When the airline routinely charges $5,000 (or 500,000 SkyMiles), getting a good deal on a Delta One business class seat abroad might seems impossible. Trust us: It can be done.
The tide has turned for travelers with their hearts set on a lie-flat seat thanks to some outstanding Delta One deals we've found for Thrifty Traveler Premium members lately:
- While we still wouldn't encourage travelers to pile up SkyMiles in order to fly business class, we've found a handful of Delta One deals to Europe, Asia, and even as far as New Zealand bookable for under 200,000 SkyMiles roundtrip lately … or even half that!
- Better yet, we've recently found tons of availability to book those same Delta One flights for even fewer points using Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles instead
- We've even seen a few discounted fares to book Delta One seats with your cash – at half-off prices!
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Whether you want to book with cash, use some of your mountain of SkyMiles, or use one of Delta's partner airlines' points to snag these seats, there are opportunities out there. Take a look for yourself
SkyMiles Deals for Business Class Are Out There
The SkyMiles rates for Delta One business class can be astronomical. Some would say they're downright offensive … and we wouldn't disagree.
Rates like that brought us to a breaking point, declaring that it's time to stop earning Delta SkyMiles if you want to fly business class. There are far better ways to book business class for a fraction of what Delta routinely charges.
But every now and again, Delta cuts those SkyMiles rates. It's unpredictable and the deals never last long … but we always find them and let our Thrifty Traveler Premium members know.
It doesn't get much better than this.
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Again and again and again, we've found deeply discounted SkyMiles rates to book Delta One business class seat to Taipei (TPE) and Seoul (ICN) for a fraction of the normal price. This most recent deal – flying Delta's new(ish) route to Taiwan – was an insane value. Rather than charging the norm of 500,000 SkyMiles or more, Delta slashed award rates down as low as 83,000 SkyMiles each way.
That's not just a good deal by Delta's standards – it's one of the cheapest ways to get to Asia in business class using miles. Yes, business class deals using SkyMiles can be this good.
And these were flying the latest and greatest Delta One Suites, to boot!
Read Next: Our Review of Delta One Suites on the A350-900
But this wasn't just from one city on the West Coast. It was available nearly nationwide, with availability from dozens of U.S. airports all across the country. Travelers from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Duluth (DLH) to New York City (JFK) and beyond could get to Asia and back in Delta One Suites for as low as 166,000 SkyMiles roundtrip, thanks to the automatic TakeOff 15 cardholder discount.
That wasn't a one and done, either. We've found a half-dozen similar deals to both Asian hubs over the last year. And the cheap Delta One deals also extend across the Atlantic Ocean, too.
Just a few weeks back, we sent our subscribers the best Delta One deal we've seen in years: Just 170,000 SkyMiles roundtrip to fly to Amsterdam (AMS), Dublin (DUB), Rome (FCO) and beyond in Europe … including this summer!
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That's the best SkyMiles business class fare to Europe we've seen in more than two years. Best of all, it wasn't just from the big hubs on the East Coast – from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to smaller cities and even ultra-long-hauls starting all the way on the West Coast, this was a widespread sale to Europe.
Just a few weeks before that, we also found similar fares on the long flights from the U.S. down to Brazil, Buenos Aires (EZE), and even Santiago (SCL) in Chile! At 170,000 SkyMiles roundtrip, it's a fraction of what Delta typically charges for a lie-flat suite all the way down to South America and back.
Getting to Australia and New Zealand takes 14-plus hours on a plane … but booking lie-flat seats with points on those routes is typically a serious challenge. So we were thrilled with these discounted SkyMiles fares to Brisbane (BNE) in Australia from dozens of U.S. cities big and small from just 127,000 SkyMiles each way.
Is that the best business class deal of all time? Hardly. But for travelers out there with a boatload of SkyMiles (or transferrable Amex points), this sure beats forking over twice as many miles like you normally would.
