Delta's Hidden Award Chart

April 09, 2025 by Worldly Express

Everyone always talks about how much value you can get by redeeming Delta SkyMiles abroad. However, today, I will be sharing exactly how many miles you need and where you can go to maximize your Delta SkyMiles. However, this is my first rough attempt so please email me at worldlyexpressmail@gmail.com with any questions, comments or concerns if there is something that isn't explained well. I am still working on adding a comment section and that will be coming out soon.

Economy Award Chart

Now lets get right to it! Here is the one way economy award chart for non US and Canada flights. Please note that Aerolineas Argentinas, Air Europa, China Eastern and Kenya Airways all seem to not release award availability to Delta. This limits the ability to check SkyTeam intra Africa, intra China, and intra South American awards.

* Flights within the Americas differ by partners. Partners include Latam, WestJet, and Aeromexico.
** Intra Asia flights are further classified into zones

To me, a couple zones stand out. Europe to South Asia at 35,000 SkyMiles, Intra Africa for 22,500 SkyMiles, and East Asia to Australia for 35,0000 SkyMiles. However, I don't feel that the economy award chart is really competive as where things stand. This is exacerbated by the fact that for Intra Africa flights, where prices tend to be high, the Kenya Airways isn't releasing award availibilty.

Business Award Chart

As usual, the opportunity to get outsized value are higher with business class award charts.

* Flights within the Americas differ by partners. Partners include Latam, WestJet, and Aeromexico.
** Intra Asia flights are further classified into zones.

Here, there are a couple of competitive zones. Again, if Kenya Airways releases partner availability, Intra Africa for 40,000 in business could be a good deal. Europe to Australia for 90,000 could be a great use case. Finally, 80,000 from Europe to Asia is pretty competive as well.

Region Definition

To understand a little of which destination is which, here is a compiled list of countries that are a part of each zone. The parenthesis signal what zone these countries are in in the overall award chart.

North America: Mexico, (excluding United States and Canada because of dynamic pricing)

Caribbean (North America): Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Bonaire, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, St. Vincent, Trinidad & Tobago, Turks & Caicos Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands

Central America (North America): Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama

Northern South America (South America): Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname

Rest of South America (South America): Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Falkland Islands, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela

Europe/North Africa: Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom

Middle East: Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates

East Asia (Asia): China, Guam, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Palau, Philippines, Taiwan

Southeast Asia (Asia): Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam

Indian Subcontinent: Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

Rest of Africa: Angola, Benin, Chad, Central African Republic, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagasar, Mauritania, Mauritius, Melilla, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, South Sudan, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Oceania: Australia, Fiji, New Zealand

Europe Exceptions

Time to kick off the first of many complications with Delta's award chart.

• Air France, KLM, and Tarom intra Europe economy awards cost 10,000 SkyMiles instead of 15,000 SkyMiles.
• For intra Europe zone, flights departing and arriving in the same country would cost double the number of SkyMiles. For example, BCN-CDG-MAD would cost 20,000 SkyMiles in economy while BCN-CDG-LIS would only cost 10,000 SkyMiles.

Americas Award Chart

Within the Americas, each partner has their own award chart. I have ignored Delta Airlines and Cape Air flights, as both of those seem to be priced dynamically.

LATAM

For flights within South America, LATAM awards from Delta follow a distance based award chart. These awards also price by each segment, meaning that a layover flight would be the sum of the cost for each individual legs, not pricing the total distance traveled.

However, for flights out of South America, aka the last 3 rows of the chart, the typical zone based award chart applies. The layover rules below will apply.

Aeromexico

Flights on Aeromexico follow a zone based award chart. I personally don't think there is any exceptional opportunity here, given the short distance this award chart covers from Mexico.

WestJet

Delta SkyMiles guides often mention the value to be had redeeming SkyMiles for WestJet flights. For flights more than 2 months out, flights within North America follow a set price. Flights within Canada and the Continental US cost 12,500 SkyMiles in economy while flights to or from Hawaii will cost 22,500 SkyMiles. For flights to the rest of North America, they have set pricing depending on the city pairs but to me, it doesn't follow any rhyme or reason.

Because cash prices can get kind of high, redemptions from US to Canada could provide great value with proper planning.

Hawaiian Airlines

Hawaiian Airlines awards cost 7,500 SkyMiles for economy flight within the Hawaiian islands. This option might disappear once Hawaiian Airlines fully merge with Alaska Airlines.

Intra Asia Award Chart

Within Asia, countries are further divided into 2 zones. From the award chart, Southeast Asia to East Asia in business could be a great sweetspot. For example, Garuda Indonesia business from Jakarta to Tokyo or Korean Air business from Seoul to Singapore only for 40,000 SkyMiles.

Economy Business

Korean Air

Now, it wouldn't be like Delta to not have exceptions here either. Korean Air has a special rate for intra Korea and between Korea and Japan flights. Again, this could be an interesting way to try out short haul Korean Air business class for very few SkyMiles.

Vietnam Airlines

Flights within Vietnam will cost 12,500 SkyMiles in economy and 20,000 SkyMiles in business.

Layover Rules

1 Layover

1 layover still prices as a direct flight would. The start and final city are the only considerations. CDG - RUH - DEL will price the same as CDG - DEL.

2 Layovers

2 layover gets a bit tricky. If the operating airline is the same throughout, say from CDG - JED - RUH - DEL all on Saudia, then the award would price the same as direct and 1 layover. However, if the operating carrier changes, then the award would be priced as if there are 2 different awards being booked on each of the separate airlines.

For example, NBO - AMS - JED - BKK, where NBO(Africa) - AMS - JED(Middle East) is on KLM and JED(Middle East) - BKK(Asia) on Saudia Airlines, would cost 40,000 SkyMiles from Africa to Middle East and 40,000 SkyMiles from Middle East to Asia. The total for the entire award would be 80,000 SkyMiles.

However, the same flight but with the layovers in different cities would price different. NBO - JED - AMS - BKK, where NBO (Africa) - JED - AMS (Europe) is on Saudia and AMS (Europe) - BKK (Asia) on KLM, would cost 35,000 SkyMiles from Africa to Europe and 50,000 SkyMiles from Europe to Asia. The total for the entire award would be 85,000 SkyMiles.

As you can see, where the change in operating carriers matters because it would change in the price of the award.

Booking by agent: If layover itinerary is not found online, data points suggest that calling an agent to book may price each segment individually.