The thing that I love about many airline mileage programs is that it is sometimes possible to get far outsized value for your points. For example, you may be able to book a $3,000 flight for around 50,000 airline miles. That’s a value of 6 cents per point. But over the years Delta has been stomping out those kinds of great values. Today you can expect that $3,000 flight to cost around 300,000 Delta miles. Delta has been systematically pushing the value of their miles down towards a penny each. Sometimes you may still find outsized value with Delta miles, but not often. My advice: if you’ve been putting spend on your Delta card, it’s time to stop. There are many much better options.
Keep your card, spend elsewhere
If you’re a frequent Delta flier, Delta Gold, Platinum, and Reserve cards are good cards to have for their perks. But you don’t need to put your daily spend on these cards to benefit:
- Delta Gold: For $150 per year, you get a free checked bag for everyone on the same itinerary, priority boarding; 15% off award bookings; and up to $100 back on hotels booked through Delta Stays (up to $150 back with the Delta Gold Business card).
- Delta Platinum: For $350 per year, you get all of the Gold card perks; an annual companion ticket upon renewal; a number of elite status perks; a bigger rebate for Delta Stays; and rebates for Resy restaurants and select rideshares.
- Delta Reserve: For $650 per year, you get all of the Delta Platinum perks; a better companion ticket; SkyClub access (starting 2/1/25, limited to 15 visit-days per year) plus 4 guest passes; Centurion Lounge access when flying Delta; bigger rebates for hotels and Resy restaurants; and more.
In each case above, the card’s perks can easily make the card worth keeping long term. But that doesn’t mean you need to put spend on the card except when trying to earn annual rebates. For all other spend, you’d be better off with any number of other cards. For example, a simple 2% cash back card would be way more rewarding. I’ll take 2 cents back per dollar any day compared to 1 Delta SkyMile per dollar. If you prefer points that can transfer to airline and hotel programs, consider one of these:
- Capital One Venture Rewards or Venture X or Venture X Business: Earn 2 everywhere. Use points to offset travel purchases or transfer to airline or hotel programs.
- Amex Blue Business Plus: Earn 2x everywhere on up to $50,000 spend each calendar year, then 1x thereafter.
- Citi Double Cash: Earn 2x everywhere. Pair with the Citi Strata Premier card to make points transferable.
- Chase Freedom Unlimited: Earn 3x for dining & drugstores, 1.5x everywhere else. Pair with the Sapphire Preferred, Ink Business Preferred, or Sapphire Reserve to make points transferable to airline and hotel partners.
For many more options, see:
What about paying for Delta flights?
Nope, I don’t recommend using your Delta card even for Delta flights. Delta cards offer 2x or 3x SkyMiles per dollar when using the card to pay for Delta flights. But many cards offer 3x or more transferable points for any airline spend. And even if your card only earns 2x transferable points (such as with the Sapphire Preferred card), I’d argue that there’s more potential upside to 2x transferable points vs 3x Delta miles.
What about checked-bags?
You don’t need to pay with your Delta card in order to get travel perks like free checked bags. Those perks are tied to your Delta SkyMiles account and how you pay is irrelevant.
What about companion tickets?
You don’t even need to pay with a Delta card for companion ticket flights. You do need to pay with an Amex card, but it doesn’t have to be a Delta card. Those with an Amex Platinum card would do well to use that since it earns 5x Membership Rewards points (which are transferable to Delta and many other airline programs) for flights.
The Exception
If you highly value Delta elite status, it can make sense to put big spend on a Delta Reserve card in order to earn one MQD per $10. Since the Delta Platinum card only earns half as many MQDs, I don’t recommend putting spend there.
Conclusion
Most Delta flyers would do well to keep their Delta card for its perks, but put their spend elsewhere. The one exception I can think of is that it can make sense to spend heavily on the Delta Reserve card if you highly value elite status. For everyone else, it’s time to find a better card for your spend.
The post Stop putting spend on your Delta card appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.