Don’t Wait! One Of The Best Promotions Of 2019 Gets Extended Another Week

For normal folks who don’t rack up tons of points from business travel or credit card spend, you need to take advantage of opportunities to score deals when you can.  In one of the rare instances I can recall, one of the best deals right now involves Delta.

The promotion debuted just about a week ago.  Richard Kerr dug this one up and trumpeted the value of Delta SkyMiles.  Normally, I disagree with him.  But, I’m 100% in agreement on this. There was a feverish few days where myself and a bunch of other folks were trying to book as many vacations as possible.  Then, it was reported that Delta had extended the promotion through September 6th.

What Is The Delta Vacations Promotion?

If all of this sounds foreign to you, let me explain.  Essentially, you the promotion allows to you to redeem your SkyMiles at a value of 2 cents a piece.  Now, that might sound like jibberish to you if you’re not a nerd like me.  But, we’re going to break it down a bit further.

Generally speaking, we like to redeem our points and get at least 2 cents worth of value out of them.  There are debates on how best to calculate that.  One of the most straightforward examples would be redeeming 25,000 airline miles for a ticket you were already planning to spend $500.  That’s 2 cents per point.

With this Delta promotion, you need to redeem points for both a flight and hotel together (you can also tag on a rental car, though it’s not required).  Under normal conditions, you can redeem a Delta SkyMile to reduce the price of a Delta Vacations package by 1 cent.  100 SkyMiles reduces it $1, and so on.  The benefit to using something like Delta Vacations is that you can transfer your points into cash to use at hotel properties that aren’t part of a chain.

There are a few places where redeeming points is quite difficult. Disney World and Universal Studios come to mind, as do places like Bermuda.  The trade-off for being able to redeem your points in those places is that you’re generally only going to get a penny per point in value.  That’s definitely what I would consider a bad deal.  Why?  Think of it this way.  You can get a cash back credit card that earns you 2% back pretty easily.  If you’re not earning at least 2% redeeming miles and points over the long haul, you might just be better off with a cash back card.

The beauty of this promotion is that Delta doubles the value of your SkyMiles if you redeem them for a package involving airlines and hotels.  That means every point knocks 2 cents off your total.  Or, 50,000 SkyMiles can knock $1,000 off a vacation package.  And, you can transfer American Express Membership Rewards points into your Delta SkyMiles account to book a bigger vacation.

The Final Two Pennies

Delta SkyMiles aren’t generally a currency that I’m excited to talk about.  There are far more valuable miles or points to earn.  In this case, the Delta Vacations promotion is a true score, especially for hard-to-reach places on miles and points.  I contemplated destinations like Disney, Bermuda, Turks and Caicos and resorts like Disney’s Aulani in Hawaii.  I may or may not have booked a few of those for our family.

If you’ve been saving up Delta SkyMiles or American Express Membership Rewards points without a specific purpose, now’s your time.  You have a few more days before the new expiration date of this promotion.  It’s the first time I can recall seeing it, but I truly hope we see it again.

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