How to Use Delta Miles for Free Tickets to Europe (It’s Especially Easy With These Limited-Time Offers From Delta Through August 15, 2019)

Caroline Lupini

5 years ago

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Update: One or more card offers in this post are no longer available. Check our Hot Deals for the latest offers. INSIDER SECRET: With the current limited-time welcome bonuses on certain Amex Delta cards, you can effectively get a 50% discount on paid tickets up to a certain dollar value in the first three months of opening your account.

Looking for ideas of how to use Delta miles to reach Europe? With the limited-time increased welcome bonuses on the American Express Delta cards, you can earn enough miles for award tickets to many great European cities, like Amsterdam, Barcelona, London or Paris with just one credit card.

The current improved welcome bonuses on these Delta credit cards are only available through August 15, 2019:

Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express – 30,000 Delta miles after spending $1,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening and receive 50% back in statement credits on purchases made directly with Delta with your card in the same time frame, up to $300
Gold Delta SkyMiles® Business Credit Card from American Express – 30,000 Delta miles after spending $1,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening, and receive 50% back in statement credits on purchases made directly with Delta with your card in the same time frame, up to $300
Platinum Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express – 50,000 Delta miles after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening, and receive 50% back in statement credits on purchases made directly with Delta with your card in the same time frame, up to $500
Platinum Delta SkyMiles® Business Credit Card from American Express – 50,000 Delta miles after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening, and receive 50% back in statement credits on purchases made directly with Delta with your card in the same time frame, up to $500

While these aren’t the highest-ever offers we’ve seen for these cards, they are quite good, especially for those who purchase paid Delta flights. If you’re in the market for a European vacation, now’s a fantastic time for free travel.

With these improved Amex Delta offers, you’ll have more than enough miles for an award flight from the US to Amsterdam, or a big discount on a paid ticket. (Photo by kavalenkava/Shutterstock)

How to Use Delta Miles to Europe

I’ll show how to use miles from one or more of these welcome bonuses to visit Europe.

1. Pay With Miles

If you aren’t interested in searching for available award seats and navigating blackout dates, Delta’s Pay With Miles is an easy and flexible way to book flights to Europe. And only Amex Delta cardmembers are eligible.

With Pay With Miles, you can redeem Delta miles at a rate of 1 cent each towards paid (not award) tickets. So for example, the increased 50,000 Delta miles welcome bonus with the Platinum Delta SkyMiles Card is worth $500 toward paid flights with no blackout dates.

For example, I found a round-trip coach flight from New York to Oslo for ~$493, so the bonus from this card can easily get you a round-trip to Europe (with some miles left over).

Using Pay With Miles, a round-trip flight using Delta miles to Europe could cost only 45,000 Delta miles plus ~$38 in taxes.

Or if you want to book two tickets, you can use the miles you have to pay for most of the tickets. With Pay With Miles, you can partially pay for your flight with miles and the rest with cash. And you could top-off your account by transferring your Amex Membership Rewards points to Delta.

Keep in mind that you must redeem in 5,000-mile ($50) increments. So, for example, if your ticket costs $488, it makes the most sense to only redeem 45,000 Delta miles ($450) and pay the rest in cash.

Pay with Miles is not usually the best value, but if you can find cheap flights, it’s an easy way to use miles without searching for available award seats.

2. Round-Trip Award Tickets in Coach

Flights to some popular European cities can be very expensive when you pay cash, but round-trip award flights on Delta start at 50,000 Delta miles. I found a round-trip coach award flight from Detroit to Paris for 50,000 Delta miles plus ~$82 in taxes and fees. It’s easy to use Delta’s website to search for award travel.

You can book a direct flight from Detroit to Paris for as few as 50,000 Delta miles round-trip.

A similar flight to Paris could cost more than $1,200 if you paid cash, so using Delta miles for an award flight can get you terrific value for your rewards.

Remember that Delta doesn’t publish an award chart anymore, so you may have to hunt around a little bit to make sure you’re are getting the lowest possible price with your miles.

3. One-Way Award Ticket in Business Class

If you’re looking to cross the pond in style, the welcome bonus from the Platinum Delta SkyMiles Credit Card from American Express or the Platinum Delta SkyMiles Business Credit Card from American Express is almost enough for a one-way flight to Europe in business class.

If you’d rather fly in business class, you can book for as few as 75,000 miles between the US and Europe on Delta in addition to partners KLM and Air France. (Photo by EQRoy/Shutterstock)

After you complete the minimum spending requirement, you’ll have at least 53,000 SkyMiles. So you’ll only be 22,000 SkyMiles short of a business-class flight. You can transfer American Express Membership Rewards to Delta at a 1:1 ratio to top of your account if needed.

I searched for one-way business-class flights from Miami to London and found award seats for 75,000 Delta miles.

You can fly to Europe in style with just the welcome bonus from one credit card.

These one-way business-class flights can cost more than $6,500 if you pay cash. Many folks would never pay that much for a one-way flight to Europe, so this is an excellent opportunity to treat yourself to a more comfortable experience on a long transatlantic flight while getting amazing value for your miles.

Bottom Line

Through August 15, 2019, some of the Amex Delta cards are offering great limited-time welcome bonuses. You’ll earn:

Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express – 30,000 Delta miles after spending $1,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening and receive 50% back in statement credits on purchases made directly with Delta with your card in the same time frame, up to $300
Gold Delta SkyMiles® Business Credit Card from American Express – 30,000 Delta miles after spending $1,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening, and receive 50% back in statement credits on purchases made directly with Delta with your card in the same time frame, up to $300
Platinum Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express – 50,000 Delta miles after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening, and receive 50% back in statement credits on purchases made directly with Delta with your card in the same time frame, up to $500
Platinum Delta SkyMiles® Business Credit Card from American Express – 50,000 Delta miles after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening, and receive 50% back in statement credits on purchases made directly with Delta with your card in the same time frame, up to $500

The statement credits work as a 50% rebate on Delta purchases, up to the amount listed.

If you can find cheap coach flights, you can use Delta Pay With Miles to book a paid ticket. You may find flights to Europe for as low as $450 or 45,000 Delta miles round-trip with minimal taxes.

If cheaper coach flights are not available, you might be able to find round-trip coach award flights for 50,000 Delta miles to Europe. Or, if you’d rather fly in Business Class, you can find flights for 75,000 Delta miles each way.

Or, if you would rather travel somewhere besides Europe, check out our guide on how to use Delta miles for other ideas. You can learn more about Delta miles in these guides:

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