Yes, and Delta tells you exactly what it costs
Delta allows SkyMiles transfers between any two members. There is no household rule and no relationship test. What there is, instead, is a price list. Delta publishes it, and it is worth reading before you get attached to the idea.
As posted on delta.com at the time of writing, a transfer runs $0.01 per mile plus a $30 processing fee per transaction. So the answer to "can you" is yes. The more useful question is whether you should, and that comes down to arithmetic.
The rules Delta publishes
| Rule | What Delta says |
|---|---|
| Price | $0.01 per mile, plus a $30 processing fee per transaction. |
| Per transaction | 1,000 to 30,000 miles per recipient, in 1,000-mile increments. |
| Sender's annual cap | Up to 150,000 miles transferred out per calendar year. |
| Recipient's annual cap | Up to 300,000 miles received per calendar year. |
| Account requirements | Both accounts must exist for at least 10 days and have earned at least one automatically posted mile. |
Do the math on a real number. Thirty thousand miles, the most you can send one person in a single go, costs $300 in per-mile charges plus the $30 fee: $330 out of pocket. Want to move 60,000? That is two transactions and two processing fees. The per-mile charge is the same either way, but the fixed fee stacks. (Delta did not design this to be a bargain, and it is not pretending otherwise.)
Gifting is a different product
Delta also sells miles as a gift, which is buying new miles for someone rather than moving your own. That is priced separately, at $0.035 per mile plus applicable taxes as published, up to 60,000 miles per calendar year and up to four recipients per transaction. Useful to know only so you do not confuse the two flows. Gifting does not touch your balance. Transferring does.
The cheaper move: just book the ticket
Almost everyone asking about transfers wants to pay for someone else's flight. You do not need to move miles to do that. Search the award from your own SkyMiles account, enter the other person as the passenger, and redeem. No per-mile charge, no processing fee, no annual cap consumed. The miles never leave your account. (Delta does not care whose name is on the boarding pass, only whose account paid for it.)
That covers the vast majority of cases: the parent flying a kid home, the friend who needs a seat, the relative coming in for a wedding. It is only when the recipient needs to hold miles themselves that a transfer becomes the tool. Topping up an account that is a few thousand miles short of an award is the classic reason, and even then, compare the transfer cost to just booking from whichever account has enough.
There is no expiration clock behind this
Some programs forfeit miles after a stretch of inactivity, which turns transfers into rescue missions. Delta SkyMiles do not expire, so there is no rescue to run. A balance can sit. It will be the same number of miles when you come back to it. That takes the urgency out of paying to move anything and puts the decision squarely on whether the transfer serves a booking that is actually happening.
When a paid transfer is worth it
Honestly, in a narrow set of cases:
- The recipient is close to an award and a small top-up unlocks it, and booking from your account is not an option.
- You are consolidating a family's balances into one account for a booking no single account covers.
- The recipient needs to control the miles on their own timeline and you would rather not be in the loop.
So in each case, price the transfer against the award it enables. If the fee is a large slice of what the award would cost to buy in cash, the transfer is not helping.
What are Delta miles worth?
This is the number the $0.01 transfer price should be measured against. Independent valuations put Delta SkyMiles around 1.2 cents each, which means the per-mile transfer fee alone eats most of a mile's value before the $30 processing charge is counted. (That is the arithmetic behind "just book the ticket.") Delta prices awards dynamically, so a specific redemption can land above or below that figure by a wide margin. Our Delta SkyMiles valuation guide covers where the number comes from and which awards beat it, and the cents-per-point calculator checks any flight you are pricing. For the cash side, the Delta SkyMiles calculator on our sell page gives you a figure for your exact balance.
When nobody is going to fly the miles
The other pattern is a balance with no trip attached at all. You changed airlines, or you inherited a business account nobody uses. Paying $0.01 a mile plus a fee to move those miles to a relative who also will not fly them is money spent to relocate a problem.
That balance can be turned into cash instead, and for miles nobody will fly, selling is usually the best option. It is legal in the United States (our guide Is It Legal to Sell Points? has the detail), and a legitimate broker keeps it simple: no Delta transfer and no per-mile fee to move anything; a specialist confirms the offer by phone and payment comes straight to you. iBuyPoints is one such broker. Run your balance through the Delta SkyMiles calculator for a quote, and payment goes out via PayPal, typically within 1 business day.
Every figure above comes from Delta's Buy, Gift, Transfer and Donate Miles page, and Delta can change any of it. Check the current numbers before you transfer. Then check whether you needed to transfer at all.