After years of urging travelers to save their SkyMiles and book Delta flights with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points instead, a handful of devaluations over the years – including killing off 50,000-point business class flights to Europe – means you're less likely to find the same savings. These days, using Air France/KLM is the best workaround to fly Delta for fewer miles … and it's gotten even cheaper.
We're seeing award rates down by about 20% on virtually any Delta flight booked using Flying Blue miles with just one small hitch: Rates are down only if you travel in 2026. To be clear, you can still book Delta flights in 2025 for fewer Air France/KLM miles than what Delta is charging … but trips next year are even cheaper.
For example, Delta's nonstop flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Mexico City (MEX) will set you back just 9,500 miles each way when booking with Flying Blue.
Not only is that a pretty phenomenal deal for a nearly five-hour flight to Mexico, it's significantly cheaper than the 14,500 Flying Blue is charging to hop on the exact same flight this September – or any point in 2025, for that matter.
Either way, booking through Flying Blue sure beats the 18,500 points each way Virgin Atlantic charges. And then there's Delta itself, which is charging 31,000 SkyMiles – for a nasty basic economy award ticket, to boot.
This isn't just one or two pricing flukes: We're seeing the same pattern play out on Delta-operated flights near and far, whether you fly within the continental U.S. or to Hawaii, down to Mexico or the Caribbean, to Europe and back, and even all the way over to Japan.
Air France/KLM clearly cut award rates for Delta flights for travel in 2026, making the cheapest way to book Delta flights using points even cheaper. At a time when seemingly every airline is raising award rates – including Air France/KLM itself, for that matter – this decrease is notable.
Delta fanatics might default to booking with SkyMiles, but using Air France/KLM miles isn't just cheaper – they're also easier to earn as they're transfer partners with every major bank, including American Express, Capital One, Chase, and more. So if you're earning points on top travel credit cards like the *chase sapphire preferred*, *venture x*, or the *amex gold*, you can easily turn them into Flying Blue miles.
Better yet, all these banks frequently offer 25% transfer bonuses to Flying Blue, meaning you might need even fewer points to book.
There's no telling whether this was an intentional change that will stick around for good or a mistake that could get corrected. Regardless, we wouldn't wait around to snap up some cheaper Delta flights next year on points.
Diving into This (Surprisingly Positive) Change
Air France and KLM don't publish an award chart – the cheat sheet that spells out exactly how many miles it'll cost you to fly from point A to point B. But its award rates are reasonable and surprisingly stable, whether you're trying to fly to Europe with either carrier or book a partner award ticket on Delta.
This pricing quirk for 2026 Delta flights first emerged a few weeks ago, and it's an odd one – something I personally haven't seen from any airline mileage program. It's not quite dynamic award pricing … it's even better. And it's incredibly widespread.
For example, a flight from Atlanta (ATL) to Chicago-O'Hare (ORD) this summer will set you back 8,000 miles each way – not bad!
But fast forward to 2026, and that exact same route drops to just 5,500 miles. As you can see, even a domestic first class seat (Air France labels it business class) is also slightly cheaper for 2026 travel.
The same pattern plays out on long-haul flights over to Europe – and the cutoff date is crystal clear: It's tied to the calendar year. This nonstop Delta flight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam (AMS) will cost you 28,000 miles each way on Dec. 30.
Just a week later in early January, it drops to 22,500 miles each way! With a 25% transfer bonus from Chase, you could book for just 18,000 points!
We can't say for sure whether booking a Delta One business class seat in 2026 is cheaper, too – in large part because finding the award availability to actually book those seats through partner airlines like Air France is such a chore. But considering first class is cheaper on domestic routes, we're betting it's possible.
Heading the other way to Hawaii, 2026 rates to book Delta are lower, too. The long flight from Detroit (DTW) to Honolulu (HNL) would cost you 30,000 miles each way in 2025.
Flip the calendar to 2026 and that drops to 24,000 miles each way – yet another 20% decrease!
OK, one last example. You'll find the cheapest Delta flights to Tokyo-Haneda (HND) flying in and out of Seattle (SEA), where Flying Blue charges 65,000 miles roundtrip …
… unless you push that trip back into 2026, in which case the price drops to just 51,000 miles – a drop of more than 20%. With a 25% transfer bonus, 41,000 points is all you need for a two-week trip to Japan on Delta!
In each and every case, booking these Delta flights using Air France/KLM Flying Blue saves you a boatload of miles. Case in point: Virgin Atlantic is charging 88,000 points roundtrip for these same nonstop flights to Tokyo, no matter when you travel … while Delta might charge you closer to 100,000 SkyMiles or more.
And so long as you're planning far ahead for a trip in 2026, those savings are even greater.
Bottom Line
Booking Delta flights for even fewer miles? Yes, please!
Out of nowhere, Air France/KLM cut award rates to book Delta-operated flights so long as you're traveling in 2026. That makes the best way to book Delta flights using points even better.
Lead photo courtesy of Chris Lundberg via Flickr
