Is Delta Skymiles Worth It For Me? More mileage out of my skymiles

I've been a Delta Skymiles member for over a year now, and also signed up for their E-Rewards program that's similar to some of the cashback sites like Cashbaq and Ebates, and I currently have 18,000 miles sitting my account waiting to be redeemed for something. How much does 18,000 miles translate to in dollars and cents? Can I get a plane ticket with it?

Delta's perspective
Well if I could sell my miles back to Delta, at the $0.028/mile rate they charge me for buying miles, my 18,000 miles would be worth a handsome sum of $504. Delta is having a "Buy Miles 50% Bonus" right now that makes it $0.019/mile, not that that affects anything since it's not possible to sell miles to Delta :)

Plane ticket worthiness?
According to the Delta Award Mileage Chart my 18,000 miles could get me a round trip flight to anywhere in the US. I might even make it to the Caribbean! Or so I thought. Their
award ticket search function is easy to navigate, and brought up a calender where you could pick the 'low, medium or high' miles options (I went with low). But instead of the 17,500 miles claimed in their Mileage Chart, the actual damages were 42,000 miles plus $70 in taxes and fees. Poof Bahamas dream trip. .. I decided to settle for a May holiday in sunny Florida. Same thing - instead of the 12,500 miles for 'low' and 'coach' travel, the actual cost was 25,000 miles plus $10 in taxes and fees... If I bought 5000 miles for $140 and got 2500 bonus miles to make up that 25,000, I would have paid $150 total. Travelocity quoted $230 to get me to Miami, so I guess in a very roundabout way, my 18,000 miles is worth $80, in terms of plane-ticket-worthiness.

Hotel accommodation worthiness?
A one night stay at the rustic Skyland Resort in Shenandoah National Park normally costs $110. My 18,000 miles, plus $17, gets me that! So I would get more mileage from my miles if I applied them towards this hotel stay.

Miles-to-Cash Converter
From these two searches, I estimate my 18,000 miles are worth about $80, or $0.004/mile. Imagine that, getting $0.004 for every mile you fly with Delta :). That's about a 3% cashback for my 10,238 mile slog from Malaysia to Pittsburgh. Now is it really?

That got me thinking about Delta Skymiles Shopping and how it compares with the other cashback programs that I've been using. I used the example of Barnes & Noble, where 4 miles is awarded for every dollar spent. That's equal to $0.004 x 4 = $0.016 for every dollar spent, or 1.6% cashback equivalent. Ebates on the other hand gives 4% cashback, and Cashbaq gives 3% cashback. Okay okay I realize that my estimate of how much my 18,000 miles are worth is a big fat 'Guestimate', and maybe it isn't fair to compare. Why, you ask, am I even trying to compare these apples and durians? What IS a durian even??!!

Well, after this exercise, I have decided that: 1) I will redeem my miles for a hotel stay, and 2) I will stick to cashback programs instead of less tangible 'miles rewards' for my online shopping.

By the way, I've also compiled in one handy location, links with discounts and coupons to all the places where I shop online. Check out Where Gracie Shops!


xo Gracie

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