As I mentioned in a post last week, I have been thinking about getting a Delta American Express card for a while now, and earlier this week, I finally applied for and was instantly approved on the spot for a new Platinum Delta Amex.
Some of the reasons I wanted a Delta Amex include the fact that to earn/maintain Medallion status in 2014 onward you will either have to spend $2,500-$12,500 on the airline or $25,000 per year on a co-branded Amex; and that though I might not requalify for Platinum Medallion status based solely on flying this year because I’ve been doing so much award travel and shifting much of my travel to American, I can earn bonus MQM’s through spending on either the Platinum or Delta Reserve Amex.
Not only that, but there is an unpublished benefit - but one that has been confirmed by Delta - for Delta Amex cardholders, who get access to additional low-level award availability. There doesn't seem to be any discernible pattern to it except that it is for economy travel on domestic routes, but it seems to work when the Amex cardholder is logged into their SkyMiles account and click's the "I am traveling" box in the flight search.. The benefit is discussed at length in this FlyerTalk forum.
Well, I got a good targeted offer for the Delta Platinum SkyMiles Amex via email that expired on Sunday. Here were the details:
-Earn 25,000 bonus miles, 5,000 of which are MQMs, after your first purchase on the card. Earn another 15,000 bonus miles, 10,000 of which are MQMs, after you spend $1,000 on the card in the first three months of cardmembership.
-Earn 1 mile for every eligible dollar spent with no mileage cap
-Earn double miles on Delta purchases
-Earn up to 20,000 additional MQMs toward Medallion status each year by spending $50,000 in a calendar year with built-in Miles Boost
So I had the chance to earn 40,000 SkyMiles (which I value at about $600) and 15,000 Medallion Qualification miles (~$750) and then the opportunity to bank 20,000 MQM’s every year thereafter based solely on spend. The best current public offer is just 25,000 redeemable and 5,000 Medallion miles with first purchase and 10,000 more redeemable miles after you make $2,000 in purchases in the first 3 months, so a sign-up bonus of 15,000 MQMs and 40,000 miles is pretty lucrative in my opinion.
Although Amex is very good about tracking the correct offer you applied for, to be sure I got the full special bonus, I took screenshots during the application process and suggest everyone else always do the same, especially when applying for targeted offers.
American Express’s most lucrative offers are ones that are often targeted and not available to the general public, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get in on them. If you’re interested in getting a Delta Amex and want to check if you’re eligible for a higher bonus than the current highest public offers, you’ve got a couple choices.
Creditcards.com has a Card Match tool that allows you to see if you have any of these special offers targeted towards you. For a month or so now, the site has been displaying an offer 45,000 SkyMiles for the Gold Delta SkyMiles Amex when you spend $5,000 in 6 months with the $95 annual fee waived the first year vs. 30,000 miles (for spending $500 in 3 months) on the public offer. No MQMs with this card, but good perks for those without elite status and 45,000 SkyMiles are worth roughly $675 to me- and the $95 annual fee is waived the first year.
Checking for Your Own Targeted Offers
The other site you should check out is DeltaAmexCard.com. You enter your SkyMiles number and last name and it will automatically populate with any credit card offers for which you are eligible. For me it displayed the Platinum SkyMiles Amex offer I decided to apply for. However, for TPG Managing Editor Eric, it only displayed the current public offer on the Delta Gold SkyMiles Amex with the 30,000-mile bonus (worse than the Cardmatch Tool), so your results will vary.
I recently completed an app-o-rama just last month to score 315,000 points and miles with five new credit cards, including the Mercedes-Benz Platinum Amex.
This just goes to show that, if you’re applying for a lot of new cards every quarter, doing so just every three months is a nice schedule to follow just to keep things neat and orderly and not raise any red flags with the major banks. However, if you’re applying less frequently than that and for only a card or two at a time, then you can consider applying whenever a good offer comes up and don’t have to worry about the churning timetable.
I’m excited to get my new card not only because of all the MQM’s I’ll be racking up, which will make it a lot easier to keep my Platinum Medallion status, but also because I continue to find value in Delta SkyMiles despite the many naysayers out there. I was just able to book two tickets in BusinessElite on Delta and Alitalia’s international Magnifica Business Class from New York to Madrid to Milan and back to New York for just 100,000 SkyMiles each, so I’m sure I’ll be putting all my bonus miles to good use soon, too.
Do you have a Delta Amex? If so, which?
