This post contains references to products from one or more of our advertisers. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products. The content on this page is accurate as of the posting date; however, some of the offers mentioned may have expired. For more information check out our Advertising Disclosure. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. Hoping to get to Europe this summer, but scared off by sky-high flight prices? You're not alone. Lucky for all of us, we just found a fix.

Late last week, we found and sent Thrifty Traveler Premium members an alert for an amazing opportunity to use your credit card points to fly Delta nonstop to many European cities this summer from many U.S. airports for as low 34,000 points roundtrip, maybe even less! Compared to the $1,200-plus fares on many of these transatlantic routes, this is an absolute steal.

From Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) to Amsterdam (AMS) to other popular destinations like Reykjavik (KEF), Rome (FCO), and Madrid (MAD), many major nonstop Delta flights are up for grabs with this deal. And there are many seats available at these low rates on most dates, meaning you can fly the whole family to Europe this summer on points!

But you're not booking these flights with Delta SkyMiles. No, you're saving your SkyMiles and booking through partner carriers like Virgin Atlantic or Air France/KLM, all of which charge far fewer miles for these nonstop Delta flights. And transfer bonuses to those airline programs from banks like American Express, Chase, and Capital One make these deals even better.

Get award alerts like this one to use your points and miles with Thrifty Traveler Premium!

Get this: Delta is charging 69,000 SkyMiles for those flights to Iceland. Using Air France/KLM Flying Blue instead, you can book the exact same route for a fraction of the points.

You can't transfer Delta SkyMiles to these other airlines to book but there's an even easier way. Both Air France/KLM and Virgin Atlantic are credit card transfer partners with all the major banks, which means a stash of points on cards like the *chase sapphire preferred*, the *amex gold*, or the *venture x* can easily get you the miles you need to book. A trio of transfer bonuses make it even better:

Travelers with Chase points can get a 25% bonus when sending them to Air France/KLM There's a 30% bonus to Virgin Atlantic from both Capital One and American Express available as of publication, too! Exactly which airline program you should use depends on which credit card points you've got and where you're going.

Using Virgin, these Delta flights cost a flat 30,000 points each way which means you could book a roundtrip for just 47,000 points from either Capital One or American Express thanks to that 30% transfer bonus. Booking with Flying Blue, shorter transatlantic flights like between the East Coast or even Midwest to destinations like Reykjavik (KEF) or Dublin (DUB) drop to roughly 40,000 miles roundtrip, sometimes less! Combined with that 25% transfer bonus from Chase, it makes Ultimate Rewards your go-to if you've got them.

This amazing workaround to book Delta flights for fewer points could easily make this the best way to get to Europe this summer, period. It's rare that we see Delta open up this much award availability to book their flights using miles from partner airlines especially during the hectic (and pricey) summer travel season. You'll find the best availability on these Delta flights in August.

Best of all, booking through either Virgin Atlantic or Air France/KLM means you're booking a main cabin ticket not a stingy Delta basic economy fare so seat selection is free. Both airlines tack on reasonable fees for these Delta flights typically under $100 roundtrip.

Some dates have already disappeared since we first sent this toThrifty Traveler Premium members last week, but there are still plenty to pick from. The sweet spot if you want to book roundtrip flights begins in early August, as that's when you'll start to see availability for the flights home.

And while marquee routes to Paris and Amsterdam generally have the best availability, you can even book harder-to-reach destinations like Rome (FCO), Nice (NCE), or Venice (VCE) for 60,000 points or less.Keep reading for a full list of departure and destination cities!

For example, you could book roundtrip, nonstop flights from Detroit (DTW) to Rome (FCO) for 60,000 Virgin Atlantic points transferring just 47,000 points from Capital One or Amex cards thanks to that 30% transfer bonus.

That's much better than booking straight through Delta, which is charging nearly $1,200 or 100,000 SkyMiles for these exact same flights, right? Right.

This is unprecedented. You'll find flights are wide open on select transatlantic routes from many Delta hubs like Atlanta (ATL), Boston (BOS), New York City (JFK), Detroit (DTW), Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) and even ultra-long routes from Seattle (SEA).

