The Best Delta One Business Class Deals We’ve Seen in 2024
7 min readWhen the airline is routinely charging $5,000 (or 500,000 SkyMiles), getting a good deal on a Delta One business class seat abroad might seem harder than ever. Trust me: It’s not impossible.
The tide seems to be turning for travelers with their hearts set on a lie-flat seat thanks to some outstanding Delta One deals we’ve found for Thrifty Traveler Premium members lately:
- While we still wouldn’t encourage travelers to pile up SkyMiles in order to fly business class, we’ve found a handful of Delta One deals to Europe, Asia, and even New Zealand bookable for under 200,000 SkyMiles roundtrip lately – even one under 150,000 SkyMiles total!
- It was practically nonexistent for years, but workaround to book those same Delta One seats for 50,000 points instead has gotten much easier to find lately.
- We’ve even seen a few discounted fares to book Delta One seats with your cash – at half-off prices!
Read Next: The Best and Worst Planes for Delta One Business Class
Whether you want to book with cash, use some of your mountain of SkyMiles, or use one of Delta’s partner airlines’ points to snag these seats, there are opportunities out there.
SkyMiles Deals for Business Class Are Out There
The SkyMiles rates for Delta One business class can be astronomical. Some would say they’re downright offensive … and we wouldn’t disagree.
Rates like that brought us to a breaking point, declaring that it’s time to stop earning Delta SkyMiles if you want to fly business class. There are far better ways to book business class for a fraction of what Delta routinely charges.
But every now and again, Delta cuts those SkyMiles rates. It’s unpredictable and the deals never last long … but we always find them and let our Thrifty Traveler Premium members know.
It happened again just last week.
This most recent deal – flying Delta’s newest route to Taipei (TPE) in Taiwan – was an insane value. Rather than charging the norm of 500,000 SkyMiles or more, Delta slashed award rates down as low as 170,000 SkyMiles roundtrip – and it was even cheaper for Delta travelers with a co-branded SkyMiles card in their wallet thanks to the automatic TakeOff 15 discount: As low as 146,000 SkyMiles.
That’s not just a good deal by Delta’s standards – it’s one of the cheapest ways to get to Asia in business class using miles. Yes, business class deals using SkyMiles can be this good.
And these were flying the latest and greatest Delta One Suites, to boot!
Read Next: Our Review of Delta One Suites on the A330-900neo
It was so good, in fact, we declared the deal a “Unicorn” – sending an instant text alert to instantly tip off Thrifty Traveler Premium members to one of the best and rarest deals we find.
But this wasn’t just from one city on the West Coast. It was nearly nationwide, with availability from dozens of U.S. airports all across the country. Travelers from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Duluth (DLH) to New York City (JFK) and beyond could get to Asia and back in Delta One Suites for as low as 166,000 SkyMiles roundtrip, thanks to that cardholder discount.
That wasn’t a one and done: It was the second time in a week where we found discounted award rates flying Delta One Suites. The prices were certainly higher, but we also found a decent deal flying Delta One to Seoul (ICN) recently: As low as 212,000 SkyMiles roundtrip!
Is that the best business class deal of all time? Hardly. But for travelers out there with a boatload of SkyMiles (or transferrable Amex points), this sure beats forking over twice as many miles like you normally would.
Getting to Australia and New Zealand takes 14-plus hours on a plane … but booking lie-flat seats with points on those routes is typically a serious challenge. So we were thrilled with these discounted SkyMiles fares to Auckland (AKL) from dozens of U.S. cities, including Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP).
Every now and again, Delta drops the deal of the year – yes, even using SkyMiles. Look at these unbelievably cheap Delta One fares to Tokyo-Haneda (HND) we found late last year, for instance.
Or Book for 50K Points (But not SkyMiles)
Still seeing rates of 300,000 SkyMiles or more over to Europe? There’s a better way to book Delta One seats: Using just 50,000 points … from Delta’s partner airline, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.
It’s one of the best deals in the world of points and miles. And while it’s been nearly impossible to pull off for the last few years – Delta can be incredibly stingy with allowing its partner airlines to book these seats at dirt-cheap rates – the door has re-opened recently.
The trick. is finding that all-important award availability. And while that’s still not a slam dunk, we’ve found and sent Thrifty Traveler Premium members a half-dozen award space alerts on multiple routes to Europe recently. Here’s one of the latest.
This unicorn fare flying Delta One Suites from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Dublin (DUB) and New York (JFK) to Munich (MUC) was the first indication that it was getting easier to book these Delta One seats for 50,000 points.
While you can’t transfer Delta SkyMiles over to Virgin Atlantic, Virgin points are even easier to earn: You can transfer them from all the major banks like Chase, Amex, Capital One, and more. That means you can transfer 50,000 points from cards like the *chase sapphire preferred* or the *amex gold* and book this flight.
Get this: Delta is charging 375,000 SkyMiles for this exact same flight. And regular transfer bonuses of 30% to Virgin Atlantic from banks like Chase and American Express make it even cheaper – just 39,000 points!
And chances to use this workaround just keep cropping up. Later that that day, in fact, we found even more award space flying Delta One to and from other cities for 50,000 points.
While Virgin will almost always be the cheapest, there’s another way you can book Delta’s fancy front cabin: Using Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles. This flight deal below included many of Delta’s nonstop flights to London-Heathrow (LHR) starting at just 64,000 FlyingBlue miles each way!
You can also use Flying Blue miles to cross the Pacific Ocean in Delta One. While it’s more expensive, it’s still far less than what Delta will charge you in SkyMiles.
Delta One Suites might be the cream of the crop, but not all of Delta’s business class seats are those uber-modern private suites. But even if you’re not sitting in the newest cabin, it’s still a lie-flat seat across the pond with lounge access beforehand and the same attentive service onboard.
Read next: Despite ‘Premium’ Brand (& Prices), Most Delta Biz Class Seats Are Relics
And if all you have to give up is 50,000 points each way, I’d bet you’d still enjoy it!
No Points, No Problem: Cheaper Delta One Fares
When the price to fly lie-flat is a significant percentage of your annual income, I don’t blame you if you’ve written off flying Delta One business class. I know I did.
Even in the world of constant flight deals, cheap business class fares are rare on any airline. But we’re monitoring business class flight prices all the time, and you might be surprised how cheap Delta One can get if you watch carefully, like our Thrifty Traveler Premium team does.
These nonstop flights from New York City (JFK) to Buenos Aires (EZE) typically top $5,000 roundtrip or more. But Delta slashed its business class prices to compete with American Airlines, which runs the same route. The end result were these half-off fares to Argentina this year!
But what if you didn’t have to leave the country to score Delta’s best business class seats?
Delta flies between Seattle (SEA) and Honolulu (HNL) multiple times a day – usually on smaller, single-aisle domestic planes. But this spring, Delta swapped in one of its fancy A330-900neo widebody planes on this route, giving travelers another lie-flat option out to Hawaii and back.
And they made it a relative bargain, too.
Despite the switcheroo, Delta forgot to raise the price! They were still asking for regular recliner first class rates on the lie-flat seats. It was a huge opportunity for travelers based in the Northwest to fly Delta One for some of the lowest prices we’ve ever seen.
Bottom Line
No matter how you’re booking, getting a good deal flying Delta One business class is no sure thing. But the deals are out there, and we brought receipts.
Whether you want to fork over a reasonable cash rate, use your Delta SkyMiles, or use your credit card points to book through a partner airline for far less, a Delta One trip can be a reality.
