70,000 Delta Miles Bonus for Easy $700 Flight Versus a ~$9,751 Business Class Flight

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There are countless ways to redeem the miles you earn from the huge sign-up bonuses on the limited-time AMEX Delta card offers.

Some folks might prefer to quickly save $700 off a flight.  And others might splurge and book a comfortable Business Class award seat.

There’s never a right or wrong way to use miles as long as you’re achieving your travel goals!

Act Quickly to Earn a Limited-Time AMEX Delta Card Sign-Up Bonus!

Link:   Increased AMEX Delta Card Sign-Up Bonuses Available Until November 8, 2017

Now is a great time to consider applying for one of these AMEX Delta cards because you can take advantage of the increased sign-up bonuses, which are the highest I’ve ever seen!

At a minimum, the sign-up bonuses are worth $600 (60,000 miles X 1 cent per mile) or $700 (70,000 miles x 1 cent per mile) in Delta airfare when you redeem them using Pay With Miles.

But if you redeem miles to book award flights, the sign-up bonuses can be worth much more!

Save $700 Using Pay With Miles Versus Booking a Round-Trip Coach Award Flight

Are you interested in travel to Amsterdam?

A round-trip coach flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam in March 2018 costs ~$1,267.  But if you redeem 70,000 Delta miles through Pay With Miles, you can reduce the cost of this paid ticket to ~$567 ($1,267 paid ticket – $700 discount from Pay With Miles).

You can read my step-by-step guide to using Pay With Miles.

But you could pay less than $50 out-of-pocket by booking this same itinerary as an award flight.

I found award seats available on non-stop flights from Atlanta to Amsterdam for 70,000 Delta miles and ~$48 in taxes and fees.

In this example, booking as an award flight gets you much more value than 1 cent per mile.  You’ll get ~1.7 cents per mile ($1,267 cash cost of flight – $48 in taxes and fees for award flight / 70,000 Delta miles).

Booking award flights can require more patience and flexibility.  Because sometimes award seats aren’t available for the dates you want to fly.  But the tradeoff is you can get more value for your hard earned miles!

Get Lots of Value by Splurging on a Business Class Award Flight Booking

Redeeming your miles for otherwise expensive Business Class tickets can make the limited-time AMEX Delta card sign-up bonuses extremely valuable.

For example, you can book a one-way Business Class award seat from Salt Lake City to Paris for 70,000 Delta miles (plus ~$6 in taxes and fees).

Paying cash for the same ticket would cost ~$9,751!

Keep in mind, the cash price of a one-way Delta flight can be more expensive than booking as a round-trip.  For example, you can book round-trip Business Class flights from Salt Lake City to Paris for $8,000.

Either way, you’re still getting significant value by using miles to book an award flight for this expensive ticket!

And it wouldn’t make sense to use Pay With Miles in this example.  Because you’d save $700 off the cost of the $9,751 ticket, so the out-of-pocket cost would still be nearly $9,000!

Use Pay With Miles or Book an Award Flight?

If your travel dates are flexible and you don’t mind searching for open award seats, you can find amazing deals booking award flights.

For example, you can splurge and use miles to fly in Business Class.  Or just have a minimal out-of-pocket expense for taxes & fees on a coach ticket.

But if you find a cheap fare or just want to keep it simple, Pay With Miles can be a great option to quickly use the limited-time AMEX Delta card sign-up bonuses to save $600 to $700 off the cost of a flight.

Or if your vacation is restricted to a few certain dates, you might prefer the Pay With Miles option.

Bottom Line

Until November 8, 2017, you can earn valuable sign-up bonuses on the AMEX Delta cards by applying for the limited-time best-ever offers.

Then, you can use Delta’s Pay With Miles perk to quickly redeem the sign-up bonus miles to save up to $700 off the cost of a Delta flight.

But investing a little time in researching and booking award flights could get you significantly more value.  For example, you can redeem 70,000 miles to get a nearly free round-trip award flight to Amsterdam.  Or book a one-way Business Class award seat, which would otherwise cost several thousands of dollars!