Delta’s Skymiles program is awful enough to be known as Skypesos. The Delta Credit Card is useful for free baggage for up to 9 passengers but you don’t want to use that card for general spending as there are much better programs out there to accumulate miles in.
But just because you’re flying Delta doesn’t mean you have to accumulate the miles earned from your Delta flight by them.
You can call Delta to earn miles for your ticket in any of their partner programs such as:
-Alaska has an excellent mileage program that allows you to redeem miles on a plethora of top-notch OneWorld and Skyteam airlines. Alaska miles won’t expire as long as you have any activity every 18 months. They are a transfer partner with Starwood. You can even credit miles earned from other partner flights like American to Alaska!
-Korean also has a great mileage program which allows really cheap award redemptions to Alaska or Hawaii and they have the best lie-flat first class international award availability of perhaps any airline. Miles don’t expire for 10 years and they are transfer partners with Chase Ultimate Rewards.
-Air France/KLM Flying Blue has some nice redemptions like promo awards for 12.5K award tickets to Israel plus fuel surcharges or 25K award tickets on Delta to Israel with no fuel surcharges. And they allow one-way redemptions on Delta even though you can’t do that with Delta’s own miles. However miles expire after just 20 months unless you fly on a paid Skyteam flight and credit the miles to Flying Blue. They are transfer partners with both American Express Membership Rewards and Starwood.
The first thing you need to do is locate the fare class of your ticket which is a letter code next to every flight.
Then look at charts like the Delta accrual chart, the Alaska accrual chart for Delta flights, the Korean accrual chart for Delta flights, and the Flying Blue accrual chart for Delta flights.
Finally take a look at GCMap.com to see how many actual flight miles you will be flying. For example if someone bought a round-trip ticket from JFK to Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii via Los Angeles he would be flying 9,958 miles.
Earning from that flight can be 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%, 125%, or 150% depending on the letter of the ticketing class.
A 25% earning would mean getting just 2,490 miles. A 150% earning would mean 14,937 miles.
For example I asked this question on DDF yesterday and DDF user jewdkoff has an outbound flight in S class and a return in V class. He has several options for each flight.
The S class outbound flight would earn full 100% mileage when credited to Delta or to partner airlines like Flying Blue, Alaska, or Korean.
However the V class return flight would earn 100% mileage when credited to Delta or Alaska, but just 25% when credited to Flying Blue and zilch if credited to Korean.
-DDF user aryeh1 had a Z class business flight.
If he credits that to Delta would get 150% of the actual miles flown while he would get 125% if credited to Alaska, Flying Blue, or Korean.
-DDF user 972sg212 was booked into C class outbound and T class on the return.
The C class business flight would get 150% of the actual miles when credited to Delta or Flying Blue or 125% if credited to Alaska or Korean.
The T class return flight would earn 100% mileage when credited to Delta or Alaska, but just 25% to Flying Blue and zilch if credited to Korean.
-DDF user Tzadik Nistar had a Y class coach flight.
It would get 150% of the actual miles flown when credited to Delta or 100% if credited to Alaska, Flying Blue, or Korean.
Of course not all miles are created equally. I would rather have 1.25 Alaska miles than 1.5 Delta miles, so weigh your options before you decide.
So, where will you be crediting your miles to?
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57 Comments On "Where Will You Be Crediting The Miles From Your Delta Flights To?"
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“and they are transfer partners with Chase Ultimate Rewards.”
do you mean you can trasfer both ways?
if yes is there a haircut?
thanks
can you share miles between family?
If I book through priceline do I get miles?
@shmu:
Transfer from AMEX, Chase, or Starwood are one-way out only.
There is no transferring back in.
@JohnD:
No.
@mordy:
Sure. Only Priceline tickets that are bid on don’t get miles.
@shmu:airline miles can never transfer to bank points
Are transfers from chase instNt?, if not, how long approx does it take?
