There are lots of perks of holding a Delta Air Strains cobranded American Categorical card, and I do not simply imply free baggage. Not solely are you able to save 15% on all SkyMiles redemptions, however you may as well entry the Pay with Miles profit.
Pay with Miles affords one other method to redeem your Delta miles past commonplace award tickets and Miles + Money redemptions. You will get a set worth of 1 cent per mile utilizing Pay with Miles, however you may as well earn extra Medallion Qualification {Dollars} towards Delta elite standing.
Hold studying to learn to use Delta Pay with Miles and why it may be price redeeming your miles this fashion.
Associated: Delta SkyMiles: Your full information to incomes, redeeming and elite standing
What’s Delta Pay with Miles?
Pay with Miles is a function out there completely to SkyMiles members who maintain one of many following playing cards:
To make use of Pay with Miles, you should be the first cardmember; this function is not out there to approved customers. You need to even have a minimal of 5,000 SkyMiles per passenger in your account. For instance, to make use of Pay with Miles for a two-person reserving, you may want not less than 10,000 SkyMiles.
You need to use Pay with Miles to cowl half or all your ticket(s) at a fee of 1 cent per mile. You need to pay in increments of 5,000 miles, so for every 5,000 miles you redeem, you may save $50 off the ticket worth.
There are not any blackout dates or seat restrictions with Pay with Miles, and no restrict to what number of miles you possibly can redeem this fashion. Nonetheless, Pay with Miles is just out there on flights operated by Delta or a Delta Connection provider. If the flight you are is operated by a accomplice airline, the Pay with Miles choice will not present up.
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TPG values Delta SkyMiles at 1.2 cents every as of April 2025, so you’ll lose some worth for those who decide to redeem award tickets utilizing the Pay with Miles profit; principally, it is not one of the simplest ways to maximise your miles.
Nonetheless, since award costs fluctuate broadly, chances are you’ll discover that Pay with Miles is not a considerably worse choice than redeeming miles for an award ticket. And it could be price dropping a little bit worth as a result of you possibly can doubtlessly earn extra Medallion Qualification {Dollars} in your buy, which we’ll go into later.
Take this Delta-operated flight from Asheville, North Carolina, to Frankfurt, for instance. A Important Cabin award ticket prices 106,500 SkyMiles (because of Delta’s TakeOff15 perk for choose cardmembers), in comparison with a money worth of $1,186. That comes out to 1.1 cents per mile, not significantly better than the worth you’d get utilizing Pay with Miles.
Alternatively, this flight from New York Metropolis’s John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK) to Boston Logan Worldwide Airport (BOS) prices $259 in money or 13,100 miles for an award ticket, providing you with a significantly better worth of two cents per mile.
On this case, you would be dropping considerably extra worth by going the Pay with Miles route — but it surely may nonetheless make sense if Medallion standing is essential to you. Here is why.
Associated: Use Delta SkyMiles Procuring to earn bonus miles on on-line purchases
The way to use Delta Pay with Miles
To see Pay with Miles choices, you may must log in to your Delta SkyMiles account earlier than looking for flights.
Once you pull up an eligible flight — that means the flight is operated by Delta or Delta Connection and you’ve got not less than 5,000 miles per passenger — you may see “Pay with Miles Eligible” under the money worth. When you select your flight and attain the acquisition display, scroll down to seek out the Pay with Miles choice within the fee part.
On this JFK-BOS instance, a refundable Important Cabin fare prices $288.49 with taxes and charges. My dad, who has a Delta Gold Amex card, has the choice to redeem miles in increments of 5,000, as much as 30,000 miles for the overall ticket worth. To make use of Pay with Miles, he should pay the remaining steadiness along with his eligible Delta Amex card.
For those who pay for any a part of your ticket with money, you may earn miles based mostly on the money portion minus the taxes and charges. You will not earn any miles for those who use miles to cowl the whole ticket worth.
The place this will get attention-grabbing is incomes Medallion Qualification {Dollars}, Delta’s foreign money for incomes elite standing. For those who pay any a part of the ticket with money, you may earn 1 MQD per greenback on the money portion minus the taxes and charges. However for those who pay for the entire base fare with miles, you may earn MQDs as for those who’d paid for the entire thing with money.
On this instance, if my dad selected to pay 25,000 miles plus $38.49 in money, he would earn 35 miles and 5 MQDs for the portion he paid out of pocket.
Alternatively, if he used Pay with Miles for the entire ticket, he’d earn 0 miles and 255 MQDs.
Let’s examine this to a conventional award ticket for a similar flight, which prices 13,100 miles. Delta awards MQDs on award tickets, calculated by the variety of miles redeemed divided by 100 (government-imposed taxes and charges don’t earn MQDs). This ticket prices 13,100 miles, so it will earn 131 MQDs.
So, for those who’re seeking to stretch your miles so far as attainable, you are higher off reserving the award ticket. If incomes standing is your high precedence, chances are you’ll wish to shell out extra miles and earn extra MQDs utilizing Pay with Miles.
Associated: Delta Air Strains’ SkyMiles partnership with Uber
Pay with Miles vs. Miles + Money
Delta affords the same fee methodology referred to as Miles + Money, which is on the market to all Delta SkyMiles members (not simply cardholders). Miles + Money is a fee choice that exhibits up while you seek for flights; you possibly can select “$USD,” “Miles,” or “Miles + Money” within the high proper.
Miles + Money tickets are nonetheless thought-about award bookings, since you’re primarily shopping for some miles to e book your flight. Not like when utilizing Pay with Miles, Miles + Money costs are mounted, so you possibly can’t select what number of miles or {dollars} you wish to pay.
Going again to our JFK-BOS instance, which prices $259 in money or 13,100 miles for an award ticket, the Miles + Money choice is 10,500 miles plus $96. Once you subtract taxes and charges, you are primarily paying $90 for two,600 miles. That is a worth of about 3.5 cents per mile — yikes.
Some Miles + Money tickets current a greater worth, whereas others truly require extra miles and {dollars} than a easy award ticket in the identical fare class. Both means, this is not normally a fantastic use of your SkyMiles.
As a result of Miles + Money bookings are thought-about award tickets, you will not earn any miles. You will earn MQDs on the money portion minus the taxes and charges at a fee of 1 MQD per greenback. So, for the JFK-BOS flight above, you’d earn solely 90 MQDs. You will get nearer to elite standing by reserving a normal award ticket (131 MQDs), and even nearer utilizing Pay with Miles (255 MQDs).
Associated: The way to earn Delta Medallion elite standing with out flying
Backside line
Delta’s Pay with Miles is a helpful function that Delta Amex cardholders ought to pay attention to. For those who’re pursuing Delta Medallion standing this yr, it could be price spending the additional miles to earn extra MQDs. But when getting probably the most out of your SkyMiles is your high precedence, you may in all probability wish to stick to straightforward award tickets.
