The joke for many years was that Delta Air Line’s loyalty currency should be called “SkyPesos” instead of SkyMiles. Award travel was so expensive that it took many more miles to book an award flight with SkyMiles than with the miles of other airlines.
Thus, like Mexican pesos that are worth less than a U.S. dollar, the SkyPeso was something to be snubbed. It hasn’t helped that Delta more recently moved to a dynamic award pricing scheme, essentially changing the cost of an award flight whenever it felt like it. Some tickets now cost hundreds of thousands of miles.
For a limited time that logic may be turned on its head. If you want, you can use your SkyMiles to book vacation packages that include a flight and hotel rather than just an award ticket. Delta Vacations will list the cash price and let you redeem miles at a penny each. Not great, but par for the course. Except that through August 30 you can redeem miles for vacations and get twice as much value, or 2 cents each. UPDATE: This offer has now been extended through September 6.
Two cents per mile is pretty good. I consider Alaska Airlines miles among the most valuable and worth about 2 cents each. They regularly sell them for about 2 cents, and people keep buying them. People buy so many Alaska miles that the airline even created a cap for non-elite members.
So yeah, 2 cents is pretty good. Getting 2 cents for Delta SkyMiles? Awesome.
You can mix and match miles with cash for this Delta Vacations deal, so you aren’t obligated to redeem miles for the entire thing. That will help those who have a smaller stash and can’t afford to cover the entire cost. And because these are regular paid tickets (you’re just converting the miles to cash to pay the bill) you’ll continue to earn more miles when you fly.
About the only downside is the short time window. You have only through Friday, August 30, to book your vacation and get twice the value for your SkyMiles. If I bothered to accumulate them I would be searching for trips already!
