Springtime trip to Nashville with dad!
I’ve been moving slow on booking flights as there haven’t been good paid OR points travel options. Sometimes a good deal pops up, and when it does you have to move before it’s gone. I’ve tracked the schedule on Google Flights for the past two months, so when a Delta flight at under half the cost appeared, I knew it was time.
The deal
- 13,600 miles + $11.20 or $176 round-trip Richmond to Nashville, Thursday to Sunday in May on Delta with one connection each way. Almost a steal.
- The paid flight itself is solid, $176 is less than half of what a comparable alternate flight is.
- The points redemption is similarly solid. $176 (paid cost) – 11.20 (award booking fees) = $164.80 in value. 13,600 points for the typical redemption, but only 11,600 after the 15% off from having a Delta American Express card. $164.80 / 11,600 = 1.42 cents per point.
What makes this interesting
- Delta TakeOff 15 discount – As a result of having the American Express Delta Platinum Business card, I not only get upgraded boarding and free bags, but also 15% off rewards redemptions. PERFECT.
- American Express points transfer – I didn’t actually have enough points on Delta to do this booking. That meant I had to transfer points from American Express. 1000 AMEX Membership Rewards = 1000 Delta Skymiles. AMEX recently instituted an federal excise tax charge for transfers of $0.0006 cents a point. I had to transfer 6000 points, so I paid $3.60 to transfer the points. Certainly not a dealbreaker, but a bit annoying.
Good value, not great value, but worth it to me to save a few hundred bucks.
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