotel choices nearly anywhere in the world and in places where my Starwood or Hilton points are of no help. Now, instead of avoiding skymiles earnings I may just go for more knowing I can use them this way.
There are other merchandise purchasing options too but I think for me, the hotel option is the way to go.
Haven't checked into the car rental option yet but I'm sure most any of these options will be easier to get value from compared with their pitiful flight awards.

Originally Posted by brasov02 (Post 13649534)

But let's not get caught up in that redundant and tired challenging of one another's interpretation of "excellent value".

Originally Posted by dave209 (Post 13664298)

I second that, thank you so much for this post. So good redemption rates for Bali ^^^