We know all miles are not created equal and each mileage currency have some unique features. Virgin Atlantic is one such program which shines in certain areas where Delta Airlines might want to give you some hard time.
Delta Airlines publish flash deals for using your miles to book tickets at a discount mileage, but some of these deals go unadvertised or last longer than what Delta Airlines make you believe. Since Delta no longer publishes a award chart you might not know if the price displayed is the actual price or a "flash deal" price. Also most of these flash deals are for round trip and so one-way trip will not necessary be half the miles of round trip ticket. Also Delta Airlines is known to add dynamic mileage pricing component and thus the price might be higher than what you should actually pay.

Here is an example itinerary for Los Angeles (LAX), USA to Narita (NRT) / Haneda (HND), Japan in Delta One Suite. As you can see the round trip price is 120,000 Delta Skymiles for few dates but if you want to book just one way that price is 78,000 Delta Skymiles instead of half price of 60,000 miles.

Here is where Virgin Atlantic miles would come handy. Virgin Atlantic is a Delta Airline partner and as of recent pass has started displaying award availability for Delta Airlines on its Virgin Atlantic website. The good news is Virgin Atlantic has access to same level of inventory as what Delta Airlines has and it does not add the dynamic pricing what Delta does. So, if you wanted to book just one-way ticket it would cost 60,000 Virgin Atlantic miles for the same award from Los Angeles (LAX) to Narita (NRT) / Haneda (HND) above.

Let's check another example where Delta applies Dynamic pricing. Here we are looking to fly from Delta non-stop flight from Portland (PDX) to Narita (NRT). Delta Airlines want to charge 125,000 miles for the below itinerary. Interestingly Virgin Atlantic still wants 60,000 miles only!

The other great thing about Virgin Atlantic miles is that they routinely have 30% transfer bonus when you want to transfer your American Express points to Virgin Atlantic miles so you end up getting better value than with Delta Skymiles.

So what is the downside of using Virgin Atlantic miles? Virgin Atlantic charges mileage cost based on segments, so adding segments would add up the price for the mileage redemption. Also if you enter source and destination which does not have direct route then Virgin Atlantic does not show any availability. But with all that quirks you get a great redemption value and yes, do not forget that Virgin Atlantic charges a reasonable change / cancellation fee of only $50!
​
​Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.

Delta SkyMiles are known as pesos with very low value in miles world. But there are few things which set them apart:

1. Delta SkyMiles never expire.
2. You can redeem them at 1 cent / per point value for cash ticket if you hold their co-branded American Express cards.
3. Delta flash sales which happen at regular interval these days where you can get great value for redemption (greater than 1 cent value which SkyMiles is famous for).

It's the flash sales which Delta seems to be doing on regular interval making them one of the go-to currency if you are flexible with your travel plans. for e.g. at the time of this writing below is one of the sale going on:

As you can see delta is charging 8000 miles + taxes for each way between ATL-CHS which otherwise is higher than the advertised cost in miles. Although you will need to check for available dates this is a better value than 1 cent/point.
​
Another such flash sale going at the moment is for Caribbean and Australia. For e.g. you can fly to Caribbean for 14,000 miles + taxes round trip or to down under for just 50,000 miles + taxes round trip.

So, take advantage of this deals while they keep coming and get good value out of your so called SkyPesos.

Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.

Delta is offering certain Delta Skymiles members opportunity to earn up to 25k Delta Skymiles by doing transaction's with various non-airline partners (targeted).  You earn 1,000 Skymiles for each unique partner activity with which you have not done any Delta Skymiles earning transaction from Jan 1st, 2017 to Oct 17th, 2017. There are few non-airline partner exclusions such as Delta Vacations, Points.com, Gilt and Biscoff.

​An easy 1,000 miles could be earn by transferring 1,000 miles from American Express Membership Rewards (MR) Points, SPG Hotels Rewards program or doing a $1 shopping transaction from Skymiles shopping portal. There is a limit of 1 bonus per transacting partner. You can check the partner conversion rates for non-airline partners here. Below is the snap shot of promotion page:

You can check if you are eligible for this offer by going to the link here. Below are terms for this promotion:
​
Terms and Conditions
Member eligibility: This is a private offer is exclusively for selected SkyMiles members who receive the promotional email. Offer is not transferable to other members.
Offer Registration: Offer registration is required. To register, eligible members need to visit the dedicated landing page and register with their SkyMiles number. 
Offer: Registered SkyMiles members will earn a bonus of 1,000 miles for every new participating partner they earn miles with between October 16, 2017 and December 31, 2017 up to a maximum of 25,000 bonus miles per member. The term "New" refers to a partner the member has not earned miles with during the period January 1, 2017 to October 17, 2017.
Participating Partners:   The following non-airline partners are participating in this offer: SkyMiles Credit Card Partners, Hotels & Airbnb, Car Partners, SkyMiles Cruises, Retail and Specialty, Financial Partners, SkyMiles Shopping and SkyMiles Dining.  For a list of partners, please click here. Airline partners, Delta Vacations, Gilt, Points.com and Biscoff are expressly excluded from this offer.
Airbnb Terms: Visit deltaairbnb.com for full terms and conditions of this offer.
Lyft Terms: Visit delta.com/lyft for full terms and conditions of this offer.
Eligibility of Transactions: Only accrual partner transactions with an activity date between October 16, 2017 and December 31, 2017 will be considered for this bonus. Activity date is defined as the date of the transaction as reported by the partner regardless of the date the transaction is posted in the member’s account. Some partners offer multiple ways to earn miles under different products, brands, conversion of currency to miles, etc. These will still be considered as a single partner. Some examples of these cases are: Hotels booked via delta.com Hotels, hotel brands under the same Hotel portfolio, stay activity and a points conversion to miles from the same partner and others.
Please allow up to 60 days after the qualifying transaction for bonus miles to be added in your account.
Delta may change the SkyMiles program rules, change or terminate program partners, regulations, benefits, conditions of participation or mileage levels, in whole or in part, at any time with or without notice, even though changes may affect the value of mileage already accumulated. This offer may be terminated by Delta at any time, with our without notice. All SkyMiles program rules apply to SkyMiles program membership, miles, offers, mile accrual, mile redemption, and travel benefits. Offers void where prohibited by law. Other restrictions may apply. To review the rules, please visit delta.com/memberguide.
Delta, SkyMiles, and the Delta logo are registered service marks of Delta Air Lines, Inc.
Promotional Reference Code: To enquire about this offer, please refer to code 179004 when contacting any Delta customer service representative.

So go ahead and check if you are eligible to register for this promotion and earn some easy Delta Skymiles with this promotion!!. ​
​Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.