The Lemon Fool

I want to offer a US friend a return flight to a destination of their choice as a wedding present. They have suggested a Delta Airlines Gift card (as that is the airline they would use). Delta do have a giftcard scheme, but the donor has to have a billing address in the US territories. I am UK resident with a UK addressed credit card. Can anyone suggest a way I might get a Delta gift or preferably egift card, or another way of creating a gift card for Delta Airlines?

https://www.delta.com/us/en/gift-cards/faqs
https://buy.giftcards.delta.com/self_service/v2/about/faq/

Delta wrote:A US billing address is required for all gift card purchases on delta.com.
eGift cards (an electronic gift card sent by email) may be purchased by customers with billing addresses within all US territories, including Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, etc.

TIA

Give your friend the money to buy it

yorkshirelad1 wrote:I want to offer a US friend a return flight to a destination of their choice as a wedding present. They have suggested a Delta Airlines Gift card (as that is the airline they would use). Delta do have a giftcard scheme, but the donor has to have a billing address in the US territories. I am UK resident with a UK addressed credit card. Can anyone suggest a way I might get a Delta gift or preferably egift card, or another way of creating a gift card for Delta Airlines?

https://www.delta.com/us/en/gift-cards/faqs
https://buy.giftcards.delta.com/self_service/v2/about/faq/

Delta wrote:A US billing address is required for all gift card purchases on delta.com.
eGift cards (an electronic gift card sent by email) may be purchased by customers with billing addresses within all US territories, including Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, etc.

TIA

That is really bizarre. I thought that only the Brits were that insular.

I buy gifts to relatives in California and Australia via their local stores with no problem.

Could you try phoning them and asking?


Steve

stevensfo wrote:

yorkshirelad1 wrote:I want to offer a US friend a return flight to a destination of their choice as a wedding present. They have suggested a Delta Airlines Gift card (as that is the airline they would use). Delta do have a giftcard scheme, but the donor has to have a billing address in the US territories. I am UK resident with a UK addressed credit card. Can anyone suggest a way I might get a Delta gift or preferably egift card, or another way of creating a gift card for Delta Airlines?

https://www.delta.com/us/en/gift-cards/faqs
https://buy.giftcards.delta.com/self_service/v2/about/faq/



TIA

That is really bizarre. I thought that only the Brits were that insular.

I buy gifts to relatives in California and Australia via their local stores with no problem.

Could you try phoning them and asking?


Steve

There are 3rd party sites that allow the purchase of gift cards in different domains
https://www.prezzee.com/store/delta-air-lines-b2c-gift-card/
- perhaps this is a way around?

yorkshirelad1 wrote:I want to offer a US friend a return flight to a destination of their choice as a wedding present. They have suggested a Delta Airlines Gift card (as that is the airline they would use). Delta do have a giftcard scheme, but the donor has to have a billing address in the US territories.

I suspect it may be an anti-money-laundering thing as airline giftcards are high value and as good as cash for some people.

One option might be to buy a Virgin Atlantic giftcard, as Virgin and Delta are deeply intertwined so that most (all?) Delta flights have a Virgin code and vice versa, so for instance you can book DL10 (Minneapolis-Heathrow) as VS4040 (or AF3583 and KL6112), and DL150 (Lima-Atlanta) as VS3839.

It's my preferred codeshare for crossing the Atlantic as they have the cheapest options for legroom; I slightly prefer Virgin for food and entertainment, Delta has better beer and better timings for my usual trip.

Hallucigenia wrote:

yorkshirelad1 wrote:I want to offer a US friend a return flight to a destination of their choice as a wedding present. They have suggested a Delta Airlines Gift card (as that is the airline they would use). Delta do have a giftcard scheme, but the donor has to have a billing address in the US territories.

I suspect it may be an anti-money-laundering thing as airline giftcards are high value and as good as cash for some people.

One option might be to buy a Virgin Atlantic giftcard, as Virgin and Delta are deeply intertwined so that most (all?) Delta flights have a Virgin code and vice versa, so for instance you can book DL10 (Minneapolis-Heathrow) as VS4040 (or AF3583 and KL6112), and DL150 (Lima-Atlanta) as VS3839.

It's my preferred codeshare for crossing the Atlantic as they have the cheapest options for legroom; I slightly prefer Virgin for food and entertainment, Delta has better beer and better timings for my usual trip.

I had a similar thought - one could buy Virgin air miles and then transfer them, perhaps. Although the viability of that depends on award levels and availability for the chosen destination.

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions which I am exploring.
I was checking out other airlines out of curiousity, and I see USAirways/AA do not seem to be so fussy about non-US purchasers:
https://giftcards.aa.com/terms.jsp
or not according to their blurb, but I haven't tried to make a purchase in anger.

yorkshirelad1 wrote:

Delta wrote:A US billing address is required for all gift card purchases on delta.com.
eGift cards (an electronic gift card sent by email) may be purchased by customers with billing addresses within all US territories, including Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, etc.

TIA

Err, I have a certain reputation for suggesting bitcoin options, but have you considered bitpay?

https://bitpay.com/directory/delta/

I've never used them, but they have a good reputation. They have been around since 2011.

I should possibly warn against assuming that this is an easy route. I have heard that companies can be difficult with new accounts and giftcards from the likes of bitpay or coincard.