Just tried making mileage tickets on delta using AMEX pts. They no longer will put the reservation on hold for 24 hrs to allow time to transfer the Amex pts. You must transfer the pts and hope the flights will still be available. Any ideas on how to deal with this?
@Anonymous:
Instant.
@Savtanomi:
The transfer is instant, just transfer and book.
Any bonus for elites?
are you saying i can transfer delta skymiles earned from sign up bonus to these other airlines?
So if i order from priceline 2 tickets to lax 25$each economy. How could i find how many point i can get and also is it matter with which c.c i paid for this trip? Thanks @dan and sorry for yhe quastion im new on the points world
I have G class seems like its 150% better to take alaskan or korean? On alaskan you also accrue elite qualifying miles
Dan,
Whats the bottom line use of korean miles? Can I fly with it to Europe or Israel?
I meant if i didnt pay for this tickets with my delta card ( and i have one) do i lose the miles from this trip? Or i can give them my delta c.c details to get it? Tnx
how do you know which economy class you are in?
Which mileage program is better: delta airlines with the amex gold card or american airlines with a citi world card?
I’d like to credit my miles to Alaska, but I think I need my Delta number in the record to obtain my Starwood Crossover benefits. Any ideas on how I can accomplish this? Thanks.
@chaim It should say on your ticket Ie DELTA 2407
FIRST (G)
Right after cabin should be a letter
How many points does one need to upgrade from Delta economy to business? Some of our tickets got business. Others got econony. We’d like to upgrade the econony ones to business.
Dan,
I know that you always speak about Skypesos, but wondering what you would advise a gold medallion member for whom Delta is the airline that services the routes he flies.
Still transfer your mileage elsewhere?
Dan thanks for the mention 🙂
If anyone has an address in Canada, flying blue has a promotion to get an extra 3000 points if registering and flying with any partner by June 30 14
When do I have to call delta about transferring the points before the flight or I can call even a whole after??
Hi Dan thanks for the post just wondering delta has crossover Starwood to earn points on Starwood when you fly with ur delta membership number is it still not worth it to use delta mem because you get double points 1 Spg and 1 delta for flying?? thanks again
flying to phoenix in I class so i get 150%. i only have american miles. what should i do with these miles?
Dan assuming I get 150% of miles flown on my I class business ticket it appears flying blue is much better option than Alaska as far as award travel to Israel or award travel from New york-San diego?
If I buy the 24hr wifi on delta.com fro $14 using my Delta Amex- will I get the $50 credit back?
I can’t find anything cheaper.
@Dan
You might rather have 1.25 Alaska than 1.50 Delta, but what about 1.50 Delta to 1.00 Alaskan, as with a Y ticket?
@esther12:
No.
@Shmaya:
You may want to credit to Alaska and earn elite status there. Or you may value the higher upgrade priority as a DL elite over the value of the miles.
@Duvid:
It’s not transferring, it’s just which mileage number you give them for credit.
You may be able to do it after but it can be a pain.
@Joseph:
You don’t get 1 SPG per mile flown. You get 1 SPG per dollar spent on the ticket.
So on a $25 ticket JFK-LAX you would earn a whopping 25 Starpoints.
@HDS:
I’d personally take 1 Alaska over 1.5 Delta.
Thanks for the reply, Dan.
Is the Alaska CC worthwhile?
asking again
if i didnt pay for this tickets with my delta card ( and i have one) do i lose the miles from this trip? Or i can give them my delta c.c details to get it? Tnx @dan
@HDS:
It was really awesome when I posted the 50K bonus.
Don’t know if there any more links for that floating around.
@eti:
Having the cc gets you free bags, no need to pay for the trip on the card.
Having the card doesnt get you extra miles.
so the skymiles its just if i paid with this card?
@Dan
The links I found by Googling appear dead.
On the Alaskan site I see a personal card for 25,000 upon approval and a business card for 25,000 upon first purchase. BOA, but pretty low thresholds….
@dan
I am booked in class I which earns me 150%. I dont have any alaska miles, but i do have american. what should i do for this flight?
