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Delta SkyMiles is one of the most popular mileage currencies. Thanks to the airline's massive partnership with American Express, travelers can earn miles through Delta credit cards or by transferring points from Amex Membership Rewards. But you can also buy Delta miles. And for the first time, you can purchase them with up to a 50% bonus through November 12, 2025.
In this post, we’ll cover how to buy Delta miles, what they cost, and whether this bonus makes the offer worth jumping on.
Page Contents
Who Should Buy Points and Miles?
If you're familiar with our stance on buying points and miles here at AwardWallet, you'll know that we only recommend it in specific instances. Unless a discount or bonus promotion is available, we typically advise you to steer clear of buying points and miles. That's because it's tough to redeem points at a higher value than the cost of buying them.
Just because an airline or hotel is running a promotion doesn't automatically mean you should run to grab your wallet. Instead, we prefer to earn our points and miles organically. For most currencies, you're better off building your stash by leveraging top credit card offers, promotions, and maximizing transfer partners.
However, buying points and miles has a place in a larger points and miles strategy for two reasons. The first is that sometimes you can book a sweet award ticket by buying miles at a cheaper price than purchasing it outright. Second, if you only need a few more miles to top off your balance to make a redemption, purchasing miles might be the quickest, simplest way. Doing the math before purchasing is critical to ensure you're getting a value you're happy with.
Can You Buy Delta Miles at a Discount?
We all know how great it is when a hotel or airline runs a buy points and miles promotion. But while you'll frequently find promotions to buy American miles and buy United miles, Delta has yet to offer a buy-miles promotion that we know of… until right now!
Related: The Beginner's Guide To Buying Points and Miles
Buy Delta SkyMiles With up to a 50% Bonus
Delta normally charges 3.5¢ per mile regardless of how many miles you buy. However, you can take advantage of a limited-time promotion that effectively drops the price of buying Delta miles. Through November 12, 2025, you can buy SkyMiles with up to a 50% bonus.
Here’s the breakdown of the bonus tiers:
- 2,000–10,000 SkyMiles: 25% bonus (3.01¢ each)
- 12,000–20,000 SkyMiles: 30% bonus (2.89¢ each)
- 22,000–30,000 SkyMiles: 35% bonus (2.79¢ each)
- 32,000–40,000 SkyMiles: 40% bonus (2.69¢ each)
- 42,000–50,000 SkyMiles: 45% bonus (2.59¢ each)
- 52,000–60,000 SkyMiles: 50% bonus (2.51¢ each)
If you max out the offer, you’ll receive 90,000 SkyMiles (60,000 base + 30,000 bonus) for $2,257.50 — or 2.51¢ per SkyMile. As you’ll see in a moment, that rate isn’t particularly compelling. Still, it’s worth noting that this is the first time Delta has added an incentive to buy SkyMiles.
Key terms
- Members can purchase up to 60,000 miles during the promotional window from September 4 to November 12, 2025, and up to 60,000 miles outside of the promo window, for a total of 120,000 miles in 2025
- The minimum purchase is 2,000 miles per transaction, and miles must be bought in increments of 2,000
- Purchases are billed in USD and are subject to a 7.5% U.S. federal excise tax, with an additional 5% GST and other taxes for Canadian residents
- All miles purchases are final, fees are non-refundable, and completed transactions cannot be reversed
- Recipients must be SkyMiles members with accounts open for at least 10 days and at least one automatically posted mile before miles can be deposited
- Purchased miles do not count toward Medallion Status or Million Miler credit
- Miles cannot be sold, bartered, gifted, or assigned outside of Delta’s official transfer programs, and misuse may result in forfeiture of miles or termination from the program
How to Buy Delta Miles
Buying Delta miles is quite straightforward: You simply head to the Delta website and navigate to the webpage where the airline sells miles. From there, you head to the bottom section and select the number of miles you want to buy. Add them to your cart and proceed from there; it's that easy!
Why We Don't Recommend Buying Delta Miles
When buying points and miles, the goal is to get “outsized” value for them by redeeming them at a higher value than what you paid to get the miles. With Delta SkyMiles, redeeming them (in most situations) provides roughly half the value of what Delta charges for buying miles.
To put this into perspective, AwardWallet users get the following value when redeeming Delta miles, on average (per mile):
- Average value overall: 1.34¢
- Short-haul economy bookings: 1.21¢
- Long-haul economy bookings: 1.21¢
- Short-haul business class: 1.94¢
- Long-haul business class: 2.39¢
While there may be occasional exceptions, real-world redemption values don’t make the 2.51¢ per SkyMile rate look very compelling.
Other Ways to Earn Delta Miles
There are easier (and more cost-efficient) ways to earn Delta SkyMiles than buying them straight from Delta for 2.51¢ apiece — or 3.5¢ apiece when there's not a bonus on the table. For example, there are transfer partners, credit card welcome offers, and cards with everyday spending that will provide you more bang for your buck.
Let's check out some of the best transfer partners and Delta cards to help you earn and collect SkyMiles at a better rate.
Delta co-branded credit cards
Delta has a partnership with American Express that offers seven different co-branded credit cards. These cards have some solid welcome offers as well as some valuable earning categories. However, collecting the sign-up bonus presents one of the best opportunities to earn a big sum of SkyMiles quickly.
