Last Week to Take Advantage of Amex - Delta 50% Transfer and 25,000 MQM Bonus

Daily Newsletter

Reward your inbox with the TPG Daily newsletter

Join over 700,000 readers for breaking news, in-depth guides and exclusive deals from TPG’s experts

Email address

Sign up

By signing up, you will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.

Just a friendly reminder that May 31, 2011 is the last day to take advantage of the showstopping 50% transfer bonus and 25,000 MQMs when you transfer 50,000+ American Express Membership Rewards points to Delta. Register here.

There is a substantial Q&A in the comments section of my original post, but here are some key things to take into consideration:
1) You can transfer the Amex points from anyone's account - all that matters is the Delta SkyMiles account is registered in order to get the bonus. For example, I could "send" 10 people 50,000 points each from my Amex account and as long as each was eligible and registered for the bonus, they'd get the 50% and MQMs.
2) 25,000 MQMs will get you Silver elite status until February 2013. Silver will get you domestic upgrades, 25% mileage bonus, free exit row/ premium seats and overall better customer service.
3) This promotion has nothing to do with transferring Delta SkyMiles to other Delta accounts. It's confusing because there is a 50% transfer bonus between Delta accounts, but this promotion is only for American Express Membership Rewards transfers to Delta.
4) If you don't have any Membership Rewards points, but have an American Express card, you can open a Platinum card today and then immediately advance yourself 50,000 points and transfer them to Delta. Once the 25,000 sign-up bonus posts, you'll need to accrue 25,000 points over the next year to pay back the advance. If you don't gain back enough points, you get charged 2.5 cents a point. FYI: most other Membership Rewards cards (except Centurion) will only allow you to advance 15,000 points, so you probably won't be able to get enough to get to 50,000 points unless you get the Platinum card. Once approved, American Express will overnight you the card, so you can have the account set up by this weekend. Check out this post, for a full review of the card.
5) If you are holding out to get a better Delta transfer bonus, I think you are crazy. This is as good as it gets, though I suppose there is a small chance it could get better, but I wouldn't bet on it.
6) Once the points are transferred, you should have the 50% bonus and MQMs almost immediately, but it usually takes a day or two for your account to reflect the elite status.
7) Even though the Delta promo says "first transfers only," my experience has been that if it lets you register, you are eligible for the bonus.

Feel free to ask any questions about the promo. I hope everyone can get in before it's too late!