Delta just revamped and re-launched their American Express card portfolio, and while there are definitely winners and losers with the new card changes, there are some major wins to be had.
One instantly wowing card perk: up to 100,000 Delta SkyMiles for new card sign-ups, and not just on the highest annual fee card. If you’ve been eyeing an exciting getaway far or near and want to turn your daily coffee expenses into nearly free travel, this is one of the best opportunities of the year…
Delta is offering up to 100,000 points on the Delta SkyMiles Reserve, and Delta SkyMiles Platinum credit cards, with 80,000 points after $3,000 in spending an additional 20,000 after your first card anniversary. Hey, it might be better than what some people get on their anniversary!
The cards each offer their own set of benefits which can be helpful to Delta loyalists, and in the case of the Delta SkyMiles Platinum Card, you can also earn a companion ticket certificate, which works a lot like a 2 for 1. You’ll need to learn more about the benefits to decide for yourself if the cards make sense, but the bonus alone is really superb.
100,000 points can be used for award tickets, or spent like cash with Delta at a value of $1000 toward a ticket. That kind of flexibility can be quite handy, since it benefits those who have flexibility and can book award tickets but also those who don’t have flexibility and just want to save on travel on specific dates.
We recently wrote about the “one thing” SkyMiles fans need to do, and that one thing is to pay attention to Delta’s regular SkyMiles flash sales. These flash sales offer a rotating array of destinations and cabins which require far fewer miles than usual, with some offering round trip business class to Europe under 100,000 SkyMiles, or round trip economy to Asia for a mere 30,000 SkyMiles.
That means one of these bonuses could take three people to Asia in economy, or if two people got the cards, they could each fly business class to Europe, or perhaps even Asia for next to nothing.
These card bonuses are far higher than usual and won’t be around for very long. To put them into perspective, these cards typically offer bonuses between 35,000-70,000 points at the highest end, so scoring 100,000 miles out of just one card is superb. It’s also worth noting that the Delta SkyMiles Gold Amex is also offering 70,000 SkyMiles at the moment too.
If history is any indication, the second part of the bonuses (20k) will require payment of the second AF, which negates much of the value. In addition, the cards lost the Delta credit with $50/$100 statement credit, further losing value. $500 for 100k points via Delta Plat or Plat Biz now vs $150 for 80k points previously (minus SC). Hardly a great deal at this point. Interesting, but not as good as it used to be.