Dan,
we have two business class tickets from ny to lax, thats aprox 5500 miles r/t per person. we were ticketed in C class meaning we get 150% on blue or 125% on Alaska/korean. if we dont accumulate more miles on those respective airlines and only use our AE SPG cards, what ways are there to capitalize on the roughly 7500 miles we get for the trip to LA?
Any suggestions on ways to maximize the Delta points you already have?
Hi. I’ve never done this before so not sure how it works.. I have two first class tickets to Hawaii thanks to Dan 🙂 how to I get the miles onto Alaskan? That seems the best way to go no? Thanks so much anyone that can help
Or maybe Korean so I can use my Ultimate Rewards as well….
Thanks!!
OK spoke with delta b’h i ordered it with my delta card so.. really cool
@dan whats the best thing to do with my 100000 amex delta skymiles? i dont want to use this card anymore cose its not worse the point but what to do with the points that i have?
@New Here
Open an account with Alaska, then call Delta to have them credit your flight there. You will need to give them your Alaska number.
@eti, use it. fly somewhere. it does not go away.
anyone know how i can find my priceline contract number? i didn’t save the number when it gave it to me
thanks
is it possible to credit one way with one airline and the way back with a different?
Ok thanks!
Alaska won’t allow you to create profiles for minors below a certain age (12 or 13) on the website by yourself, but a helpful CS rep was able to do it for any age without any trouble.
@Dan: Is there any credit card that gives MQM’S for Alaska? I have the Delta platinum which has a 10,000 MQM bonus for reaching a spending threshold
I have am AMEX Delta Gold card and purchased a ticket for my grandson to fly. Supposedly the first bag is free but he was charged for bags each way. Does only the cardholder get a free bag?
@New here…:
Go onto Delta website and go to manage reservations, then under customer details you have the option to pick which frequent flier program you want to credit your miles to.
Come on Dan. You are very one sided on this post,
Skymiles might be sky pesos but I disagree they are very valuable especially when you do travel to France. A round trip flight to Nice (only us airline to do that) will cost on average 95k miles but with only $60 in airport/tax fees. That’s usually a $1,500 flight if not more!
You seem antagonized to this FF program but I take it any day compared to the horrible Avios booking system & international Award rip off. In addition, traveling Delta is probably the best US airlines for domestic flights besides JetBlue and Virgin to my experience.
You can throw away AA (or trash airlines, United and others (let’s not talk about Spirit and others).
Thanks
David
Can I use my Alaska ff number for everyone in my fam? Will it credit for all the flights?
SO is Diamond DL. Yet this year, all miles are going to Alaska and she’ll never bother with DL again.
Delta is a joke of a program, especially for elite flyers. No F international redemptions???? No one ways? Outrageous award points needed vs other programs? Horrific booking engine?? Lose-lose-lose-lose.
And yes, I’d take 1.25 AS over 1.5 DL any day.
I just credited it to my Korean account. I am in (A) first class, which gets me 150% miles. I’m flying ~10,800 miles, which means I’ll be adding over 16,000 to my account. I just opened a new Chase Sapphire card, which has a promotion of 40,000 miles plus 5,000 more if I add my husband to the account (which I did). So that means I have almost 80,000 miles that I could use on Korean…
According to the new Korean Air chart I could go back to Hawaii in coach for free now and I’m 20,000 points away from two coach tickets to Europe…
Am I reading this all correctly? If so, that’s MONEY.
Just to be clear on the above… I’ll be adding 16,000 miles per ticket to my account. There’s two of us traveling so that’s 32,000 total.
DO U NEED THE ACTUAL ALASKA CREDIT CARD TO CREDIT THE DELTA MILES TO IT? OR CAN YOU OPEN JUST A ALASKA MILES ACCOUNT?
Anyone know if you can transfer miles within Alaskan as long as the two accounts have the same last name?
Class T on delta credited to Virgin Atlantic for 100% of the miles flown