Have you ever been less than 0.01% away from being able to redeem a free flight? I have! I was 4 miles short of a 60K point redemption to ditch Delta SkyMiles. How frustrating is that?
Background
In planning for the rest of my life, I determined it's easier to attain lifetime SkyTeam Elite Gold by flying 500K miles with Korean Air or its partners. Lifetime SkyTeam Elite Gold gets me priority check-ins, airport lounge access and baggage handling, Those benefits save me time and money.
Delta SkyMiles requires 1,000,000 miles with Delta or its partners, so Korean Air is the obvious choice. Follow this link to learn more about my decision to ditch Delta SkyMiles.
Due to my decision to close my Delta account, I wanted to clear out my remaining mileage balance. I had 59,996 miles, which was 4 miles short of the 1 round-trip business class flight I wanted to take to use up all my miles.
What can you do with 60K miles?
Here's a table to give you some idea of what you can do within Asia.
| Route Type | Economy (Main Cabin) | Business Class |
|---|---|---|
| Short-Haul (e.g., Seoul to Tokyo) | 7,500 – 15,000 miles | 15,000 – 25,000 miles |
| Mid-Haul (e.g., Tokyo to Taipei) | 15,000 – 22,500 miles | 30,000 – 45,000 miles |
| Long-Haul Intra-Asia (e.g., Tokyo to Jakarta) | 22,500 – 35,000 miles | 45,000 – 70,000 miles |
While I could credit miles from an upcoming SkyTeam flight to Delta to get (more than) the 4 miles I needed, it didn't make sense to go down this route as I have no idea when I would fly SkyTeam next and I wanted to redeem asap before I ditch Delta SkyMiles.
I decided to opt for certainty and simplicity by converting the Marriott points I had lying around to Delta SkyMiles instead. One reason I love Marriott is the number of airline partners they have.
Marriott points convert at a 3:1 ratio to Delta, with a minimum of 3000 Marriott points being converted. i.e. 1000 Delta SkyMiles minimum. The conversion took around 48 hours for the Miles to land in my Delta account.
Viola! I now have 60,996 miles. I now have the 60K miles I need for a ticket redemption and 996 throwaway miles that cannot be used to redeem anything! Problem solved.
Are there other options?
Buy Delta SkyMiles
The most obvious way you may jump to, is to buy Delta SkyMiles to close the 4 mile gap. Unfortunately, the minimum amount of miles that can be purchased is 2K miles at $70 ($0.035 x 2000).
That is obviously ridiculous at first glance. Paying $70 for the 4 miles I need to redeem my flight?!
Convert Marriott points to Delta SkyMiles
This is fortunately an option. The Marriott to Delta conversion ratio is 3:1, and the minimum transfer is 3000 points, resulting in 1000 miles. While the expectation is to get the miles in 3 business days, I managed to get them showing up in my Delta account in 2 days.
Convert Hyatt points to Delta SkyMiles
Also an option, the ratio is 5:2, but the minimum transfer is 5000 points, resulting in 2500 miles. This pretty much rules out an Economy flight ticket redemption.
Beyond the minimum transfer, the rate is 2.5 points to 1 mile, but conversions are in 1250 point increments (500 miles).
Without going into too many details, 5000 points is enough for a free Hyatt hotel night (Category 1 or $$100/night including taxes) in many parts of Asia. It would be hard for most people to consider sacrificing a hotel night in order to get some miles - perhaps more than needed - for redeeming a plane ticket. The plane ticket may even be cheaper if paid in cash instead of points/miles. This conversion ratio of points to miles pretty much rules out an Economy flight ticket redemption if you ask me.
I think Marriott is the only hotel loyalty program you should consider for converting points to miles.
Convert Hilton Honors points to Delta SkyMiles
If you thought the Hyatt conversion is bad, the Hilton conversion ratio at 10:1 sounds worse, with a minimum of 10K points. You get 1K miles up to 30 days later. 30 days!?! They must be doing this over TCP (Transport Carrier Pigeons) instead of over the internet.
Based on my own Hilton points valuation which includes taxes and fees it's around $28 for 10K points, which is still better than Hyatt.
The "everything look good?" text is insulting. 30 days for a transaction to be processed speaks to how bad the Hilton technology infrastructure is. Any business can outsource this to a human in some country and it would take 5 minutes or less. The technology leadership at Hilton is clearly disconnected from reality.
What should I do?
First, understand that all major hotel chains offer points to miles conversions. Marriott offers the best conversion ratio based also on the value of their points.
| Hotel Program | Ratio | American (AA) | Delta (DL) | United (UA) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marriott Bonvoy | 3:1 | Yes | Yes | Yes (Best Value) |
| World of Hyatt | 2.5:1 (5:2) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Hilton Honors | 10:1 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Leverage the table below for deciding when to convert Marriott points to Delta SkyMiles, buy Marriott points so you can convert to Delta Miles, just buy Delta Skymiles outright, or something else.
