Flash Sale: Book Discounted Delta Award Flights by July 12

Fly to or from select cities in the continental U.S. for as few as 20,000 Delta miles roundtrip in coach.

That’s the gist of Delta’s latest flash sale on SkyMiles award travel. It is indeed a flash sale. As in: Book by 11:59 p.m. ET on July 12.

Compared to past award sales, this one is disappointingly limited to flights to or from the following cities:

• Philadelphia, PA (PHL)
• Boston, MA (BOS)
• Buffalo, NY (BUF)
• Baltimore, MD (BWI)
• Phoenix, AZ (PHX)
• Salt Lake City, UT (SLC)
• Las Vegas, NV (LAS)
• St. Louis, MO (STL)
• San Antonio, TX (SAT)
• Sacramento, CA (SMF)
• Reno, NV (RNO)
• Knoxville, TN (TYS)

While the booking must be made in short order, award travel itself may be completed between September 6 through October 31, 2017.

Deal or No Deal

Delta no longer publishes award charts, so there is no standard against which to judge the discounted prices. However, in random test bookings, I found award prices as high as 50,000 miles for roundtrip coach flights from some of the featured cities. So the discounts can be considerable.

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More generally, the fact that Delta is now discounting award travel on a monthly basis is a positive for SkyMiles members. Although it may leave them wondering which are the “normal” prices: the discounted rates, or the non-discounted rates. With the almost certain prospect of more award sales to come, it certainly makes ponying up the so-called normal award price seem like an unnecessary extravagance.

As is always the case with flash sales, the snooze-you-lose booking imperative is a negative.

Still, worth a look if you have Delta miles in hand and plan (or could plan) a trip on any of the discounted routes in the coming months.

Reader Reality Check

Have you taken advantage of Delta’s award sales?

More from SmarterTravel:

• United’s New Award Pricing: What You Need to Know
• You Can Borrow Delta Miles to Fly Today and Pay Them Back Later. Should You?
• American, Alaska Air Frequent-Flyer Partnership Unravels

After 20 years working in the travel industry, and 15 years writing about it, Tim Winship knows a thing or two about travel. Follow him on Twitter @twinship.

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