There are a lot of perks of holding a Delta Air Traces 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 also entry the Pay with Miles profit.
Pay with Miles gives one other solution to redeem your Delta miles past commonplace award tickets and Miles + Money redemptions. You may get a set worth of 1 cent per mile utilizing Pay with Miles, however you may also earn extra Medallion Qualification {Dollars} towards Delta elite standing.
Preserve studying to learn to use Delta Pay with Miles and why it is perhaps 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 solely 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. It’s essential 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 a minimum of 10,000 SkyMiles.
You should utilize Pay with Miles to cowl half or your whole ticket(s) at a charge of 1 cent per mile. It’s essential 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 service. 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 in the event you choose to redeem award tickets utilizing the Pay with Miles profit; principally, it is not one of the best ways to maximize your miles.
Nonetheless, since award costs fluctuate extensively, you might discover that Pay with Miles is not a considerably worse choice than redeeming miles for an award ticket. And it could be price dropping just a little 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 Major Cabin award ticket prices 106,500 SkyMiles (due to 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.
However, 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, supplying 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 — nevertheless it might nonetheless make sense if Medallion standing is vital to you. This is why.
Associated: Use Delta SkyMiles Procuring to earn bonus miles on on-line purchases
Find out how to use Delta Pay with Miles
To see Pay with Miles choices, you may have to log in to your Delta SkyMiles account earlier than looking for flights.
Once you pull up an eligible flight — which means the flight is operated by Delta or Delta Connection and you’ve got a minimum of 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 screen, scroll down to search out the Pay with Miles choice within the cost part.
On this JFK-BOS instance, a refundable Major Cabin fare prices $288.49 with taxes and costs. 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 stability together with his eligible Delta Amex card.
Should you pay for any a part of your ticket with money, you may earn miles based mostly on the money portion minus the taxes and costs. You will not earn any miles in the event you use miles to cowl your complete ticket worth.
The place this will get fascinating is incomes Medallion Qualification {Dollars}, Delta’s forex for incomes elite standing. Should you pay any a part of the ticket with money, you may earn 1 MQD per greenback on the money portion minus the taxes and costs. However in the event you pay for the entire base fare with miles, you may earn MQDs as in the event you’d paid for the entire thing with money.
On this instance, if my dad selected to pay 25,000 miles plus $38.49 in money, he would earn 35 miles and 5 MQDs for the portion he paid out of pocket.
However, if he used Pay with Miles for the entire ticket, he’d earn 0 miles and 255 MQDs.
Let’s examine this to a conventional award ticket for a similar flight, which prices 13,100 miles. Delta awards MQDs on award tickets, calculated by the variety of miles redeemed divided by 100 (government-imposed taxes and costs don’t earn MQDs). This ticket prices 13,100 miles, so it could earn 131 MQDs.
So, in the event you’re seeking to stretch your miles so far as doable, you are higher off reserving the award ticket. If incomes standing is your prime precedence, you might need to shell out extra miles and earn extra MQDs utilizing Pay with Miles.
Associated: Delta Air Traces’ SkyMiles partnership with Uber
Pay with Miles vs. Miles + Money
Delta gives the same cost methodology known as Miles + Money, which is out there to all Delta SkyMiles members (not simply cardholders). Miles + Money is a cost choice that exhibits up whenever you seek for flights; you possibly can select “$USD,” “Miles,” or “Miles + Money” within the prime 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 need 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 costs, 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 approach, this is not normally an important use of your SkyMiles.
As a result of Miles + Money bookings are thought-about award tickets, you will not earn any miles. You may earn MQDs on the money portion minus the taxes and costs at a charge of 1 MQD per greenback. So, for the JFK-BOS flight above, you’d earn solely 90 MQDs. You may get nearer to elite standing by reserving a typical award ticket (131 MQDs), and even nearer utilizing Pay with Miles (255 MQDs).
Associated: Find out how 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 concentrate on. Should you’re pursuing Delta Medallion standing this 12 months, it could be price spending the additional miles to earn extra MQDs. But when getting essentially the most out of your SkyMiles is your prime precedence, you may most likely need to stick to plain award tickets.
