Delta Has Reduced the Cash Cost of Booking Award Tickets From Europe to the U.S.

Many airlines levy surcharges on top of taxes for award tickets booked with points and miles. These surcharges vary by airline and destination — and they’re a thorn in the side of every award traveler.

Some airlines and destinations (the United Kingdom comes to mind immediately) are more notorious than others, but one airline is now, shockingly, reducing surcharges on some international flights.

Let’s take a look at these positive changes from Delta SkyMiles.

Delta Reduces Cash Copay on Award Tickets From Europe

When you book an award ticket with a given airline, you often have to pay a cash copay that consists of taxes and fuel surcharges. Some airlines do not pass along the fuel surcharges to passengers, but many do.

Now, as first reported by DansDeals, Delta Air Lines has dropped the fuel surcharge component of the cash copay that passengers have to fork over on flights originating in Europe.

Passengers are still responsible for the tax component of the copay when redeeming SkyMiles, and this varies by destination. Note that this doesn’t affect round-trip award tickets to Europe that originate in the U.S. This change only affects one-way tickets (i.e., if you book a trip to Europe and a trip home on a separate ticket). Finally, this change only affects flights operated by Delta itself, not flights operated by its partners.

Here’s what this change looks like on a one-way award ticket from Amsterdam (AMS) to Detroit (DTW), including 101€ on top of the miles for the ticket:

And here’s what it looks like on a flight from Rome (FCO) to Boston (BOS), with a 57€ copay:

In both examples, the passenger is responsible just for the tax portion of the ticket — not any surcharges. Though, as you can tell from the screenshots above, it’s more expensive to fly from Amsterdam to Detroit at 101€ (approximately $111) than from Rome to Boston at 57€ (approximately $62). Previously, these awards were charging 200€ or more for the copay when booking with miles.

Booking Delta Award Tickets

While you’ll now get to pay less cash for booking Delta award tickets from Europe to the U.S., the award costs themselves remain high. Delta doesn’t use an award chart for awards but rather employs dynamic pricing, meaning rates fluctuate based on the route, date, and cash cost of the corresponding ticket.

Most of the time, booking award tickets with Delta SkyMiles makes little sense, though sometimes the airline offers flash sales that can make award pricing appealing.

If you do find yourself hoping to book a SkyMiles award, there are a few ways to accrue the necessary miles. Delta offers several co-branded credit cards, all of which offer some sort of welcome bonus. Plus, you can transfer miles from American Express Membership Rewards to Delta SkyMiles at a 1:1 ratio, but we advise against doing so unless you only need to transfer a small number of miles to top up your SkyMiles account for a specific redemption. Your Amex points are often more valuable when used elsewhere.

Final Thoughts

Delta Air Lines has eliminated the fuel surcharge portion of the cash copay on SkyMiles award tickets originating in Europe. While this reduces the out-of-pocket cost for booking these tickets, award rates remain high across the board. Thus, we recommend looking to another program unless you can catch one of Delta’s famous SkyMiles flash sales.