{"id":3527,"date":"2022-02-25T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-25T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/?p=3527"},"modified":"2023-04-18T11:53:31","modified_gmt":"2023-04-18T17:53:31","slug":"hot-take-skymiles-are-valuable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/2022\/02\/25\/hot-take-skymiles-are-valuable\/","title":{"rendered":"Hot Take: SkyMiles Are Valuable"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Note:<\/em> I\u2019ll be on a mostly disconnected vacation this week, and while I\u2019m still planning on posting M-F, expect slower than normal responses from me. If you do write a note though I will get back to you.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ll find a <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dansdeals.com\/points-travel\/airlines\/delta\/delta-continues-massively-devalue-skypesos\/\">litany<\/a> <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/dannydealguru.com\/delta-skymiles-devaluation\/\">of<\/a> <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/travelbloggerbuzz.com\/iguassu-falls-and-victoria-falls-for-free-with-miles\/\">negative<\/a> <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/2021\/07\/29\/thursday-triple-4\/\">commentary<\/a> <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/user\/StephenTheBaker\">about<\/a> <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.delta.com\/us\/en\/skymiles\/overview\">Delta SkyMiles<\/a> from just about every blogger (including me) and in every travel forum out there (and with good cause): <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You\u2019ll pay nearly twice as much for a business class seat to Europe or Asia using SkyMiles as you might with other major US and international currencies<\/li>\n<li>One-way international trips booked within three months have punitive up-charges<\/li>\n<li>The cost for international premium-cabin redemptions <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/loyaltylobby.com\/2021\/09\/04\/delta-air-lines-skymiles-devaluation-for-skyclub-premium-alcohol-redemptions\/\">goes up<\/a> twice a year or so just because they can<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That said, SkyMiles are a valuable currency and are part of a wholistic travel strategy. They pair very well with AA miles, Alaska miles, United miles, and Southwest points as part of a complete travel hacking <s>breakfast<\/s> toolkit. While I wouldn\u2019t recommend that you hoard them, I would recommend keeping some nearby because:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They\u2019ve got a floor value of around a penny per point via pay with miles, which isn\u2019t the case with the other major legacy airlines<\/li>\n<li>Delta regularly has 5,000 mile fares for domestic short-haul<\/li>\n<li><a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/thepointsguy.com\/deals\/delta-skymiles-sale\/\">Delta runs<\/a> <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.milenerd.com\/delta\/\">decent award sales<\/a>, sometimes <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/milestomemories.com\/delta-award-sale-mexico\/\">to Mexico or the Caribbean for 11,000 miles round-trip<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Delta\u2019s award cancelation policies are great for non-basic economy fares<\/li>\n<li>If you\u2019re taking a positioning flight as part of a bigger trip, <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2022\/02\/06\/worst-us-airline-is-jetblue-not-spirit-or-frontier-wsj-ranking.html#:~:text=Delta%20passengers%20were%20also%20the,likely%20to%20mishandle%20passenger's%20baggage.\">on average Delta will get you there<\/a> without delays more often than any other carrier<\/li>\n<li>In 2022 you\u2019ll earn MQD and MQM for elite status on award tickets too<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Happy weekend!<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-editorskit-rounded\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3791\" sizes=\"(max-width: 975px) 100vw, 975px\" src=\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/delta-975x1024.jpeg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/delta-975x1024.jpeg 975w, https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/delta-286x300.jpeg 286w, https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/delta-768x807.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/delta.jpeg 1176w\" width=\"420\"\/><figcaption>Delta is part of a complete travel-hacking breakfast toolkit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Note: I\u2019ll be on a mostly disconnected vacation this week, and while I\u2019m still planning on posting M-F, expect slower than normal responses from me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":1,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3527"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7089,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3527\/revisions\/7089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}