Is Delta’s Pay with Miles a Good Deal? Sometimes Yes

I was talking to my younger brother today and we decided to visit Utah during Memorial Day Weekend (May 24-26) and drive from Salt Lake City to Moab, home of Arches National Park and the coolest rock formations north of the Grand Canyon.

Since Delta is the only airline that flies into Canyonlands Field (CNY), I wanted to try to use my Delta SkyMiles.  I have about 53,000 Delta SkyMiles that are gathering dust, so I was hoping I could use them for this trip.  Luckily(?) for me, my short flight would cost only 40,000 Delta SkyMiles.  What a deal! Not!

Alternatively, if you have an American Express Delta Credit Card, one of the perks of having the card is that you can “Pay with Miles” whereby every 5,000 Delta SkyMiles is worth $50 off the paid cost of a ticket.  As you can see below, the paid cost of my flight would have been $357.50, but I was able to redeem 35,000 Delta SkyMiles + $7.50 to pay for the entire ticket.  Of course I will not earn any Delta SkyMiles on this trip, but that isn’t the worst thing in the world, especially after last week.

Here are the cent per mile calculations:

• Option 1 – Delta Award Flight:
• $357.50 = 40,000 Delta SkyMiles + $7.50
• $350 / 40,000 Delta SkyMiles = 0.875 cents per Delta SkyMiles
• Option 2 – Pay with Miles:
• $357.50 = 35,000 Delta SkyMiles + $7.50
• $350 / 35,000 Delta SkyMiles = 1.000 cents per Delta SkyMiles

The choice is easy for me.  To show that this was not an isolated incident, I performed the same search for my brother’s flight.  For his flight, the total cost would have been 32,500 Delta SkyMiles + $7.50 taxes/fees.  Slightly better than my award flight, but still not that elusive 25,000 Delta SkyMiles award ticket.

Since his ticket is even cheaper than mine (only $266.50), I could have redeemed 25,000 Delta SkyMiles + $16.50 to cover the entire trip.  Unfortunately I did not have that many extra Delta SkyMiles in my account, so I went with 15,000 Delta SkyMiles + $116.50.

Here are the cent per mile calculations:

• Option 1 – Delta Award Flight:
• $266.50 = 32,500 Delta SkyMiles + $7.50
• $259 / 32,500 Delta SkyMiles = 0.797 cents per Delta SkyMiles
• Option 2 – Pay with Miles:
• $266.50 = 15,000 Delta SkyMiles + $116.50
• $150 / 15,000 Delta SkyMiles = 1.000 cents per Delta SkyMiles

The math is simple and the choice is easy.  Pay with Miles wins again.

Of course, there are times when Pay with Miles would be worse off.  If you have a really expensive flight, then you would probably be better off using Delta’s Award Flight.  And vise versa, a really cheap flight would probably require less miles if you use Pay with Miles.  Also, Pay with Miles is not recommend for international flights or premium class flights since the Pay with Miles price will most likely exceed the award flight.

As for me, I am relieved to have *only* 3,350 Delta SkyMiles in my account.  If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.