Delta SkyMiles Award Booking Instructions

The Delta SkyMiles program is one of the most well-known frequent flyer programs among U.S. travelers, mostly because Delta Air Lines is one of the largest airlines based in the U.S. Delta operates over 4,000 flights daily and has routes to over 290 destinations worldwide, making it one of the largest airlines in both the U.S. and the world by several metrics.

The SkyMiles program is likewise impressive, offering members a wide variety of ways to earn miles, including flying with any member airline of SkyTeam Alliance (of which Delta is a founding member) and transferring credit card points from the American Express Membership Rewards program. There are also many different ways you can redeem miles, including booking award flights, renting cars, buying merchandise, booking hotel stays and more.

However, in general, the best way to redeem your rewards through Delta SkyMiles is to book award flights with Delta Air Lines or one of its airline partners. For some people, though, navigating airline websites and booking award flights can be a bit confusing. So, in this article, we’re going to explain exactly how to join the Delta SkyMiles program, how to earn miles quickly and how to make an award flight booking with those miles.

Joining Delta SkyMiles

Before you can earn or redeem Delta miles, you’ll need to be a member of the Delta SkyMiles program. To sign up, go to Delta’s website and click the “Sign Up” button near the top-right corner of the homepage.

From there, you’ll be asked to provide some personal information, including your name, date of birth, gender, address, phone number and email address.

Finally, you’ll be asked to create a username and password for your SkyMiles account. Once you create your account, you’ll be given a unique SkyMiles account number, which you can use to earn miles and log in to your account in the future.

How To Earn Delta SkyMiles

Before you can purchase an award flight through the Delta SkyMiles program, you need to get enough miles in your account for an award flight. There are many ways to earn miles through the SkyMiles program. However, some methods of earning miles are far more effective than others. In the following sections, we’re going to look at some of the most effective ways to earn miles toward an award flight.

Transfer Credit Card Points

Perhaps the best way to earn SkyMiles for many consumers is to transfer points from American Express Membership Rewards at a 1:1 ratio. Unfortunately, this is the only credit card rewards program that allows points transfer to Delta SkyMiles. So, if you don’t have an Amex points-earning credit card, you won’t be able to transfer points to Delta SkyMiles.

Let’s say you have 175,000 American Express Membership Rewards points in your Amex account. You could transfer those points to the Delta SkyMiles program at a 1:1 ratio and have 175,000 miles in your SkyMiles account within seconds.

It’s worth noting that Amex levies a transfer fee of $0.0006 per point when transferring points to frequent flyer programs (with a maximum fee of $99). So, for example, if you were to transfer 100,000 points to the Delta SkyMiles program, you’d have to pay a transfer fee of $60, which is significant.

Delta SkyMiles Co-Branded Credit Cards

Another great way to quickly earn miles with the Delta SkyMiles program is to sign up for one of the many Delta co-branded credit cards (all of which are issued by American Express). Delta has seven different co-branded cards (four personal cards and three business cards) with annual fees ranging from $0 to $650. So, no matter what your budget and spending habits are, you should be able to find a Delta co-branded card that fits your needs.

The following chart includes the most important information about these four personal Delta co-branded credit cards:

As you can see, signing up for one of these credit cards can help you earn miles very quickly and receive other valuable perks when flying with Delta. Plus, each of these cards offers a welcome bonus of tens of thousands of points for new cardmembers who spend a certain amount on their card in the first few months after account opening. For example, here’s the current welcome offer from the Delta SkyMiles Reserve card:

This bonus alone is enough to purchase several award flights. So, if you want to earn a lot of miles quickly, one of the best ways to do so is by signing up for a Delta co-branded credit card.

Flying With Delta Air Lines and Partner Airlines

Another effective way to earn miles with the SkyMiles program is to take flights on Delta Air Lines or one of its airline partners. The number of miles you’ll earn on a specific Delta-operated flight depends on the cost of your airfare and your status in the SkyMiles program. If you’re a basic member of the SkyMiles program you’ll earn 5X miles on Delta flights. Here’s how much you’d earn as a Medallion elite status member:

• Silver Medallion: 7X miles per dollar
• Gold Medallion: 8X miles per dollar
• Platinum Medallion: 9X miles per dollar
• Diamond Medallion: 11X miles per dollar

So, for instance, if you were to take a Delta-operated flight that cost $200 before taxes, you’d earn 1,000 miles on that flight as a basic SkyMiles member ($200 x 5 = 1,000 miles). However, if you took the exact same flight and you were a Gold Medallion member, you’d earn 1,600 miles ($200 x 8 = 1,600 miles).

You can also earn miles by taking flights with partner airlines and crediting those flights to the SkyMiles program. Delta is a member of SkyTeam Alliance, which means you can earn miles by flying with any SkyTeam airline. Here is the current roster of SkyTeam Alliance airlines:

In addition to the SkyTeam airlines listed above, Delta has partnerships with several non-SkyTeam airlines that also allow you to earn Delta miles on flights. Here are Delta’s current non-SkyTeam partners:

Partner flights marketed by Delta (meaning they’re purchased through the Delta website or over the phone with a Delta representative) will earn 5X miles per $1 spent.

