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Reward flight miles...

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zeusta20
Established Contributor

Reward flight miles...

I just booked a flight through amex flying from Sacramento to Los Angeles (ONE WAY)...and I had 16,256 rewards points, which I just redeemed to pay for part of the flight. I ended up having to pay 59.00 for the flight instead of 200.00 something. But thats just ONE WAY. I booked it through Delta. Its so confusing trying to figure out whether or not I should just book it from the site, or if I should transfer the points FIRST, THEN book it!!

 

Does it transfer immediately? Does anybody know??

 

Also, Any body have any tips and tricks to get the most out of the rewards??? Now I feel like I've just wasted 16k points for nothing...And I worked hard trying to build it up too!! Now I'm back down to 0 Smiley Sad lol

 

I feel like all the different tips and tricks you can use to get the most out of your rewards points is a little like extreme couponing... Smiley Very Happy haha

Bank of America Cash Rewards Visa Sig-15k
Chase Sapphire Reserve Visa Infinite-10k
Chase Freedom-4k
1st Financial Bank USA-11.4k
USAA Amex-7.5k
USAA Visa Sig-7k
Citi Thank you Preferred-4.8k
Citi Diamond-2k
Amex Gold-NPSL

FICO8-11/2017
EX: 737
EQ: 722
TU: 735
Message 1 of 4
3 REPLIES 3
ramblin_wreck08
Regular Contributor

Re: Reward flight miles...

Booking awards with Delta can be daunting, but the redemption values can be worth the hassle from time to time.  I just booked a $383 flight after transferring 19k MR points into my Skymiles account (already had 6k skymiles).  Delta award travel redemption can be difficult at times.  The particular flight I wanted started at 32.5k miles, went up to 40k miles, then dropped back down to 25k miles.  The rate is based on the amount of booking they foresee, and these are their 3 award travel rates for continental US flights.  Sometimes you will not even have the option to book award travel.  When searching on Delta.com, click on "book award travel" and see how many miles it will take for the particular flight you want.  From there, you can plan on what to do with your points.  If you want to book award travel and can plan in the future, do so, as award rates vary and are generally poor really close to the date of departure (as far as I understand).  The flight I booked was for August.  This was my first award ticket, so I'm sure others will have more information for you.

 

Transferring is easy.  Points transfer immediately.  With the PRG, I am allowed to advance up to 15k points.  I had 12.6k MR points in my account, 4.5k pending, and needed to transfer 19k.  I called membership rewards and the CSR told me the 4.5k were available for transfer, and I only had to advance 1.8k points.  He transferred them right over the phone and I immediately went to Delta and booked the flight.  They charge $0.60 per 1,000 points transferred, or $11.40 in this case, and Delta charged a $5 fee for award travel booking.  All in all, it turned 6k useless skymiles and 19k MR points into $366 (after fees).  The Skymiles were useless without the MR points, so I consider this a 1.9 cents per point redemption.  Strictly speaking, each Skymile was worth 1.5 cents after fees.  Personally, 1.5 cents per point or more is my redemption goal.

Amex BCP $20k | PenFed Platinum Rewards VS $16.5k | Amex HHonors $10k
Message 2 of 4
zeusta20
Established Contributor

Re: Reward flight miles...

hmmm, okay...guess I'll have to try a different airline then...either that, or try booking ahead of time.

Bank of America Cash Rewards Visa Sig-15k
Chase Sapphire Reserve Visa Infinite-10k
Chase Freedom-4k
1st Financial Bank USA-11.4k
USAA Amex-7.5k
USAA Visa Sig-7k
Citi Thank you Preferred-4.8k
Citi Diamond-2k
Amex Gold-NPSL

FICO8-11/2017
EX: 737
EQ: 722
TU: 735
Message 3 of 4
scenery_guy
Established Contributor

Re: Reward flight miles...

I like reading the delta points blog for info. Rene has some good info on redemptions if you do some digging. 

Message 4 of 4
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