Through September 30, 2011 Delta is offering a 100% bonus on purchased and transferred miles. Admittedly Delta miles aren’t all that valuable, though this can still be a good deal.

Delta SkyMiles usually sell for 3.5 cents each plus the 7.5% federal excise tax, so through this promotion they end up costing 1.75 cents each, plus the 7.5% federal excise tax, for a total of 1.88 cents per mile. You can purchase a maximum of 60,000 miles per year, so through this promotion that would be a total of 120,000 miles.

The better deal is transferring miles, where the cost is one cent per mile, plus a $30 transaction fee. You can transfer a maximum of 150,000 miles per year, though only a maximum of 30,000 miles per transaction. That means the cost to transfer 30,000 miles miles would be $330, or about 1.1 cents per mile. If you transfer 30,000 miles you would get a total of 60,000 miles in the other account.

While Delta miles aren’t especially valuable, $1,650 for a net gain of 150,000 miles isn’t half bad. That’s enough for a business class award on V Australia to Australia in business class, or on Air Tahiti/Air France to Tahiti in business class. 100,000 miles, at a cost of $1,120, would also be enough for a business class award to Europe.

In all cases a pretty good deal, though if you were only going to go for one promotion, I think US Airways’ mileage sale at 1.48 cents per mile is a better deal. That being said, I’m very tempted by both offers…

(Tip of the hat to Gary)

Posted on August 10th, 2011 by lucky
Filed under: Delta, Great Deals | 13 Comments »

  1. August 10th, 2011 at 11:01 am

    Mark said,

    Can you really get the 100-150k premium awards? FT rants endlessly about it costing 280-700k.

  2. August 10th, 2011 at 11:08 am

    lucky said,

    @ Mark — Air France has decent award availability, especially out of Washington, New York, and Atlanta, and they only offer awards at the “saver” level, which is 100,000 miles in business class to Europe.

  3. August 10th, 2011 at 11:38 am

    Chris D. said,

    Lucky – I’ve registered DL as my “airline choice” for the $200 credit on the AmEx Plat. Do you think this might work to use that credit to offset the cost of transferring DL miles around in my family?

  4. August 10th, 2011 at 1:05 pm

    egwg said,

    Why do you think US Airways is a better deal than the Delta transfer? You get a better rate on the Delta transfer, although not as many miles.

  5. August 10th, 2011 at 3:13 pm

    zach said,

    @Chris, it should work. United was my choice for the $200 credit, and I ended up buying $200 worth of UA miles since I didn’t travel on UA for the year.

    @Egwg, I think it has to do with Delta’s poor availability in standard and saver awards, as well as the very frustrating search engine on delta.com. with star alliamce’s availability and ease of searching via continental/ANA/Aeroplan…US miles are more valuable to me, especially with the international destinations that I plan my award travels on

  6. August 10th, 2011 at 9:53 pm

    Carl said,

    @Egwg – not to mention US Air metal off-peak award in Business Class to Europe and South America for 55k for their credit card holders and 60k for everyone else.

  7. August 11th, 2011 at 2:01 am

    US airways 100% bonus, British Airways 50% off, Delta 100% Bonus, and 83,871+ AA miles for $3 | Million Mile Secrets said,

    [...] as One Mile at a Time points out, the better deal is to transfer miles at a cost of ~1.1 cent per mile.  You are limited [...]

  8. August 11th, 2011 at 6:45 am

    Jeff said,

    Has anyone a clue how soon Delta will be crediting the 100% bonus miles if I purchase?
    I’m thinking of buying 16000 miles at ~ (16000* 0.018) $300 and gonna be using this to buy an award ticket. But if the posting of bonus miles is immediate, maybe I’ll just buy 8000 miles and use the other 8000 bonus miles to get my award ticket.

    Thanks for your help!

    Jeff

  9. August 11th, 2011 at 8:17 am

    Lantean said,

    @zach

    did you make it in one $200 purchase and got statement credit? i thought it had to be small purchases to look like incidentals, but i may be wrong.
    thank you.

  10. August 11th, 2011 at 12:34 pm

    Steve A said,

    @Jeff, the transfer miles, including the bonus, post immediately.

  11. August 13th, 2011 at 1:57 pm

    How I plan on taking advantage of Delta’s 100% mileage bonus on transfers - One Mile at a Time said,

    [...] a 100% bonus on purchased and transferred miles through September 30, 2011, as I blogged about here. This brings the cost of a purchased mile down to about 1.88 cents per mile, while it brings the [...]

  12. November 8th, 2011 at 3:40 am

    100% bonus on purchased Delta SkyMiles for Delta American Express cardholders - One Mile at a Time said,

    [...] are definitely better deals out there, though, if you can wait. Just a couple of months ago Delta had a promotion through which you could generate SkyMiles for about 1.1 cents each thanks to a 100% bonus on [...]

  13. December 13th, 2011 at 7:41 am

    Delta’s amazing 100% bonus on transferred miles through December 16, 2011 - One Mile at a Time said,

    [...] is the second time this year that Delta is running this promotion. They offered the same promotion in August and September, and as I mentioned at the time, I intended to take full advantage of the [...]

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