This is another in a series of posts helping actual readers answer some of their more beginner-themed questions. Today’s question comes from Debbie, who asks
Can I transfer Delta miles? Can Delta Skymiles from multiple family members be transferred to 1 family member in order to get a ticket? Are there fees involved? Many thanks!
Can I transfer Delta miles?
You can transfer Delta miles, like most airline miles. Unfortunately, unlike transfers from Chase or American Express, which happen pretty instantaneously and are generally free, in order to transfer Delta miles, you are going to pay for the privilege
The cost to transfer Delta miles is 1 cent per mile, PLUS a $30 transaction fee.
What are the conditions / fine print in order to transfer Delta miles?
You can transfer Delta miles on Delta’s official website. Here is some of the fine print if you transfer Delta miles:
- You can transfer Delta miles TO 4 people in a single transaction, in increments of 1,000 Delta Skymiles. You will need the recipient’s name and Delta Skymiles number
- You can transfer up to 30,000 miles to a single person in a transaction, and there’s an annual limit of 300,000 Delta miles TO any one Skymiles account and an annual limit of 150,000 Delta miles FROM any one Delta Skymiles account
- There is no limit to how many transactions you do to transfer Delta miles
- Miles do not count towards Delta medallion status
Is it a good idea to transfer Delta miles?
Well, as always, the answer is: “it depends”. In a vacuum, I would say that it is NOT a good use of your miles to transfer Delta miles.
So going back to Debbie’s original question, she can transfer Delta miles, but she was looking at combining accounts from multiple people into ONE account, which would require multiple transactions, paying the 1 cent per mile fee AND the $30 transaction fee multiple times. Generally, I’d say that this is NOT a good idea, but if you have an urgent need, then it’s possible that it might make sense to transfer Delta miles from one account to another.
This is in contrast to frequent flier programs like British Airways, which do have the concept of “household accounts”, which let you combine points between several people in the same household for free.
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Dang. Based on the title I was hoping I could learn to transfer delta miles to something more valuable… Like packing peanuts.
LOL – I wonder what the packing peanut to Skymile ratio should be 😀
Just last night I was looking into booking one way business class to AMS from New York for next spring. UA has no seats. On Delta.com, I found seats for 80K each.
After searching for the now MIA Delta award charts, it looks like these are Level 2 awards based on the new charts.
So I have 92,602 miles and my husband has 78,121. It would seem that a transfer of 2K to his account would make sense in this case (assume we decide to go ahead, and awards are still available).
Any idea how long the transfer takes? Since we have to book from 2 separate accounts, it can always be tricky. Does Delta allow award holds?
Any other caveats to be aware of? (aside from finding an option for the return flights).
I think generally it does not take very long. Make sure and update us if you go through with it
Update: after playing around with dates, I just booked late April flights to Palermo. It’s business class to Rome on Alitalia, and then eco to Palermo (1hr 10min flight – can handle it since we got exit row aisles) for the lowest 62.5K miles. Finally, a good use for those Delta miles. Weather should be great (barring spring rains).
So, no need to do the transfer – just had to book out of 2 separate accounts.
Will return from Rome on AA in early May in economy (biz not avail on the non-stops) – can handle that for the daytime flight, esp. since only 20K saver tickets (since before May 15 ).
Lovin’ this redemption.
That’s awesome! Have fun!
So I went to Boston from Minneapolis in April with Delta Airlines. On my way back I decided to check in my suitcase. Which I did successfully. Now remember I had bought my ticket, but not added an extra fee for a seat. So I checked in my bag and was told that I would get a seat at the gate. Once I got to the gate the assistance was rude since I inquired why the agent was prepared to take my suitcase and not give me a seat. After quite some arguing I got a seat. The last seat. My bitch is, do not take my luggage unless you intend to let me fly on the same plane. What is security worth if my suitcase and I are not on the same flight????? I had bought a ticket but not spent extra money for a seat. Since when does Delta Airlines charge for every seat?????
Unless you are transferring a few miles to ‘complete’ what you need in another account for a particular purpose, this makes just not sense.
Most of the time, the cost of the transfer is not far from their value when you pay with cash + miles (or worse). Or, if you are paying only with miles, yes, you save a little, but maybe 20% of the total cost of the ticket.
See it this way, transferring 30,000 miles costs $330 USD. If you pay a ticket partially with miles, those 30k miles are worth less than $300 on that ticket.
Or if you pay completely with miles, then maybe a $500 ticket would cost you 30,000 miles. But you already spent $330 in the transfer plus about $110 of fees, total $440. You are really only saving $60. Is it worth? Maybe better let the original owner use those 30k miles when they can.
My 2 cents.
So if 30k miles are worth about $300
And it costs $300 + 30 fee to transfer them
what is the point? It is better to just give the person the money to spend on any airline they want.
Other airlines charge a % of the miles to transfer and are a much better deal. This seems like a scam to avoid usage of the miles and saving Delta some money.
Or am I missing something?
My dad with late-stage dementia will never use those miles he earned.
Transferring miles to someone else’s account is rarely worth it. What I would do in your situation is to log in with your dad’s information and just book a flight for him or you or anyone (assuming he is okay with that and/or you are his legal guardian)