Delta is running a handful of unannounced SkyMiles flash sales on business class flights to Asia. Normally, SkyMiles pricing on business class tickets to Asia is astronomical—round trip flights typically cost 700,000-1,000,000 SkyMiles, depending on the destination. Currently, we’re seeing round-trip SkyMiles tickets to Asia for as low as 166,000 miles round-trip in Delta One Suites after the TakeOff 15 discount from having a Delta credit card.
Here’s what we found. We will update this list if we find or hear of more sales. (All pricing includes the TakeOff 15 discount.)
- U.S. (many locations) to Taipei for 166,0000 miles in Delta One Suites (business class.) Wide availability through August from several cities. We found this MSP-TPE, but noticed that several cities had similar pricing.
- U.S. (many locations) to Seoul for 238,000 miles in Delta One Suites (business class.) Availability seemingly through November from several cities. We found this MSP-ICN, but several cities had similar pricing.
We’re not a flight deal site, but I like to post when I find a particularly good deal using SkyMiles. Recently, I presented at a local conference about miles and points and I pointed about how bad Delta’s pricing is on most award flights. If Delta runs more fare sales like this, I’ll be a bit less harsh in the future. 🙂
About SkyMiles fare sales
Delta SkyMiles isn’t known for providing great value all the time, but if you have SkyMiles, you can occasional find some amazing deals through Delta’s periodic SkyMiles fare sales.
Where Delta posts its published SkyMiles fare sales
When Delta publishes a SkyMiles fare sale, you’ll usually find it on the Delta SkyMiles award deal page.
On that page, you can bring up a list of the published SkyMiles fare sales and filter the list by origin, destination, or region. Delta will show you SkyMiles pricing in basic economy and main cabin. Many of these posted deals are decent, but typically the correlate with reduced cash fares on the same route.
But they can be a great starting point to search for the (much more compelling) unpublished SkyMiles fare sales.
How to find unpublished Delta SkyMiles fare sales
Unfortunately, there’s no sure-fire way to find a list of Delta’s unpublished fare sale, but I’ve had luck by using the Delta SkyMiles award deal page as a starting point. I’ll search for business class fare sales on Delta.com on routes similar to published deals.
Generally, I’ll search from competitive markets first. My assumption is that Delta more aggressively discounts flights in markets where it does not have significant monopoly pricing power. Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. I’ll search from my home airport, MSP, because deals from my home airport are most useful to me.
Ultimately, it takes a bit of luck to find these unpublished deals, but occasionally you can score a great deal by following the breadcrumbs that Delta leaves you.
Get a 15% discount with your Delta Air Lines credit card
These sale fares get even better if you hold a Delta SkyMiles credit card, thanks to the TakeOff 15 benefit. All you need to do to take advantage of this benefit is log into your SkyMiles account and book the tickets. As long as you are a Delta credit card holder, you’ll see this discount applied.
Need to get miles? Get a new Delta Air Lines credit card
When you fly on Delta and its partners, you’ll usually earn miles based on the price of your ticket. Unless you’re flying on expensive international business class tickets, or are flying for work every week, you’re unlikely to earn many miles through flying. However, you can earn enough miles for one of these award sale deals by opening a new Delta credit card.
We publish the best current welcome bonuses on Delta SkyMiles credit cards, so if you want to earn Delta SkyMiles, check out that page for the best current deals.
