Buy Delta SkyMiles and Get up to a 50% Bonus [Ends September 30]

While most loyalty programs offer frequent promotions on purchasing points and miles, Delta Air Lines has been one of the few that seldom run sales on its miles available for direct purchase.

That changes now with a new promotion where SkyMiles members can purchase miles with a bonus of up to 50%. Let’s take a closer look at the pricing — and whether this promotion is actually a good deal.

Buy Delta SkyMiles Promotion

Delta is selling miles with a tiered bonus. With the current promotion, you can purchase miles with a bonus according to the following structure:

• Purchase 2,000 to 10,000 miles and get a 25% bonus
• Purchase 12,000 to 20,000 miles and get a 30% bonus
• Purchase 22,000 to 30,000 miles and get a 35% bonus
• Purchase 32,000 to 40,000 miles and get a 40% bonus
• Purchase 52,000 miles to 60,000 miles and get a 50% bonus (2.5 cents per mile)
• Direct link to purchase

This promotion ends on September 30, 2026. Miles must be purchased in increments of 2,000, and a sales tax of 7.5% will apply to every transaction.

According to the fine print, Delta SkyMiles members can only purchase up to 60,000 miles per calendar year for their own account, exclusive of the bonus miles. In other words, if you fully max out the promotion, you’ll end up with 90,000 miles at a cost of $2,257.50 — just over 2.5 cents per mile.

Is It Worth It?

Buying the maximum for this sale — 60,000 miles — would cost you a total of $2,257.50, or 2.5 cents per mile.

We value Delta SkyMiles at about 1.2 cents apiece. Occasionally, you can redeem your miles at a value of 1.3 to 1.4 cents each, but it’s rare to get a better value than that.

SkyMiles can be a solid deal for short domestic trips, especially during flash sales where one-way economy tickets go for as little as 3,000 miles plus $5.60 in taxes and fees. Premium cabins, however, are a different story. Delta is well known for steep redemption rates, often charging 200,000 miles (or more!) for a one-way business class ticket to Europe.

If you’re only a few thousand miles short of an award, though, this promotion could be helpful. For example, you could buy 2,000 miles and receive a 500-mile bonus for $75.25, which is a worthwhile trade if the cash fare for the ticket is several hundred dollars.

Beyond situations like that, the math rarely works out in your favor. Without a promotion, Delta sells SkyMiles at 3.5 cents apiece. However, buying miles at the highest 50% promotional rate still costs 2.5 cents each — over double what we value them at — making outright purchases a poor deal in almost every other scenario.

The good news is that all purchases will be processed directly through Delta rather than Points.com, the third-party platform many other programs use. As a result, if you hold a Delta American Express card, these transactions will qualify for bonus miles as eligible Delta purchases. It’s less certain whether they’ll also code as “direct airfare purchases” — which would trigger 5x points on cards like the Platinum Card^® from American Express (up to $500,000 per calendar year, then 1x).

Transfer SkyMiles Promotion

If you want to transfer SkyMiles to a friend or family member, Delta is simultaneously running a promotion to help you out. Typically, transferring Delta SkyMiles to another member costs 1 cent per mile, plus a $30 processing fee per transaction. It rarely makes sense to transfer the miles due to this exorbitant cost, and you’re more than likely better off booking an award ticket for another person instead.

Final Thoughts

Even with the current bonus, buying Delta SkyMiles generally isn’t worth it. Still, this marks one of very few times Delta has ever offered a purchase bonus, which leaves hope that the airline may roll out similar — or perhaps more generous — promotions in the future.

If you’re interested in this offer, remember that it’s valid through September 30.