Delta Skymiles

I've been flying Delta across the Atlantic for around ten years now, sadly not as often as I would like, nor frequently enough to fully benefit from the advantages of the SkyMiles program. Nevertheless, despite never flying more than three times in one year and only ever sitting in Economy class, I have managed to earn 5 free transatlantic fares in that time. Never managing to grace BusinessElite (as Delta have been calling their merged Business and First Class product for the past couple of years), I can't really comment from personal experience on how beneficial the programme is for these flyers - all I can say is the friends and colleagues who have ...  Read the complete review

The reason for collecting Delta Skymiles is not so much to get freebies, but to reduce the amount of queuing. You get a point for each mile that you fly, with the usual range of bonuses for flying with expenisive tickets, on under-used routes, and on wet Tuesdays in November. This means that you get about 7000 miles if you fly a return trip from Gatwick to Boston. To get a free return transatlantic flight takes 50,000 miles. A one-way upgrade to business class is 20,000 miles. However with only 10,000 miles, you get a Medallion card. This means you can avoid the long queues at check in and use the same desk that the Business class users use, and of course you ...  Read the complete review

Delta's program is simply there. Take the miles if you got them coming but don't go out of your way to use delta just for their mileage program. It seems that they are doing the bare minimun of a program out of competitive obligation. They don't create any new and interesting partnerships beyond the normal credit cards, hotels, and car rentals. They are sometimes involved with the long distance phone companies but those promotions are sporadic. They should take a cue from American and do the cereal box mileage coupons. Another point of contention I have with them is that their deals are so limited on their website. For instance as of May 31, 2001 their ...  Read the complete review