Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
In January (gosh, that seems like forever ago) I wrote a post about the “best” use for your SkyMiles if a loved one dies (because Delta will heartlessly take the hard-earned SkyMiles away from those who lose a loved one who was a lifetime loyal Delta frequent flyer).
Then COVID-19 happened.
Very quickly, we found Delta removed the ability for you to lock in a reasonable amount of value, 9/10th of a cent, for your SkyMiles by buying Delta gift cards to spend later (as cash) on Delta tickets for you or anyone you want.
With that reasonably valued choice eliminated from the SkyMiles Marketplace, we are left with a basket of rotten apples that are nearly worthless because if you are getting around 2/10th of cent value for burning your hard-earned miles this way (don’t allow yourself to reason that since you are not flying you can get something vs. Nothing)!
But now Delta has a new plan to let you virtually flush your SkyMiles.
Really?
Yes, really!
Since it is arguably not yet safe to fly (nor can you go to that many places), and we don’t want to burn our Delta points at the SkyMall (and Delta likes it when you burn miles) they are giving us the chance to virtually burn our hard-earned points.
OK, for what?
I am glad you asked! Take a look.
You can bid on virtual experiences like a virtual wine tasting (err, what?!) or a virtual cooking demonstration. Mmmkay. Or maybe a chat with celebrities — in exchange for your Delta points?
SkyZOOMmiles? Sigh.
When you could fully take in SkyMiles live experiences, there was rarely anything that was a good value. I once took part in the Delta Jet Drag experience. It was fun — and fun getting the Delta insider experience. But Delta, sadly, only offered this once.
We know Delta, right now, is totally desperate to get any kind of income from anywhere possible. Please, don’t dump your SkyMiles in any of these worthless ways. Save them for when it is once again safe to use them for real value, that is, for low-level SkyMiles awards. That is getting real value out of your points.
Delta, do you want to do something Keep Climbing worthy for a change? How about you bring back SkyMiles award charts and with ONLY two levels, that is, LOW and HIGH. That would be something to get really excited about.
Oh to (not virtually) dream!
René
Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
