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October 24, 2024: Delta has ended its limited time offers on the Delta credit cards, but there’s an interesting development. It appears that the “standard” offers on several cards have increased. This includes the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card, which now offers 10,000 more miles in its welcome offer than it did before.
Welcome offer: bonus_miles_full Learn more and apply.
(See Rates and Fees)
Here are all of the details on the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card welcome offer.
In this article…
Current welcome offer: 60,000 SkyMiles after spending $3,000 in 6 months
Here are the details on the current Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card welcome offer.
Annual fee: annual_fees
See Rates and Fees
Best welcome offer online: bonus_miles_full
This bonus is earned as Delta SkyMiles.
Earn points for your friend: Get the welcome offer through a referral link
American Express offers some cardmembers the ability to refer others to Amex cards and earn points. If you have a friend or a family member with an American Express card and they can generate a referral link, you may be able to get this same new cardmember offer and earn some points for your friend.
Most American Express-branded and Delta-branded cards will allow you to refer someone to a Delta credit card and earn points if they are approved. But you won’t be able to refer a friend to a Delta credit card from another co-branded card like a Hilton credit card or Marriott credit card.
You are not allowed to apply through a referral link that you have generated yourself.
Eligibility: Can you get this welcome offer?
The terms and conditions of the new cardmember welcome offer on the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card contain American Express lifetime family language. This language prohibits you from receiving a welcome offer on this card if you’ve ever had the same card or a higher-tier personal Delta credit card previously. Specifically, you’re ineligible for the new cardmember welcome offer if you have or have ever had any of the following cards:
Delta Air Lines small business credit cards are considered a different card family—having a Delta business card won’t automatically disqualify you from earning a new cardmember offer.
However, even if you may a Delta personal credit card before, it is generally safe to apply for a new American Express card. Prior to processing your application, Amex will notify you if you are ineligible for the welcome offer and give you a chance to withdraw your application.
About the card: More on the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card
Annual fee: annual_fees
Foreign transaction fee: foreign_transaction_fee
See Rates and Fees
The Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card is a great choice if you can make use of the card’s annual companion certificate or if the $2,500 Medallion® Qualification Dollar MQD Headstart can get you to to the next level of Medallion status.
Welcome offer
Best welcome offer online: bonus_miles_full
This bonus is earned as Delta SkyMiles.
Rewards
- 3x on Delta purchases made directly with Delta.
- 3x on purchases made directly with hotels.
- 2x on dining at restaurants worldwide, including takeout and delivery in the U.S.
- 2x on groceries at U.S. supermarkets.
- 1x on other purchases.
Rewards are earned as Delta SkyMiles.
Benefits
Delta travel benefits
- Annual companion certificate each year after renewal of your card. Main cabin, domestic, Caribbean, or Central American round trip flights.
- MQD Headstart. Receive $2,500 Medallion® Qualification Dollars each Medallion Qualification Year.
- TakeOff 15.
- $150 Delta Stays credit
- First checked bag free.
- MQD Boost. Earn $1 Medallion® Qualification Dollar for each $20 in purchases on your card.
- 20% back on in-flight purchases.
- Complimentary upgrades. Card members with an eligible ticket will be added to the complimentary upgrade list, after Delta SkyMiles Medallion Members and Reserve Card Members.
- Pay with miles.
Consumer insurance benefits
- Extended warranty.
- Purchase protection.
Travel insurance benefits
- Trip delay insurance.
- Car rental loss and damage insurance.
- Baggage insurance plan.
- Global Assist® hotline.
Partner benefits and statement credits
- Hertz Five Star® Status. Enrollment required.
- ShopRunner. Enrollment required.
Statement credits
- $120 rideshare credit. Enroll and earn up to $10 in statement credits each month after using your card on U.S. rideshare purchases with select providers.
- $120 Resy credit. Enroll and earn up to $10 per month in statement credits on eligible purchases with U.S. Resy restaurants.
- Global Entry or TSA PreCheck statement credit. Receive either a statement credit every 4 years after you apply for Global Entry ($100) or a statement credit every 4.5 years after you apply for a five-year membership for TSA PreCheck® (up to $85 through a TSA PreCheck official enrollment provider) and pay the application fee with your Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card.
Maximizing value: Get the most from the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card
There’s plenty of value to be had in the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card but you’ll need to work for it. Here are our tips for getting the most value out of the card. If you hold Delta Medallion® status, scroll down for some additional tips that apply to you.
