Ana

I recently joined this program by getting an AMEX card. Does anyone have experiences with this program? Any ideas or tips? About how many miles do you need for coach to Europe (obviously a rough estimate)?

Gretchen

Probably around 40,000

Amanda

Roundtrip coach ticket is 50K miles; business class is 80K. If you have a buiness and can run business expenses through this card, you'll build up miles quickly. I don't, but still get more miles with the card than I do by flying. Great program.

mj

For restricted "Skysaver" awards:<BR>Coach - 50K,<BR>Bus - 75K<BR><BR>Unrestricted "Skychoice" awards:<BR>Coach - 100K<BR>Bus - 150K<BR><BR>Only use Skysaver awards and that's usually to purchase upgrades - when I can get a reasonable coach fare that qualifies for an upgrade.<BR>hth,<BR>

Dale

My wife and I have religiously used our amex-skymiles card for everything. It has enabled us to obtain, on average, two round trip tickets to Italy per year (which require 50,000 miles per ticket). BTW, October is a three mile per dollar month. Wish I needed a new car.

Lynda

We have used Delta Sky Miles program for several years. We sent a son to college using this card to pay for tuition (out of state tuition). We also travel to Europe each year and to the Caribbean. We have earned a lot of miles using this card. We had scheduled a European trip using our miles for the last of September. We then had a death in our family and had to cancel. I was afraid that we would have trouble rescheduling this trip so quickly and still be able to use our miles. We had absolutely no trouble rescheduling. They were extremely helpful.

orgy7

I was a member for many years but I had many problems with them it mainly involved not having my bill sent too me on time, then having too pay a LATE fine.... IT COULD OF just involved me...<BR><BR>NOTE if your traveling abroad other then Europe, AMEX is useless.. TRUST ME. <BR><BR>

Boo

Hi.<BR><BR>You can get all the data you need from delta.com. Follow the links to their Skymiles section.<BR><BR>(I recently went to Delta to use miles for a trip to Europe next May. Inasmuch as we live in Chicago, Delta did not have flights to suit our itinerary. We are booked with their partner, Air France. It took only one brief, easy phone call to get almost exactly what we wanted: two business class seats departing when we want and returning only a day later than we had wished. I know we were very lucky to score so well, but I'm sure it helped to have made our bid as early as we did.)<BR><BR>Good luck.<BR><BR>You're welcome.

Ana

I have been to the Delta site and to their skymiles section. But since I just joined I do not have any miles and I did not see a function where they tell you exactly how many miles you need, when I chose a destination/date it just stated that I do not have enough miles. I was just hoping for ideas of amounts needed & insightful tips as to how to accumulate. To add to this, is there anyone out there with an average salary (say $50,000, single, no kids) who use the card, and how much a year on average do you accumulate? Obviously I could try to calculate, and it depends on the usage, but I am just curious as to how long it may take me to have enough for 1 round-trip ticket. I am thinking about 12-18 months.

s

Hello Ana,<BR><BR>I am a loyal member of Delta Skymiles group (I joined when Swissair was a partner, then of course had to stay even after Swissair left . . . ). I know they’re not perfect, but I have always gotten more-than-adequate compensation whenever I’ve had problems.<BR><BR>Here’s the almost-quick answer to your question about finding the redemption information on the Delta website. At the Delta homepage, click on the “Skymiles” banner at the top of the page. Then, on the left hand side of the page, under “Links,” click on “Membership Guide & Program Rules.” On the next page, on the left hand side, click on “Redemption Opportunities,” then click on “Delta Awards.” Finally, scroll down to the chart or click on “chart.” Quite a journey, but the information is there.<BR><BR>Like others here, I have an affiliated credit card, and I put ALL my living expenses on it and pay it off every month. Because lately I’ve been able to fly to Europe twice a year and have the credit card, I earned a place in their “Silver Medallion” elite group. That means I get 1.5 miles of credit for every mile I fly; that makes it much easier to maintain elite status so that I earn more miles to maintain elite status to earn more miles, etc. I also take advantage of every bonus I see: if Delta announces a bonus-miles promotion after I’ve already purchased my ticket, I always call to see if I can take advantage of the promotion -- they always give me the bonus. And just recently, I earned 5,000 bonus miles just for sitting through a financial sales pitch with American Express financial planners. With the credit card, the elite status, all the bonuses, and the two trips to Europe, I find that I earn **about** 80,000 miles a year. Last year, I had enough miles to upgrade both my mother and myself for a trip to Switzerland. <BR><BR>Here’s another tip. If you redeem your miles for free flights, you don’t earn miles on those flights, and you come home with a 0 balance. But if you redeem your miles for an upgrade, you DO earn miles for those flights. So, when I redeem miles to upgrade to Biz Elite, I’ve already earned about 16,000 miles when I get home. That really helps to keep the account full.<BR><BR>Best of luck,<BR><BR>s