The Perfect Aviation Geek Afternoon: Burn Delta Miles Siting Outside Planespotting With Top Liquor

The new Delta Sky Club has a gorgeous bar, and the best feature is an outdoor ‘Sky Deck’ overlooking the East runway.

But what if you combined the two features? One of the very best uses of Delta SkyMiles is redeeming small numbers of miles for premium drinks. That’s because you generally get 2 cents per mile relative to the price of the drinks. While retail prices is higher than what you’d pay at a bottle shop (so your real value may be lower than two cents), they aren’t all that high considering the libations are being sold at retail, and had to come through airport security.

I got a copy of the premium drinks menu at the new Austin Sky Club. How about a bottle of Dom Perignon, sitting outside plane spotting, for 10,000 miles?

Or a bottle of Cakebread chardonnay on a warm summer afternoon for 4000 miles?

There are some nice red options, like a Jordan cab or an Erath Pinot, as well.

Here’s the cocktails menu with pricing in miles as well as cash:

I do think it’s fairly cheesy to charge a premium for Stella Artois, Dos Equis, Sam Adams, and Heineken.

Spirits, cordials, whiskey and scotch. Fancy some Johnny Walker Blue by the glass?

It’s 1200 miles for a whiskey flight (four whiskies) as well,

The history of Old Forester goes all the way back to the beginning of bourbon as we know it. The glass bottle that holds whiskey today is often taken for granted – for ages whiskey was sold exclusively by the barrel. George Garvin Brown, a Louisville pharmaceutical salesman (when whiskey was sold for medicinal purposes), would hear regular complaints about the unreliable quality of whiskey straight from the barrel. So, he came up with an idea that revolutionized the industry: put the whiskey in a glass bottle, seal it, and by doing so guarantee its quality. In 1870, Old Forester became America’s First Bottled Bourbon. Old Forester’s Whiskey Row Series pays homage to the many milestones in the brand’s history on Whiskey Row in Kentucky which was at one time the epicenter for bourbon in America.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Best value is the whisky distillery in PDX. Free flights with PP.

    Then you can still go to the Skyclub for Dom 😉

  2. This seems to be exactly what Delta has been hoping for people to do with miles…use them for other perks such as this instead of for flights. I agree that it provides better value but I would not find it to be the best use of the miles unless I either really enjoyed this or definitely planned to buy drinks that were this expensive.

    By the way…I find it interesting the way you have two posts that seem to promote drinking at airports or on planes as in the past, I have felt that job have been negative about this type of activity.

  3. Nice Gin selection but how is Botanist cheaper than Bombay Sapphire?

    Tanquray 10 is excellent with tonic.

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