Editor’s Note: Thank you for your interest, these offers expired and are no longer available.
We’re in the midst of some travel planning, and have decided to pull the trigger and apply for an American Express Platinum Delta SkyMiles card. Why? Several reasons…
- Baggage fees. As I noted previously, Delta is offering to check your first bag free on every Delta flight for AmEx Delta cardholders. When we take long trips as a family, it’s not uncommon to check four bags (for the six of us). This works out to $200 in baggage fees that we’ll no longer have to pay.
- Bonus miles. There’s up to 25k bonus miles* earned as follows 20, 000 bonus miles after our first purchase plus an additional 2500 miles for adding my wife as a cardholder (you can earn up to 5, 000 bonus miles if you add two Additional Cardmembers to your account). 5000 of these miles count as MQM miles, and we’ll earn additional blocks of MQM miles depending on our spending level.
- Double miles on Delta purchases. This card offers a relatively unimpressive 1 mile per dollar spent for most purchases, but twice that for Delta Air Lines and Delta Vacations®.
- Companion certificates. Each year, we’ll receive a “companion” certificate. These can be difficult to use, but when it works out you can save a few hundred bucks. Keep in mind that payment of government taxes and fees is required and is the responsibility of the basic cardmember. Terms and restrictions apply so check out the issuers online application page to learn more about his offer.
Since we live near a Delta hub and use them for virtually all of our air travel, this card makes good sense for us for a travel credit card. The only downside is the $150 annual fee, but we’ll easily earn that back (and more) on baggage fees alone.
Anyway, I applied yesterday, got approved with a reasonably high credit line, and am now waiting for the card to arrive.
Anyone considering getting the amex card from delta DONT! I applied online thru Delta’s webste and was approved. When I didnt get my full bonus points as promised I was told by Amex that the promo doesnt xfer over from the Delta website to your account. Ok, how was I to know that, it says clck her and get up to 25k points. So I ask, can you go ahead and credit my account more than the 10k you did. “NO” says Amex. ITs not our fault. It’s Delta’s fault. Ok, Delta, can you clear this up. “NO” if you click on the promo banner on our site it just takes you to the Amex site. Ask them to help you. Thanks for nothing jerks, cancel my card NOW.
I am also a Amex Delta Skymiles cardholder. It has been a year now so I just noticed the $95 annual fee on this month’s statement. I wasn’t too impressed. I have banked enough miles for some reward travel but the dates I have tried to use are unavailable. I see that they have a three tiered system on their rewards charts! It seems the times of year I want to travel are peak seasons so they will require double the amount of miles to go anywhere. So instead of 60k for an international ticket it would be 120k!! Talk about a rip off!! We just booked some rewards travel with United this summer. (big fan of their miles card) The wife and I were able to use miles for the purchase without any problems. I doubt that I will ever be able to use my delta miles. It is quite discouraging.
I keep getting this offer in the mail and have passed on it for the last 2 years. Now that I’m considering it, I’m happy to see that you’ve filled out the offer and had a decent experience so far. An update when you try to cash in the miles would be appreciated.
Ahhh…yes I totally forgot that is not round trip. I also understand the perk of more leg room, I’m 6’2″ and coach sucks for me so I can imagine what another 3″ would do.
PMT: That baggage fee is for one way travel. For a roundtrip it’s double. 4 bags x 2 legs x $25 = $200. With just one family trip, we more than pay for the annual fee, and this doesn’t count “one off” travel like a trip my wife is taking in the fall (= another $50 saved).
Plus we get the free companion fares and bonus MQM miles at certain spending tiers (10k MQM for $25k annual spend) which not only gives us more miles, but also helps me make it to a higher flyer status, which gives me things like more miles earned per mile flown, free upgrades (I’m 6’5″ so sitting in coach *really* sucks), and so on.
Whether we’ll keep it for the long term depends on what sort of luck we have redeeming the companion fares, etc.
I must be missing something. Why does it cost $200 in baggage fees? Delta’s website (http://www.delta.com/traveling_checkin/baggage/checked/index.jsp) says it is $23-$25 per bag. Are you flying internationally? That has a fee of $50/bag.
What about after the first year? Do you fly enough to justify keeping it at $150/year or do you plan on dropping it once you use up the bonus rewards?
Ketan: Yes, and that’s a good option as well. The key differences are:
– Lower annual fee (as you pointed out)
– Smaller initial signup bonus
– Companion fares are $99 instead of free
– No MQM mileage bonuses based on spending level
But you still get the free bags, pay with miles, etc.
I just flew on Delta this past week. I saw many signs pointing to a card like this for Gold Delta SkyMiles, but it was no annual fee the first year and $95 per year after.
http://www.deltaskymilescard.com/?campaignid=delta10-atl-mycardcan&ccsgeep=42810&openeep=30043
Forty2: Yep, we typically shop by price and whether or not the flight is direct. In our case, Delta wins almost exclusively. We also have the Blue Cash card and the rewards themselves are definitely better. We’ll most likely keep both cards, and use the Delta version for airfare purchases, mostly to get the free bag checking as well as the ability to pay with miles.
The problem with airline cards is of lock-in.
If you live close to a hub airport it makes sense, but if not, it doesn’t. My two local airports (BOS, MHT) are not hubs for anyone and I find myself on whatever airline has the lowest fare for a given itinerary. The AmEx Blue Cash is the best card in my case, and there’s no annual fee.
The bag-fee waiver is kind of a big deal, though, but I don’t think I check bags often enough to recoup the annual fee.