Rapid Travel Chai

Delta is running a 48-hour award flash sale through August 17, 2016 to Caribbean & Mexico. Travel September 6-November 16, 2016. Details here.

Sale price awards are 35% off, supposedly starting at 11, 000 miles one-way, down from regular lowest price of 17,500. Yet New York-Bermuda is 10,000 miles. Go figure.

First, take a deep breath and consider:

• Are you flying into a hurricane zone during hurricane season?
• Is the cash rate cheaper than an award? This is off-season. I am seeing, for example, New York JFK-Bermuda one-way fares as low as $53.90.

Ok, if both check out, let’s continue.

This can be a great deal heading one-way from US to Caribbean where taxes are as low as $5.60 for a nonstop. Some Caribbean routes are always expensive and awards can be good value.

Returning is a different story. Most Caribbean destinations charge $70-100 departure tax. Much of a cash return fare can be the tax component. On awards you still pay the tax, so the return trip in this sale will be 11,000 miles + $70-100.

The smart play can be to book a one-way award to the Caribbean, then look for cheap cash rates on the return, using something like Delta Pay with Miles or Citi ThankYou Points to book it.

Here is a New York-Bermuda example:

Saturday, October 1, the Bermuda-New York JFK nonstop is:

or

• 10,000 miles + $94.76
• $138.56
• Pay with Miles option 1: 5,000 miles + $88.56
• Pay with Miles option 2: 10,000 miles + $38.56
• Pay with Miles option 3: 15,000 miles + $0.00

In this example, Pay with Miles is a much better deal than this award sale.