- Have a plan to use the annual companion certificate. Be sure you have a plan to use the companion certificate. Personally, I use the annual companion certificate on our annual family vacation when I’m traveling with a party of 5. Keep in mind that companion certificates can now be used on trips to Alaska, Hawaii, the Caribbean, and Central America.
- Book a hotel stay through Delta Stays to get the value out of the card’s $150 Delta Stays credit.
- Add the card to Uber, Lyft, or your favorite rideshare app. Every month you use a rideshare service, change the payment of your first rideshare charge to your Delta Platinum card. There are other cards that offer better rewards for rideshare, so use one of those cards as your default payment card for your favorite rideshare app.
- Use the card at a Resy restaurant at least once. If you dine out, check to see if your restaurant is on Resy and use your Delta Platinum card if it is to get the card’s $10 monthly Resy credit. If you really want to be slick, you could ask your server to split the payment and charge only $10 to your Delta Platinum card and put the balance on a card that offers better rewards for restaurants.
- Charge your Global Entry or TSA PreCheck membership to the card. If you already use another card that offers a trusted travel credit for your membership, you can charge a family member’s application fee and earn this credit.
- Book together and share the free checked bag benefit. When you travel with others on the same reservation, up to 8 other people can enjoy your free checked bag benefit when they travel with you.
If you have Delta Medallion Status…
If you have or are pursuing Delta Medallion® Status, here are a few more tips to help you get the most value out of the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card.
- Use the $2,500 MQD Headstart benefit, but don’t spend your way to status. If you want to spend your way to status, you’ll do much better with a variant of the Delta Reserve card, since you’ll earn twice as many MQDs for spending on that card. See our overview of Delta credit cards for more.
- Make sure that you are the primary traveler when using your companion certificate. The secondary companion on the ticket you book with the companion certificate won’t earn MQDs, but the primary traveler will.
- Wait for a promotion that offers MQDs through Delta Stays before booking a hotel through Delta Stays. You’re going to book at least one hotel through Delta Stays to capture the value of the card’s Delta Stays credit, so you might as well wait for one of Delta’s promotions where they offer MQDs for Delta Stays.
About SkyMiles: Value and best uses
With the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card, you can earn Delta SkyMiles from both the welcome offer and from using the card for spending.
We consider Delta SkyMiles to be worth about 1.14 cents each if you hold a Delta credit card that offers the TakeOff 15 discount. This number is lower than what you’ll see on other sites because we apply a discount factor to account for SkyMiles not being redeemable for cash.
Here are a few things we learned from our analysis of Delta SkyMiles:
- SkyMiles provide consistent value—10,000 Delta SkyMiles can usually get you a ticket on Delta priced around $126-$148.
- Most SkyMiles tickets are priced dynamically—the price of the ticket in miles correlates with the cash price of the same itinerary.
- Delta SkyMiles are easy to use for domestic travel within the U.S. and international travel on Delta.
- Some of the most lucrative uses of Delta SkyMiles can be found during Delta’s SkyMiles flash sales. Occasionally Delta will offer unpublished SkyMiles specials in business class alongside its flash sales.
- It is uncommon to get outsized value from SkyMiles through premium cabin redemptions.
My take: Back to business as usual, but a better business-as-usual
Usually a return to the “standard” bonus isn’t good news, but there’s a silver lining on a few of the Delta cards, including the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card. The new standard bonus appears to offer 10,000 more miles as a new cardmember incentive than the previous welcome offer. And with no additional spending to boot.
Generally, we’d recommend waiting around for a better offer, but if you need the card for its free checked bag benefit on an upcoming trip, you can apply without feeling like you’re getting a raw deal.
But if you haven’t had the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card yet, consider the welcome offer on the Delta gold card. Here’s why: Amex welcome bonus eligibility rules for Delta cards mean that you can only earn a welcome bonus if you’ve never had the same card or a higher tier of a card in that product line. So if you get a Delta Platinum card, you’ll give up any opportunity to earn a bonus on the Delta Gold card. But if you get the Delta Gold card first, you can later get a bonus on the Delta Platinum card. Amex also is known to offer a bonus if you upgrade your card to a higher tier.
A few notes on applying for American Express credit cards
Here are a few things that you should know about applying for American Express cards.
- Amex will let you know if you’re ineligible for the new cardmember welcome offer when applying. If you don’t qualify for a welcome offer for any reason, American Express will inform you during the application process and let you withdraw your application before they perform a “hard pull” on your credit report. If you withdraw your application, the withdrawn application will have no impact on your credit score.
