Why to Skip Delta Personal Cards

Getting a Delta American Express personal card can be a newbie trap and mistake for those starting off in award travel. I say this as a big Delta fan. Even though I have spent years flying Delta and holding status, my journey did not start with a personal Delta card. I have used many methods over the years while waiting until I was over Chase 5/24 to partake. Here are some of the top reasons why you should not get a Delta American Express personal card, at least not yet.

Chase's 5/24 Rule

Chase's 5/24 rule is the first thing we typically talk about in the points and miles hobby. Taking advantage of Chase sign-up bonuses can earn you hundreds of thousands super valuable points. This strategy can set you up to earn Ultimate Rewards for years to come. Finally, learning about Chase Ultimate Rewards can be a good first step to learning how to use points and miles. It is a user friendly program that is much easier to navigate for many.

Use Partners to Book Delta Awards Instead Of Earning Delta Skymiles

Virgin Atlantic and Flying Blue (KLM/Air France) are popular SkyTeam partners and an excellent alternative for booking award flights on Delta flights. There will need to be saver availability, but it is still a great way to use other transferable currencies. Aeromexico is another option, although it does not have quite as user friendly of a site to search and book. Learning to book with partners can be a great way to up your award travel booking skills too!

The best part of using partner airlines to book Delta flights? It is often much cheaper than booking Delta with their own Skymiles currency. Just another reason why you should skip Delta personal cards for a while.

Using American Express Membership Rewards

Delta is an American Express transfer partner. This means that you can transfer Membership Rewards (MR) to Delta. Amex charges a small excise fee of $0.0006 per point when transferring to a US airline, but it caps at $99 for a single transfer. So If you really need to transfer points to Delta, opening business cards that earn Membership Rewards is an even better option. That is true because Amex business cards do not count towards 5/24.

If you have the American Express Business Platinum then you have another option to consider as well. One that is actually likely more valuable than transferring Membership Rewards to Delta Skymiles and booking that way. With an Amex Business Platinum you can earn a 35% rebate on your pay with points purchases, earning you just over 1.5 cents in value per point. This is valid on your selected airline of choice for the year, or any other airline on which you book first or business class. While this starts to get into portal talk (more on that later), Amex Travel can have a use and is much better than other banks' portals.

Finally, it's also worth mentioning that many of these Amex cards come with airline incidental credits, which can offset baggage fees or get you ecredits.

Get Business Cards

Delta offers three business cards. These business cards also do not have family rules like the personal cards. Mark recently compared the Delta cards when they had elevated offers that you can check out. It is best to wait for these offers to come around before grabbing one. They often come around two to three times a year, so there is no rush there.

Yes, Cash Is OK

Yes, I said it. Even though miles and points people make it seem like it is sacrilege, it is ok to use cash. Because of that people tend to get into this mindset that everything must be covered on points and miles early on in their journey. It is okay to take the slow approach and know there are other ways to pay cash and save. Do you have those Amex business cards I mentioned above? Often times, they have offers to save on Delta flights or gift cards. This could save 20% in some cases. There are also lots of sites that offer discounts on gift cards or stores that sell them where you can maximize some spend on a sign up bonus card or elevated earning category. You could even line up some bank account bonuses to cover your cash outlay.

Travel Portal & Travel Credits

We do not recommend the portal for several reasons, but I have to mention that it is there and sometimes a necessity. The Capital One Venture X business has a travel credit that needs to be used via the portal. This could be a way to book your Delta flights if you don't have the right points to make it happen.

There are other cards that offer straight travel credits, like the Chase Sapphire Reserve and the Ritz Carlton. Both of these have very easy to use credits and a cash Delta flight would be the perfect use. Just another reason why you should skip Delta personal cards.

Do You Understand the SkyMiles Program?

If you don't understand the SkyMiles program, you may be in for a surprise when it comes to redeeming miles. SkyMiles have earned the nickname “sky pesos” because a lot of folks don’t think the miles are worth much. This reputation is mostly due to the fact that Delta no longer has an award chart, and their award flights have some pretty eye-popping award prices. I still find good uses for them, but redemptions and sweet spots can be extremely limited. In the end, they have diluted the program so much that it takes hundreds of thousands in credit card spend to earn status if you don't fly a lot. You should take the time to learn the program before diving in. And it is far from the ToP of the list of programs you want to learn about early on.

Why to Skip Delta Personal Cards: ToP Thoughts

This topic can be a hot debate at times, especially when it comes to Delta loyalists. They are American Express' most popular credit cards for a reason. Saying that a Delta personal credit card is not the best option for many does not mean it won’t be eventually. We have also shown that there are other ways to do it. It's easy to get drawn in by a high sign-up bonus for an airline card.

Do you carry any Delta credit cards? Come join the discussion in our Facebook group and let us know your thoughts.