Get them before they're gone: Costco is selling discounted Delta gift cards
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
Move quickly, Costco members. In November 2019, Costco premiered discounted Delta gift cards and they positively flew off the shelves. Now that promotion is back and available online for those who are fast enough.
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Customers can purchase up to three gift cards and all sales are final. While we haven't yet seen these in the warehouse, if the promotion is the same as last year's we should see them in-store soon.
Which card should you use to buy Costco's Delta gift card?
If you're buying these Delta gift cards in the warehouse, you're limited to using a Visa card. But leverage the Visa cards you have to earn as high a return on the purchase as possible. Here are some options:
U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve Visa Infinite Card -- Costco accepts mobile payments and it just so happens that this U.S. Bank credit card rewards 3 points per dollar for mobile wallet spending. Points are worth 1.5 cents toward travel and you can redeem travel purchases that hit your credit card statement. So, if you bought the maximum of three gift cards, each for $449.99, you'd earn 4,050 points for your mobile spend. Those points can be redeemed to offset $40.50 in travel purchases.
The information for the U.S. Bank Altitude card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi -- Earn 2% cash back on Costco purchases with this no-annual-fee card (with paid Costco membership). If you bought the maximum of three gift cards, each for $449.99, you'd earn about $27 cash back. Just remember that you get the rebate check once a year and those checks just recently arrived in member mailboxes, so you'd be waiting until next fall to see the rebate on any Delta gift cards purchased this month.
Also, consult any of your cards that offer rotating bonus categories each quarter. If you have one with a warehouse club bonus category, that could be a contender as well.
Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card -- Earn 3% cash back on your category of choice (gas, online shopping, dining, travel, drugstores or home). Then, earn 2% cash back at grocery stores and wholesale clubs on the first $2,500 in combined bonus category purchases each quarter. After that, you'll earn 1%. You could earn $27 cash back on the scenario we've discussed above. If you qualify for the Platinum Honors tier with the Preferred Rewards program, however, you could earn as much as $47 on these gift cards with a 75% rewards bonus.
If you're purchasing online, you can also use a Mastercard:
Citi® Double Cash Card -- Earn 2% cash back on all purchases (1% when you buy, plus 1% as you pay). Even better, in 2019 Citi began offering the ability to turn your cash back into ThankYou points, when linked with an eligible ThankYou account. TPG values ThankYou points at 1.8 cents each, meaning this card would effectively get at 3.6% return on all purchases.
Bottom line
If you fly Delta, it can make a lot of sense to purchase Costco's Delta Air Lines gift cards. Look for them online and in-store now before they sell out. (And, remember that for online purchases, you can use a Visa or Mastercard while you're limited to only using Visa cards in the warehouses themselves.)
Additional reporting by Carissa Rawson
Featured by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images.
