Delta Gold Upgrade Offer
I have talked about the amazing return I had on the Delta Reserve card last year quite a bit lately. I was able to rack up over 250,000 miles, all with no welcome offer on the card. That made one of my biggest miles and points miscalculations into one of my biggest wins. American Express even gave me a parting gift in the form of a downgrade bonus offer. Fast forward a few weeks and the card is back at it again, giving me even more Delta Skymiles. This time in the form of a Delta Gold upgrade offer. Even though this offer is pretty ratty, I decided to accept it because sometimes more than the bonus matters in the decision making process.
Offer Details
Circumstances forced my hand a bit and I went hunting for a Delta Gold upgrade offer. Since I had already had all of the Delta cards, including the Delta Reserve (which negates all other offers) I didn't need to worry about family rules here. I was just looking for some kind of offer to turn my Delta Blue card into a Delta Gold card. After checking Amex Offers, my card account and reaching out to American Express directly, I was coming up snake eyes. That is when I went on a scavenger hunt and found the following Delta Gold upgrade offer on My Fico forums:
- Earn 5,000 Delta Skymiles after spending $500 within the first 6 months after upgrading from Delta Blue
- The $150 annual fee will be prorated
- You must keep the card for 12 months or risk losing the upgrade bonus
- Offer Link
I have already completed the $500 in spend and received the bonus in my account a few days later. This Delta Gold upgrade offer is pretty, but it still made sense for me at the time.
Why I Decided To Accept This Horrid Upgrade Offer
Why would anyone accept 5,000 miles to take on a $150 annual fee? This would be a horrible decision if I had never had the Delta Gold card (or above) before. That is because simply holding the card makes me ineligible for a welcome offer on a future Delta Gold card. Their rules are a bit different in that way. It doesn't matter if you have earned a sign up bonus or not on the card with Amex. These are also over 5/24 cards – a big reason why we told newbies to stop chasing them.
If we just look at the offer alone, the 5,000 miles are worth only around $60 to me. That is a net negative proposition when you consider the $150 annual fee. So, why take it? Because this was about more than an upgrade offer. See, I had a little over 100,000 Delta Skymiles in my account and a buddy needed me to book some upcoming flights for him. He wanted his booking to be easily cancelable, which Skymiles bookings are, and didn't want to be stuck with Delta Skypesos if he didn't end up taking the flight. Originally we thought the flights would cost a total of 35,000 miles, but Delta's shady pricing tactics bumped that up to 40,000. With that being a decent chunk of my balance with the Delta program, I felt like it was likely that I would burn the other 60,000 Skymiles within 12 months too.
Why This Delta Flight Booking Changed Things For Me
Realizing that got me thinking a bit. The Delta Blue card is the only Delta credit card that doesn't give you a 15% rebate on Skymiles bookings. If I went ahead with the reservation as is, with my Delta Blue card, it would cost me 6,000 more miles than it needed to. If I did an upgrade to Delta Gold I would be dropping the cost of that 40K flight to 34K. Then, if I used the other 60,000 Skymiles in my account within 12 months I would be essentially saving an additional 9,000 Skymiles because of the cardmember discount.
When you add up the 5,000 Skymiles from the upgrade offer to the 15,000 miles I could save in cardmember discounts that is a net of 20,000 Delta Skymiles. I value 20K Skymiles more than the $150 annual fee. I will also get other card perks, like checked bags, during that timeframe if I so choose to use them. It is a small win overall, but a win none-the-less.
Delta Gold Upgrade Offer: ToP Thoughts
Hopefully this write up shows you everything you should be considering when looking at upgrade offers. You should first and foremost consider the bank's application rules. Once that is squared away it is important to look at the card perks to go along with the upgrade bonus offer.
I am still taking some risk with this Delta Gold upgrade offer because I am planning on using something (15% rebate), but haven't actually used it yet. I received the 5,000 mile upgrade offer and the 6,000 rebate on my first booking, but I still need to use the other 60,000 Skymiles in my account to come out ahead. As a Delta hub captive this shouldn't be a problem, but it could be for others. These are all things to consider though, and proves that you need to look at things from all angles.
The same decision could have been made if you had an upcoming flight for 5 family members that you had to check bags for. The savings on bag fees could be worth the annual fee alone, not to mention the 5,000 mile upgrade bonus. That is if you have had the card before and are not eligible for the welcome offer anymore etc.
Let me know if you have ever done something similar with an upgrade offer over in the ToP Facebook Group.