Here's a preview of what you can earn after signing up and meeting the minimum spending requirements:
- Delta SkyMiles® Blue American Express Card: Earn 10,000 bonus miles after you spend $1,000 in purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months.
- Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card: Limited-Time Offer: Earn 80,000 Bonus Miles after you spend $3,000 in eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Offer Ends 10/29/2025.
- Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card: Limited-Time Offer: Earn 90,000 Bonus Miles after you spend $4,000 in eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Offer Ends 10/29/2025.
- Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card: Limited-Time Offer: Earn 125,000 Bonus Miles after you spend $6,000 in eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Offer Ends 10/29/2025.
(Terms apply)
- 2X miles per dollar spent on purchases made directly with Delta
- 2X miles per dollar spent at U.S. supermarkets
- 2X miles per dollar at restaurants worldwide, plus takeout and delivery in the U.S.
- 1X miles on all other eligible purchases
(Terms apply)
- 3X miles per dollar spent on purchases made directly with Delta
- 3X miles per dollar at hotels
- 2X miles per dollar at U.S. supermarkets
- 2X Miles per dollar at restaurants worldwide, plus takeout and delivery in the U.S.
- 1 mile on every eligible dollar spent on purchases.
(Terms apply)
- 3X miles per dollar spent on purchases made directly with Delta
- 1X miles on every eligible dollar spent on purchases.
Small business owners have three options as well:
- Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business American Express Card: Limited-Time Offer: Earn 90,000 Bonus Miles after spending $6,000 in purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Offer Ends 10/29/25.
- Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card: Limited-Time Offer: Earn 100,000 Bonus Miles after spending $8,000 in purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Offer Ends 10/29/25.
- Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card: Limited-Time Offer: Earn 125,000 Bonus Miles after spending $15,000 in purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Offer Ends 10/29/25.
(Terms apply)
- 2X miles per dollar spent on eligible purchases made directly with Delta
- 2X miles per dollar on eligible U.S. purchases for advertising in select media (annual cap of $50,000 in eligible purchases)
- 2X miles per dollar on eligible U.S. shipping purchases (annual cap of $50,000 in eligible purchases)
- 2X miles per dollar on eligible dining purchases
- 1X miles per dollar on all other eligible purchases
(Terms apply)
- 3X miles per dollar spent on eligible purchases made directly with Delta
- 3X miles per dollar spent on eligible purchases with hotels
- 1.5x miles on eligible purchases over $5,000 (up to 50,000 bonus miles annually)
- 1.5X miles on eligible transit and U.S. shipping purchases*
- 1X miles per dollar on all other eligible purchases.
- 3X miles per dollar spent on purchases made directly with Delta
- 1.5X miles per dollar on eligible transit, U.S. shipping, and U.S. office supply store purchases, plus all eligible purchases after spending $150K per calendar year
- 1 mile on every dollar spent on all other eligible purchases.
Related: Which Delta Credit Card Is Right for You?
Delta transfer partners
The only transferable points you can convert to Delta SkyMiles are American Express Membership Rewards and Diners Club Rewards points.
Of the two, Amex points are easier to earn, courtesy of several cards that earn Membership Rewards points. Points convert to Delta SkyMiles at a 1:1 ratio and will instantly show up in your Delta account.
Delta hotel partners
While this isn't your best option (thanks to poor transfer ratios), it's nice to know you can convert various hotel points to Delta SkyMiles if needed, though you'll get better value for these hotel points on hotel stays.
Maximize Your Delta SkyMiles Purchase
Since Delta sells SkyMiles directly, your purchase (should) trigger the ‘”travel” category bonus on many credit cards. Here are a few of the best travel rewards cards to consider using:
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (Rates & Fees): Earn 2X Ultimate Rewards points on anything that codes as travel not purchased through Chase Travel.
- Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card: Earn 3X points on travel purchases (up to $150K combined with other categories).
- Citi Strata Premier® Card (Rates & Fees): Earn 3X ThankYou Points on air travel, gas and EV charging stations, and other hotels.
- The Platinum Card® from American Express (Rates & Fees): Earn 5X points for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel® (capped at $500,000 per calendar year).
- Chase Sapphire Reserve® (Rates & Fees): Earn 4X Ultimate Rewards points on hotels and flights booked directly with airlines.
- 3X points per $1 on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases on travel, shipping purchases, Internet, cable and phone services, advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines each account anniversary year
- 1X point per $1 on all other purchases
Related: Which Credit Card Should You Use To Buy Points and Miles?
Does It Make Sense to Buy Delta Miles?
As we've said, buying miles should never be your first option. Even with the current 50% bonus, it's tough to get fair value.
Considering our readers typically redeem Delta miles at 1.34¢ each, it's difficult to see when buying SkyMiles for 2.51¢ apiece makes any sense. While buying points and miles has its time and place, we're struggling to find any times when buying Delta SkyMiles provides good value.
However, if you're just a few SkyMiles short of that next great redemption, buying Delta SkyMiles with a bonus through November 12, 2025, can be the quickest and easiest way to top off your balance. Otherwise, you should probably steer clear.
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card (Rates & Fees), Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card (Rates & Fees), Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card (Rates & Fees), Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business American Express Card (Rates & Fees), Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card (Rates & Fees), Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card (Rates & Fees), Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (Rates & Fees), Citi Strata Premier® Card (Rates & Fees), The Platinum Card® from American Express (Rates & Fees), and Chase Sapphire Reserve® (Rates & Fees)
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