How Flying with Delta Airlines Has Saved Me a Boatload of Money

I started keeping a spreadsheet of how much I pay for flights late in the year 2017. Before that, I would of course search several places to get a good deal and search on Google Flights to see if flying on a different day would save money. Over the years, my family and I have mostly flown with Delta but not exclusively. We unfortunately don’t have an airline with a “hub” where I live, which means we often have to fly through other cities before our final destination and we also don’t get as good of flight deals as we would if we had an airline hub where we live. For many places where we fly, however, Delta has been the best choice considering both price and time for my family.

In 2016 I applied for and received my first American Express credit card associated with Delta Airlines. It was the Gold Delta SkyMiles Credit Card, which has no annual fee for the first year then is $95/year. You get 1 mile per dollar for everyday purchases and 2 miles per dollar for Delta purchases. There are no foreign transaction fees and your first checked bag is free.

However, in 2017 I began receiving information in the mail about upgrading to the Platinum Delta SkyMiles Credit Card. Like the Gold card, you get 1 mile per dollar for everyday purchases and 2 miles per dollar for Delta purchases. There are no foreign transaction fees and your first checked bag is free. However, the annual fee is $195. I debated whether it was worth it until I saw the part about the Companion Ticket. You get a free coach companion ticket every year at card renewal. Unless I use it for somewhere that’s always cheap to fly to (like New York City), that’s a no-brainer that it would more than pay for the extra $100 in annual fees over the Gold card and even cover the $195 annual fee.

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There is also a “Miles Boost” available to Platinum Delta SkyMiles card-holders that isn’t available if you have the Gold card. Basically, you get 10,000 bonus miles and 10,000 MQMs after spending $25,000 in a calendar year. If you spend $50,000 in a calendar year you get an additional 10,000 bonus miles and 10,000 MQMs. This is probably a bit more information than most fliers are interested in, but I did want to throw it out there for you true “travel geeks” who are into that kind of stuff. If you have to ask what an MQM is, you probably don’t need to worry about it (Medallion Qualification Miles if you do want to know). Long story short, this could potentially put you into elite status simply by just using your credit card.

Now to get to my actual numbers and how much money having the Delta SkyMiles credit cards have saved me. I’m going to list some recent flights here, since I didn’t even start putting my numbers into the spreadsheet until late 2017, but you should know that flight prices vary for most cities throughout the year greatly and from one year to the next. Still, there are some exceptions; if I buy a ticket to New York City, I know it should cost me roughly $200 round-trip including taxes and fees throughout the year but it could be considerably more for last-minute tickets or the day after Thanksgiving for example.

Here is an example of some of the total airfare costs (basically taxes and fees) I paid per ticket using Delta miles (all were in the range of 28,000-37,000 miles per person):

One-way flight to JFK (New York City) from North Carolina:  $8.20

One-way flight to North Carolina from Miami:  $41.80

Round-trip flight from North Carolina to Boise, Idaho:  $11.20

Round-trip flight from North Carolina to Idaho Falls, Idaho $53.80 (using Companion Fare), $11.20 for separate ticket using miles, thus 2 flights were $65.

Let me go into more detail for the last example because it is by far the most striking. Full-price airfare for the round-trip flight from North Carolina to Idaho Falls, Idaho was $565.80 per person. You can see the Companion Fare ticket saved $512 ($565.80-$53.80=$512). Using miles for the third ticket saved $554.60. By using the Companion Fare for two people and miles for the third person, we paid $630.80 for three round-trip tickets. If we would have all three paid $565.80, it would have cost us $1697.40, so we saved a total of $1066.60! The Companion Fare alone more than pays for the $195 annual fee for the Platinum Delta SkyMiles credit card, not even taking into account using basic earned miles and paying only $11.20 round-trip for that other ticket.

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I should note that I have absolutely no affiliation whatsoever with Delta Airlines, American Express, or any other credit cards. I don’t get any kind of benefits if all of you rush out right now and sign up for a Platinum Delta SkyMiles credit card or any other credit card and I’m not even going to put a link here. I’m sure you all know how to apply for a credit card.

You may come across some articles where people are bashing Delta Airlines because of what’s called “devaluation of miles,” which basically means Delta’s miles aren’t worth as much as some other airlines’ miles. I’m not going to get into the nitty gritty of all of that, but suffice to say Delta isn’t the only airline to devaluate their miles; many others have also done the same thing.

One important point is if you never fly anywhere with Delta, then obviously you shouldn’t get a Delta-affiliated credit card. If you mostly fly with American Airlines or United Airlines, or another airline, I encourage you to look into their credit cards. If you just use the most basic card with no or a low annual fee and only fly once or twice a year, it’s still a potential way of saving big on your future flights. One final advantage Delta has over other airlines is their miles never expire; they’re the only airline with that policy.

It also should go without saying but is an important point if you have credit card debt, your savings are negated by the interest you pay. However, by paying for most things with an airline-affiliated credit card and paying off the bill in full every month, you can easily save hundreds of dollars in airfare.

Do you use airline miles to pay for flights? Do you have an airline-affiliated credit card to help you earn miles? What else do you do to save money on flights?

Happy travels!

Donna