You can also earn Delta miles on partner-marketed flights (meaning that you didn’t purchase the flight through Delta) by selecting SkyMiles as your frequent flyer program of choice and entering your SkyMiles account number either when making your booking or when checking in for your flight.

On partner-marketed flights, you’ll earn miles based on each partner’s unique SkyMiles earnings charts, which you can find on the Airline Partners page on the Delta website. These charts tell you how many Delta miles you’ll earn based on the distance of your flight (not your airfare). So, you’ll need to multiply your flight distance (in miles) by the earning percentage associated with your fare class.

Other Ways To Earn

There are many other ways to earn miles through the Delta SkyMiles program, including transferring points from hotel loyalty programs, booking hotel stays, renting cars, shopping through the SkyMiles Shopping portal, ordering on Instacart, riding with Lyft and more.

Unfortunately, none of these earning methods are particularly effective and probably won’t earn you enough miles for an award flight on their own. Still, if you plan on spending on any of these things anyway, it won’t hurt to pick up a few Delta miles while you’re at it.

How To Book Award Flights Through Delta SkyMiles

Now that you know how to sign up for the Delta SkyMiles program and the most effective ways to earn Delta miles, you’re ready to book an award flight. The first thing you’ll need to do is visit the Delta Air Lines website and sign in to your SkyMiles account, which you can do using your SkyMiles account number, email or username.

Once you’ve signed in, return to the homepage and scroll down to find the flight search tool. To search for award flights instead of cash flights, check the box that says “Shop with Miles.” Once you’ve checked this box, the process of searching for award flights is very similar to searching for cash flights.

You’ll enter your origin and destination, the type of flight (one-way, round-trip or multi-city), your travel dates, the number of passengers and your desired cabin class. There’s also a checkbox that says “My dates are flexible” in this section. If you check this box, you’ll be shown a calendar where you can see the award rates for flights on that route for an entire month, allowing you to find the cheapest possible time to travel. However, if you leave this box unchecked, you’ll only be shown the results for the exact dates you entered.

There’s also an “Include Nearby Airports” checkbox, which could be helpful if you’re willing to reposition to a different airport to find cheaper or more convenient flights. For example, my home airport is Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR). However, I’m often willing to reposition to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) or LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in order to find a cheaper flight, so I’ll check this box.

Once all of this search information is correct, click the “Search” button to see your results. If you checked the “My dates are flexible” box, you’ll be shown a grid with the departure dates along the lefthand side and the return dates along the top. Choose the box at the intersection of your desired dates and then click the “Continue” button at the bottom of the page.

From there, you’ll be shown a list of award flight results that match your search query, including flights operated by both Delta Air Lines and its partner airlines. These results can be sorted by best match, price, number of stops, departure time, arrival time and flight duration. You can also filter the results by a number of factors, including number of stops, layover time, price (in Delta miles) and connecting airports.

Once you find a flight that suits your needs, add that flight to your cart by clicking on the cabin class you wish to book on that flight. It’s worth noting that, if you choose to book in Basic class, you’ll be prompted to upgrade to Main. If you wish to remain in Basic, you need to click the “Accept Restrictions” box and then click the “Continue with Basic” hyperlink. You can repeat this process for your return flight if you’re flying round trip.

Once you’ve selected your flights, you’ll need to enter personal information for any passengers on the itinerary, including name, date of birth, email and phone number. You can also elect to choose your seat on your flights for an additional charge or choose random seat selection for free.

You’ll then need to add a payment method to cover any applicable cash taxes and fees. Finally, once you confirm your flight, you’ll receive your confirmation number, which you’ll need to check in to your flight. You should also receive a confirmation email containing this number.

Once you’ve confirmed your award flight redemption, the required Delta miles will be immediately deducted from your SkyMiles account. If you choose to cancel your flight within Delta’s cancellation policy, you should be able to have the full amount of those miles refunded.

The Bottom Line

The Delta SkyMiles program is a robust frequent flyer program with a wide variety of ways to both earn and redeem miles. Plus, since Delta Air Lines operates thousands of flights daily and has a long list of partner airlines, you can typically earn or redeem Delta miles no matter where you have to fly.

Unfortunately, the only credit card rewards program that allows transfers to the Delta SkyMiles program is the American Express Membership Reward program (which charges a transfer fee of $0.0006 per point transferred), which makes earning Delta miles through credit card spending more difficult than with some other programs. Plus, since the SkyMiles program uses a dynamic pricing model to price its own award flights as well as partner award flights, getting high value per Delta mile is difficult.

Nonetheless, due to its massive footprint, U.S.-based travelers are likely to fly with Delta at some point. Thus, being familiar with the SkyMiles program and how to book award flights is important. And, if you ever need guidance on how to book an award flight through SkyMiles, you can refer to the instructions in this article.