- No hard pull if they deny you. If Amex denies your credit card application, they usually won’t issue a hard pull on your credit report. This means that your credit score won’t decrease because of the denied application.
- One welcome offer per card per “lifetime”. Most Amex card terms say that you’re ineligible for a welcome offer if you’ve ever had the card before. Some targeted offers do not have this lifetime language. Readers and other blogs have reported that Amex may internally define “lifetime” as 7 years—if it’s been 7 years since you’ve had a card, you might be eligible to get a welcome offer again.
- Some cards allow one welcome offer per card “family”. Some American Express cards, like the personal Platinum card or the Charles Schwab Platinum card have language that prohibits you from earning a welcome bonus if you’ve ever had a card from the same card family before.
- Maximum 5 Amex credit cards and 10 pay-over-time cards. You can have a maximum of 5 American Express credit cards at one time. In addition, you can hold up to 10 American Express pay-over-time cards (like the Platinum, Gold, and Green cards.) These limits are known to occasionally be flexible for some cardmembers, some of the time.
- You might be able to get a better welcome offer than the public offer. American Express offers some customers targeted offers. See our post on how to get the best welcome offers from American Express and try those methods before applying for an American Express card. You might be able to get an elevated welcome offer.
- Check your application status online. You can check the status of your American Express card application online through the Amex website.
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American Express card disclosures
- For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card, please visit this link: See Rates and Fees
- For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card, please visit this link: See Rates and Fees
- For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card, please visit this link: See Rates and Fees
Amex Extended Warranty benefit disclosure: When an American Express® Card Member charges a Covered Purchase to an Eligible Card, Extended Warranty§ can provide up to one extra year added to the Original Manufacturer’s Warranty. Applies to warranties of five (5) years or less. Coverage is up to the actual amount charged to your Card for the item up to a maximum of $10,000; not to exceed $50,000 per Card Member account per calendar year. Eligibility and Benefit level varies by Card. Terms, Conditions, and Limitations Apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by AMEX Assurance Company.
Amex Basic Purchase Protection benefit disclosure: When an American Express® Card Member charges a Covered Purchase with their Eligible Card, Purchase Protection can help protect their Covered Purchases for up to 90 days from the Covered Purchase date if it is stolen or accidentally damaged. The coverage is limited to up to $1,000 per occurrence, up to $50,000 per Card Member account per calendar year. Eligibility and Benefit level varies by Card. Terms, Conditions, and Limitations Apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by AMEX Assurance Company.
Amex Basic Trip Delay Insurance benefit disclosure: Up to $300 per Covered Trip that is delayed for more than 12 hours; and 2 claims per Eligible Card per 12 consecutive month period. Eligibility and Benefit level varies by Card. Terms, Conditions, and Limitations Apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by New Hampshire Insurance Company, an AIG Company.
Amex Basic Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance disclosure: Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance can provide coverage up to $50,000 for theft of or damage to most rental vehicles when you use your eligible Card to reserve and pay for the entire eligible vehicle rental and decline the collision damage waiver or similar option offered by the Commercial Car Rental Company. This product provides secondary coverage and does not include liability coverage. Not all vehicle types or rentals are covered. Geographic restrictions apply. Eligibility and Benefit level varies by Card. Terms, Conditions, and Limitations Apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by AMEX Assurance Company. Car Rental Loss or Damage Coverage is offered through American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.
Amex Basic Baggage Insurance Plan benefit disclosure: Baggage Insurance Plan coverage can be in effect for Eligible Persons for eligible lost, damaged, or stolen Baggage during their travel on a Common Carrier (e.g. plane, train, ship, or bus) when the entire fare for a Common Carrier Vehicle ticket for the trip (one-way or round-trip) is charged to an eligible Account. Coverage can be provided for up to $1,250 for carry-on Baggage and up to $500 for checked Baggage, in excess of coverage provided by the Common Carrier (e.g. plane, train, ship, or bus). For New York State residents, there is a $10,000 aggregate maximum limit for all Covered Persons per Covered Trip. Eligibility and Benefit level varies by Card. Terms, Conditions, and Limitations Apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by AMEX Assurance Company.
Advertiser disclosure: Cards and Points has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Cards and Points and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers. Compensation may affect how and where card products appear on the site. The site does not include all card companies or all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. Terms apply to all credit card benefits.
