If you’ve never been to Australia, there’s no better time to use your Delta SkyMiles to go there. Delta operates a daily nonstop flight aboard their 777-200LR aircraft from Los Angeles to Sydney. They also partner with Virgin Australia, who also flies daily from Los Angeles to Sydney.

The great thing is that you can redeem on your choice of Delta or Virgin Australia. If you are a Delta flyer and have never flown on Virgin Australia, I would definitely recommend checking them up.

The great thing is you can also do awards with both airlines, so if you wanted to fly Delta to Sydney and then Virgin Australia back, you could do that and experience the difference of the carriers on this route.

To get started head over to Delta’s site, where you must first login. Once logged in, under Book a Trip, enter your desired city pairs and make sure to select “Book SkyMiles Award Ticket.

Next, it will start to list the available flights, however on the left, you can click an option that says, “View Award Calendar”. By doing this, it will show you which days have low availability in both Coach and Business Class.

This gives a clear view of what the availability is on the given days, so having flexible travel dates will help in this process.

Some Examples

Flying from Los Angeles to Sydney, if you can find low-level availability, it’s only 100,000 SkyMiles plus $121 in taxes and fees for a round-trip economy award on Delta

If you’d rather fly on Virgin Australia, you can do that as well for the same price. LAX-SYD on Virgin Australia is 100,000 SkyMiles and $122.30 in taxes and fees.

But what if you don’t live in LA? Just add low level segments to/from New York and it’s still only 100,000 SkyMiles in economy.

As long as the additional flights are also available at the low-level price, it won’t change the price of the award. New Orleans-Syndey is also available for 100,000 SkyMiles in coach.

However on such a long flight, I’d try and opt for Business Class if that’s available since it’s only 150,000 SkyMiles to fly BusinessElite to Australia.

You can also redeem your SkyMiles for a Business Class award on Virgin Australia for 150,000 SkyMiles round-trip as well.

Bottom Line

While many people claim that Delta SkyMiles are worthless, if you are able to find low level availability, they can be put to good use.

Low-level coach awards to Australia are 100,000 SkyMiles and Business class awards are 150,000 miles. If you can find the availability, I would recommend using the extra miles to be able to fly in Business since it’s such a long flight.

Don’t forget that if your itinerary is not ideal, always keep an eye out for schedule changes which will allow you to switch to more desirable flights. Generally the further out you book the more schedule changes that will take place. So if you’re booking for May 2014, you’re more likely to see a schedule change as opposed if you’re just booking for December 2013.

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