Or Book for Under 50K Points (But Not Using SkyMiles…)
Still seeing rates of 300,000 SkyMiles or more over to Europe? There's a better way to book Delta One seats: Using miles from one of Delta's partner airlines, Air France/KLM.
Those miles are even easier to earn than SkyMiles, as you can transfer them from all the major banks like American Express, Chase, and others to Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles. Time it right, and you can book the exact same Delta One flight for a fraction of what Delta itself is charging. Frequent transfer bonuses to Flying Blue make these deals even better.
Finding award availability to book Delta One flights through any partner programs has gotten harder and harder over the years … until recently. In the last month, we've unearthed an unprecedented amount of award space to book deeply discounted Delta One seats for a fraction of the miles Delta is charging over to Europe (including this summer), down to South America, and even all the way to Asia.
After going months without seeing a single Delta deal like these, we've sent four of them to our Thrifty Traveler Premium members:
- Delta One Suites from Seattle (SEA) to Tokyo-Haneda bookable for just 89,000 miles each way
- Lie-flat seats to Italy, Portugal, and Spain for as low as 60,000 miles each way, even this summer
- Another round of summer Delta One deals to Europe – this time to cities throughout Germany as well as Ireland, Scotland, and England – for as low as 48,000 points
- And Delta One seats down to South America for as low as 50,000 points each way!
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Why fork over more than 265,000 SkyMiles for this flight from Boston (BOS) to Edinburgh (EDI) in September…
… when you can book that exact same flight for just 57,000 miles via Air France instead? Heck, you can even choose between transferring 200,000-plus Amex Membership Rewards points from a card like the *amex gold* to Delta SkyMiles … or transfer less than a quarter of that sum to Air France instead.
Or head to Lisbon (LIS) for under 60,000 miles, too!
Availability like this comes in waves: Sometimes it's easy to book a Delta business class flight using Air France miles, other times all your searches will come up empty. Exactly how many points you'll need to book these Delta flights will vary: The longer the flight, the more miles Air France/KLM typically charges.
Still, booking a Delta One Suite from Seattle (SEA) to Tokyo-Haneda (HND) for less than 90,000 miles each way is a major bargain!
No Points, No Problem: Cheaper Delta One Fares, Too!
When the price to fly lie-flat is a significant percentage of your annual income, I don't blame you if you've written off flying Delta One business class. I know I did.
Even in the world of constant flight deals, cheap business class fares are rare on any airline. But we're monitoring business class flight prices all the time, and you might be surprised how cheap Delta One can get if you watch carefully, like our Thrifty Traveler Premium team does.
These nonstop flights from New York City (JFK) to Buenos Aires (EZE) typically top $5,000 roundtrip or more. But Delta slashed its business class prices to compete with American Airlines, which runs the same route. The end result were these half-off fares to Argentina this year!
But what if you didn't have to leave the country to score Delta's best business class seats?
Delta flies between Seattle (SEA) and Honolulu (HNL) multiple times a day – usually on smaller, single-aisle domestic planes. But this spring, Delta swapped in one of its fancy A330-900neo widebody planes on this route, giving travelers another lie-flat option out to Hawaii and back.
And they made it a relative bargain, too.
Despite the switcheroo, Delta forgot to raise the price! They were still asking for regular recliner first class rates on the lie-flat seats. It was a huge opportunity for travelers based in the Northwest to fly Delta One for some of the lowest prices we've ever seen.
Bottom Line
No matter how you're booking, getting a good deal flying Delta One business class is no sure thing. But the deals are out there, and we brought receipts.
Whether you want to fork over a reasonable cash rate, use your Delta SkyMiles, or use your credit card points to book through a partner airline for far less, a Delta One trip can be a reality.
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I assume the Dublin deal is now dead?
How can I book Delta Metal via VS for 50K Virgin points, but booking via Delta it costs 300K+ points?! How does that make any sense?!