For example, check out how easy it is to score a seat on the brand-new route from Minneapolis to Dublin late this summer. You've got your pick of the litter!

What could beat exploring Ireland this summer? Just one thing: Getting to Ireland and back for under 50,000 points total!

Don't live in a major Delta hub with nonstop flights to Europe? Book separate positioning flights to hop on this deal!

Delta Availability to Europe this Summer Book nonstop Delta flights to Europe this summer, with the best availability beginning in early August Search for availability on these nonstop Delta flights at VirginAtlantic.com Book through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club or Air France/KLM Flying Blue Departure Cities & Destinations Atlanta (ATL) Amsterdam (AMS) Barcelona (BCN) Dublin (DUB) Frankfurt (FRA) Madrid (MAD) Munich (MUC) Nice (NCE) Paris (CDG) Rome (FCO) Stuttgart (STR) Venice (VCE) Zurich (ZRH) Boston (BOS) Amsterdam (AMS) Athens (ATH) Dublin (DUB) Paris (CDG) Rome (FCO) Cincinnati (CVG) Paris (CDG) Detroit (DTW) Amsterdam (AMS) Frankfurt (FRA) Munich (MUC) Paris (CDG) Reykjavik (KEF) Rome (FCO) Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) Amsterdam (AMS) Dublin (DUB) Paris (CDG) Reykjavik (KEF) New York (JFK) Amsterdam (AMS) Barcelona (BCN) Berlin (BER) Brussels (BRU) Copenhagen (CPH) Dublin (DUB) Frankfurt (FRA) Geneva (GVA) Paris (CDG) Reykjavik (KEF) Madrid (MAD) Milan (MXP) Munich (MUC) Naples (NAP) Nice (NCE) Prague (PRG) Rome (FCO) Shannon (SNN) Stockholm (ARN) Venice (VCE) Zurich (ZRH) Portland (PDX) Amsterdam (AMS) Seattle (SEA) Amsterdam (AMS) Paris (CDG) How to Find & Book Delta Flights via Partner Airlines Even though you're trying to fly Delta across the pond, your first stop has to be VirginAtlantic.com. You're booking with their points (maybe), so you're using their website.

It's critical to start your search through Virgin Atlantic because you might not find award availability to book Delta flights on every date. That said, it shouldn't hard: These Delta flights are wide-open on many of Delta's major European routes for one-way flights all summer long or for roundtrip fares beginning in August.

Just search one of the nonstop Delta routes above and be sure to select the option to use points under Advanced search.

Virgin Atlantic's site can be a bit finicky at times. If it won't let you pull in an airport automatically, click Full airport list and manually select it from the long dropdown list of countries under Rest of world. This same trick comes in handy if the option to search in points is greyed out.

Virgin defaults to showing about a week's worth of flights. Luckily, Virgin just made it much easier to find the flights you want by restoring a handy price calendar button to pull up a five weeks of flights in a single click.

With this much availability flying Delta overseas, it should be a cinch to find the flights that work for you at just 30,000 points each way or 60,000 points roundtrip. You might see some even lower rates, but those are on other partner airlines that pass on hefty cash taxes and fees.

Once you've found availability, it's time to decide how to book. Travelers flush with Chase points should turn to Air France/KLM Flying Blue thanks to the 25% transfer bonus available through the end of the month. But the 30% transfer bonuses currently available to Virgin Atlantic are appealing, too, if you've got Amex or Capital One points.

Within a few clicks, you can select your Delta flights and book your trip to Europe for a fraction of what Delta itself charges.

Read our full guide to using Virgin Atlantic Flying Club and booking through Air France/KLM Flying Blue!

Bottom Line From discounted economy deals to lie-flat business class seats, we find tons of award alerts to help ourThrifty Traveler Premium members use their points and miles. But this one might just be our favorite.

You could pay close to $2,000 for a nonstop Delta flight to Europe this summer or fork over 150,000 Delta SkyMiles or more. Or you could use roughly 40,000 to 50,000 credit card points to book those exact same flights instead.

That's an easy choice, if you ask me.