Read the sections below the table if you need more information.
| Marriott Points | Converting to Miles | Buy Points | Buy Miles | Worth converting? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1000 | - | $12.50 | Yes | Buy points to reach Marriott 3K conversion minimum. |
| 2000 | - | $25.00 | - | As above. |
| 3000 | 1000 | $37.50 | - | Convert if possible, otherwise buy Points |
| 4000 | 1333 | $50.00 | - | As above. |
| 5000 | 1667 | $62.50 | - | As above. |
| 6000 | 2000 | $75.00 | $70.00 | Convert. Buy Miles as next best option. |
| 7000 | 2333 | $87.50 | - | Convert. Buy Points as next best option. |
| 8000 | 2667 | $100.00 | - | As above. |
| 9000 | 3000 | $112.50 | - | As above. |
| 10000 | 3333 | $125.00 | - | As above. |
| 11000 | 3667 | $137.50 | - | As above. |
| 12000 | 4000 | $150.00 | $140.00 | Convert if possible, otherwise buy Miles as next best option.** |
| 13000 | 4333 | $162.50 | - | Convert. Buy Points as next best option. |
| 14000 | 4667 | $175.00 | - | As above. |
| 15000 | 5000 | $187.50 | - | As above. |
| 16000 | 5333 | $200.00 | - | As above. |
| 17000 | 5667 | $212.50 | - | As above. |
| 18000 | 6000 | $225.00 | $210.00 | Convert. Buy Miles as next best option. |
| 19000 | 6333 | $237.50 | - | As above. |
| 20000 | 6667 | $250.00 | - | As above. |
| 21000 | 7000 | $262.50 | - | As above. |
| 22000 | 7333 | $275.00 | - | As above. |
| 23000 | 7667 | $287.50 | - | As above. |
| 24000 | 8000 | $300.00 | $280 | Evaluate based on your situation. Convert, buy Miles or even pay cash for the plane ticket may be cheaper than using points or miles outright. Or perhaps you'd rather save the points for a hotel night. |
| 25000 | 8333 | $312.50 | - | As above. |
Explanations in depth
Up to 1K Delta SkyMiles short: Convert Points to Miles
This is a no brainer.
Most of my readers will have at least 3K Marriott points, easily achieved via 2 nights x US$150/night.
As I value the Marriott points at 0.57 cents/point based onn redemption rates in China where I travel to China most, it is 17500 points per US$100. 3000 points (1000 miles) is worth about $17.14 in this case.
You can't book a free night for 3K Marriott points, and your Delta SkyMiles cannot be redeemed because you're short by =<1K Delta SkyMiles. Redeem that Delta ticket with your remaining balance using Marriott points!
1001 to 2000 Delta SkyMiles short: Convert Points, otherwise buy Miles
It makes sense if you have 6000 Marriott points spare to convert to Delta SkyMiles. You will also likely find 6000 Marriott points less valuable in many parts of the world than the US$70 you would have to spend on buying miles.
2001 to 3999 Delta SkyMiles short: Convert Points, otherwise buy Points.
Since you can only buy Delta SkyMiles in 2000 point increments, if you have Marriott points to spare, converting points is your best option.
4000 Delta SkyMiles short: Convert Points, otherwise buy Miles
It makes sense if you have 12000 Marriott points spare to convert to Delta SkyMiles. You will also likely find 12000 Marriott points insufficient to redeem a night in many parts of the world, so it's a better than spending US$140 on buying miles.
4001 to 5999 Delta SkyMiles short: Convert Points, otherwise buy Points.
Since you can only buy Delta SkyMiles in 2000 point increments, if you have Marriott points to spare, converting points is your best option.
6000 Delta SkyMiles short: Convert Points, otherwise buy Miles
It makes sense if you have 18000 Marriott points spare to convert to Delta SkyMiles. While you may be trading off between redeeming a free Marriott night or not, you should convert the points because you're trying to redeem a Delta flight and close out your Delta account like I did. Perhaps you're flying Delta One business class so you're OK with spending $210 to get enough points for redemption. This doesn't make sense for an Economy flight in most cases.
4001 to 7999 Delta SkyMiles short: Convert Points, otherwise buy Miles.
Since you can only buy Delta SkyMiles in 2000 point increments, if you have Marriott points to spare, converting points is your best option.
8000 Delta SkyMiles short: Convert Points, otherwise buy Miles
It makes sense if you have 24000 Marriott points spare to convert to Delta SkyMiles. While you may be trading off between redeeming a free Marriott night or not, you should convert the points because you're trying to redeem a Delta flight and close out your Delta account like I did. Perhaps you're flying Delta One business class so you're OK with spending $280 to get enough points for redemption. You're more likely to be better off paying cash if flying Economy.
>8000 Delta SkyMiles short: Evaluate carefully
I'm being nice. Walk away from Delta like I did!
If you can't walk away from Delta, evaluate carefully as you're short a lot of miles for a redemption. The decision depends on your situation with respect to how many Marriott points, Delta SkyMiles and what flight you're redeeming for. Perhaps you shouldn't redeem at all and let your SkyMiles accumulate further as there is no expiration date.
At the amount of Marriott points involved you are trading off between a free night at Marriott, buying Marriott points, buying Delta SkyMiles or perhaps even ignoring this points and miles nonsense and just paying cash for the plane ticket.
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