Delta Skymiles

Do not hesitate and book it while there is still space and buy the travel insurance when you checkout.
I cashed in 60k miles and flew roundtrip open jaw Chicago to Paris Nice to Chicago last year For $64.

John I used AMEX miles for an overseas Delta flight about 5 years ago. Online, I could not see what I wanted as a reasonable connection time, so ended up calling the Skymiles service number and talked to a human. He was very helpful in getting me on a flight that worked. So my suggestion is to not depend on what the website shows if it doesn't suit you.

John, I routinely use my Delta AMEX and save up miles for travel. In fact my husband and I each used our Skymiles to book our flights to Europe (into Venice, flying home from Amsterdam) for our May-June trip. Each of our roundtrip flights ,including upgrades to Delta Comfort cost us under$300 +77,000 miles. That's a great deal in my book! I book flights using miles quite often, and it's very easy. I would personally never use a travel agent to book a flight (apologies to travel agents), it's just so easy to use the Delta Amex website. If you really get stuck you can call, but the website Is simpleto navigate. That way you can play around with dates and look at how the 'prices' can vary. I've booked as much as 10 months out, but have also found great flights to Europe looking 2 months or less out. As for hidden issues, I can't report any. I say go for it!

It might not be prudent to do, based on current discussions about what can happen at immigration, but I (65 year old female with a US passport) booked one-way flights to Europe in 2015 and 2016, using United miles, then booked the returns mid-trip when I was sure when and from where I wanted to depart.

I was able to get all the flights (coach) for the lowest possible mileage, and each trip was non-stop in one direction (Rome, Madrid) and one-stop in the other (Zagreb, Barcelona). Both departures were in May; one return was in October while the other was in August. Total taxes for the two trips came to about $100, I think. Needless to say, I was thrilled. Fares for this year were so incredibly low last November that I opted to buy my 2017 RT ticket with cold hard cash rather than burning miles at a value of less than $.01 each.

Hi acraven
It is confusing to me and may be confusing to John when you say

"It might not be prudent to do, based on current discussions about what can happen at immigration."

What does this have to do with redeeming Delta Sky miles on an Amex Card for a round trip flight to Europe ?

I used my Delta sky miles to fly from Seattle to Prague via Amsterdam twice (two round trips). Be flexible with the dates. For example Tuesday cost 130 thousand miles and Wednesday 88 thousand. Guess which one I bought. It is no problem and if you run into problem call Delta as it was already advised to you.

I was referring to recent discussions about whether one might be asked to show a return airline ticket upon arrival at the immigration desk in Europe, which I would not have been able to do, not yet having even a reservation for the Europe-US return flight. I opted to head out with just the US-Europe flight booked in order to retain flexibility. United, at least, allows the booking of one-way trips with miles, something that would typically be cost-prohibitive on the legacy carriers if paid for with cash/credit cards. I'm guessing that other airlines also allow "purchase" of one-way flights with miles.

I though all Delta miles were created equal and were roughly equivalent to United miles, etc. Is there something special about AmEx miles?

Edited to add: It seems to me my approach could be useful for people who have not quite enough miles for a roundtrip in each of two different frequent-flyer accounts. They could fly over on Airline A and return on Airline B, using miles from two different accounts.

Since you've always booked your flights via a travel agent, if you would feel more comfortable dealing with an individual you know and trust, use the travel agent. We've done that in the past with our Delta miles and when a glitch or two came up we were able to deal with someone we know personally rather than just an anonymous voice or computer response.

If you can find a TA that books Delta award tickets good luck, but I expect that's going to be hard.

A couple of suggestions

1. BOOK EARLY. If you know what you want book it now, if you can get it for a good price point.

2. Call. Delta often doesn't show all the options. Particularly Virgin (and if you are springing for Business Class they are often "cheaper' point wise and the flight was great!)

3. Be flexible. It could save you a lot of points to go to your destination a day early. Last year for example, I found a great deal on a Business Class seat on Virgin Atlantic to London. So I went to London, spent the night and took the Eurostar to Paris!

The value of miles for international flights has declined recently. Delta, for example, still charges at least 60,000 miles for a round trip flight to Europe, even though it is possible to pay around $500 cash. In this example, a mile would be valued at $0.83, lower than the usual standard of 1 penny per mile ($500 divided by 60,000 = 0.0083). Actually, the valuation is even worse when you factor in the taxes/fees that you have to pay when you use miles. When you have the Delta AMEX card, you can also "pay with miles" - i.e. use miles as currency at a rate of 1 penny. You could cash in miles to get a discount off a cash transaction - i.e. use 30,000 miles to get a discount of $300.

I would not use miles for a trip unless the value was over 1.5 cents per mile, since I can earn that amount using a cash back credit card such as Capital One. I have a Delta AMEX card and use the miles for domestic flights only.

My advice. They are your miles, use them as you want. There is no need to have a justification or be "shamed" by someone.

And yes you can get flights for $500 but maybe not when you want to go or with out extra stops

Personally I like to use mine for business class to Europe but that may not work for someone else.

The "cost" varies a lot, so the forewarning is to do enough research to be sure you aren't "spending" more than you should, just like with cold hard cash. I have used 120,000 miles for round trip coach seats to Europe (a few years ago when the fare was over $2000), I used 88,000 miles for round trip coach seats last summer. On both occasions I paid cash instead of miles to upgrade to Comfort. This summer, I'll be using 99,000 miles for Business class, which I purchased during a 2 day sale in October. Those tickets are $3000 to $4000. Do your homework and keep your options open if you have flexibility. Some cities are cheaper than others, too.
You have to book early to get seats available with miles because they do get booked up during busy travel times, and you also have a better selection of available seats so you can be more comfortable if you're in sardine class (check seatguru.com for airplane configurations and which are best seats for the particular flight you're considering).

Having had a fair number of miles evaporate on more than one occasion due to inattention on my part, my #1 rule is now, "Use 'em!". It's also good to keep in mind the upward drift in the number of miles needed to claim each level of reward. The same trip may require more miles in 2018 than in 2017.

But I do try to use miles cost-effectively. I've been reluctant to use miles for domestic flights since mine is a generally competitive origin with decent domestic fares. But next winter I have to take a cross-country trip that begins between Christmas and New Year's, a very expensive time. I suspect using miles will pay off then, perhaps even more than for the typical flight to Europe.

Edited to add: Miles are worth considerably more, in general, to people living in non-gateway cities, but I'm sure it's harder for them to use those miles for decent routings.