by Ben B - Tuesday, February 21, 2012
I like flying Delta domestically for a few reasons. First and foremost, the direct flight to Paris is key. If you’ve been stuck at customs in Chicago, Atlanta or JFK you know the pain I’m trying to avoid. If you’re flying to europe from the west coast you can effectively cut your travel time in half by flying direct. I recently learned that Seattle is closer to Paris than Denver due to the curvature of the earth… don’t believe me? Get out a piece of string and a globe and try me.
Of course I fly Delta often because I have a ton of Delta Sky Miles. Most of these are from flying or from taking advantage of credit card offers. Also, Delta is widely incorporating WiFi on all of their flights, which I really appreciate. The average frequent flyers should generally pick one airline that is their favorite. One of my friends tries to fly United as much as he can simply because that is who he has used the most. I suppose we are all creatures of habit.
How do you know if loyalty to an airline makes sense?
If you are a frequent flyer obtaining elite status is crucial to maximizing your travel benefits. As a Delta Diamond Member I receive several benefits that make it worthwhile for me to prefer them as my main airline. I earn 125% Delta Sky Miles bonus on all flights. These bonus miles do not count toward my medallion qualifying status, generally called Medallion Qualifying Miles or MQMs. But these bonus miles do add up to free flights every year.
Delta Sky Miles offers some sweet bonus miles when you hit certain levels of membership. At 75,000 qualifying miles you receive 20,000 bonus miles and 25,000 bonus miles when you hit 125,000 qualifying miles. That is 45,000 bonus miles in total.
Most people will never actually compare the different programs offered by various airlines. A flyer will generally receive some large number of frequent flyer miles because of business flights and then continue to use that airline because they have already earned some status. However, I have flown many different airlines and for domestic travel I really like Delta for a couple of other reason
Frequent upgrades
I have found Delta to be the most liberal in upgrading frequent flyers. Once I hit Gold, I was upgraded nearly 100% of the time.
Delta Frequent Flyer Partners
Wide variety of partners
Delta Sky Clubs
The Delta Sky Clubs are some of the best lounges I have seen. (free access with some delta skymiles credit cards)
Gifting Miles promotion
If you’re trying to top off your friend or family member’s skymiles accounts, now might be a good time to do it with the current 75% bonus when you gift miles. This still works out to be closer to 2 cents per mile when you factor in the fees Delta charges you, which isn’t necessarily a great deal (we estimate Delta Skymiles to be worth roughly 1.5 cents) but this is much better than the usual rate you’d have to pay to purchase miles to top off your skymiles account to get you to that awards ticket you’ve been working towards. This offer is good now through March 31.
More information here:
Filed under: American Express, Delta Skymiles, Miles and Points
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I've traveled the world, hitchhiked across Europe, and biked faraway coasts for weeks at a time. I'm here as a blogger with CreditSense to share my adventures and show you how you can take advantage of credit card offers, hotel points and frequent flyer miles to travel for free.