Delta Air Lines appears intent on adapting Pavlovian tools of psychology and deploying them against me. Push the lever and wait for some undefined reward to pop out. On most days, Delta SkyMiles redemptions are the worst. On flash sale days, they can be the best. Good things come to those who wait (and in the meantime collect a lot of SkyMiles).
Among the current offerings, Australia flights for 25,000 miles each way. This is a fantastic value. The normal saver rate from the U.S. to down-under destinations is 45,000 miles, and prices often exceed 50,000 miles for seats in the back of the plane.
To take advantage of the sale, flights must be booked round-trip. Unless one is planning a permanent move, this should be pretty straightforward. This one is good through Aug. 22 on flights between Aug. 23 and Dec. 9 this year.
Quite a nice offering.
These main cabin offerings are something to salivate over. Taxes and fees shake out to around $116. Round-trip economy tickets can regularly approach $2,000. Using this deal to take care of a pricy close-in booking could net 4¢ per point. Par value for SkyMiles is closer to 1¢ per point.
This would even be a worthy use for Membership Rewards, accrued through The Platinum Card or other travel cards from American Express. Those points transfer instantaneously to Delta.
How are Delta One business class offerings in this time frame? You probably don’t want to know, but it can be hard to look away at something so garish, so ghastly, so grim.
The main cabin and business class cabin round-trip prices from New York Kennedy (JFK) to Sydney (SYD).
As far as economy accommodations go, you’d be hard pressed to do much better. Delta is one of the last airlines on the planet to take advantage of the Boeing 777’s designed nine-across layout in its main cabin seats. Seat width approaches 19 inches, a hair shy of some premium economy and domestic first class seats out there.
Delta’s main cabin on the Boeing 777, used on flights between the U.S. and Australia, offers among the most spacious long-haul economy seats out there. Image by Delta Air Lines.
Need some extra SkyMiles? If you have one of the Delta SkyMiles credit cards from American Express (there is a Gold Delta SkyMiles Credit Card and a slightly upgraded Platinum Delta SkyMiles Credit Card with companion certificate and MQM bonus), you can actually advance yourself SkyMiles. Amex and Delta will forward you the extra miles you need to book your trip, and you have up to a year to accumulate the miles back into your account.
For a limited time, both of those cards are offering best-ever introductory points bonuses; 50,000 SkyMiles and 70,000 SkyMiles respectively, after new cardholders spend $3,000 in three months (or four months, for new Gold cardholders). Update 9/20/18 – These special offers have ended.
If you’re willing to pay up for a Sky Club membership, there’s the Reserve card.
Upshot
I like this deal a lot. Australia awards are among the most difficult to come by, and this deal takes good advantage of the Spring upswing in Sydney. October through early December is prime pickings for a visit, so any SkyMiles member or American Express Membership Rewards member with some space for an Australia swing would be savvy to take advantage of this deal.
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