American Express Delta Platinum Cards

Having now talked about the Delta Reserve cards, I decided to be a bit more methodical about my airline co-branded card discussions and cover the Delta Platinum cards. Like with the Reserve, Amex offers both a personal and a business version of this card, and like before, I’m going to cover both flavors of the card here.

These cards lie in the mid-tier annual fee cards, with annual fees of $350 (which was just raised from $250 a few months ago).

With Delta’s change to only using Medallion Qualifying Dollars (MQD) as its status metric, Delta has been trying to incentivize spending on their cards, like American has (and United to a lesser extent).

I provide the information here just to give readers a vague idea if the rewards offered by the card might make sense for them to consider the card.  The information on this page has been collected independently, and all information should be confirmed with the card company before applying.

Welcome Offer

At the time of posting, the Delta Platinum personal card has a 85 000 bonus mile offer after spending $4 000 in 6 months. The business version of the card has a 95 000 bonus mile offer after spending $8 000 in 6 months. In general, Delta has been trying to normalize the value of their miles and minimize any outsized redemptions, so I value Delta miles at 1.1 ¢/pt.  The current welcome offers are worth at least $935 and $1 045, respectively. These offers are decent in the context of a $350 annual fee card. One could say these bonuses cover the cost of the card for two or three years.

Earnings

The personal version of the Delta Platinum card has a decent earning structure: it earns 3x miles/$ on Delta purchases and at hotels, 2x miles/$ on dining and groceries at US supermarkets, and 1x mile/$ on everything else. Fascinatingly, the business version of the card has a very different structure similar to the Reserve Business: 3x miles/$ on Delta purchases, 1.5x miles/$ US shipping charges (but only if it’s at least $5k) and transit, as well as 1 mile/$ on everything else. The personal card’s points earnings are respectable, but the business version’s are poor.

These cards also earn 1 MQD per $20 spent on the card, which is half the rate of the Reserve cards, so if you’re trying to earn status, the Reserve is the better option.

Benefits

Given their $350 annual fee, the card offers a few credits to offset this fee. Both offer a $10/month Rideshare credit and a $10/month Resy credit. The personal version offers a $150 Delta Stays credit, and the business version offers a $200 Delta Stays credit.

Like all the Delta credit cards with an annual fee, these cards offer 15% reward flights on Delta, which is a great way to get more value out of SkyMiles. The cards offer 20% off Delta Inflight purchases and a free checked bag. Both cards offer a companion certificate upon renewal, which can be used to book two seats on a domestic (or short haul international) ticket on Delta in economy.

These cards also offer a $2 500 MQD “head start” on status qualification each year, which is great if you’re trying to maintain Delta status because it gets you halfway to Medallion Silver Status immediately.

How to use the points

The main use for Delta Airlines miles is to redeem them for Delta Airlines, SkyTeam, and other partners’ flights.  Delta Airlines has dynamic pricing for its own flights and any flight that starts/ends in the United States, but there does still exist an award chart for its partners on non-US itineraries that can provide good value. Delta Airlines is a transfer partner of American Express, but Amex will charge you a fee for points transfers at a rate of $6 per 10 000 miles.

The other type of point earned, MQD, is used for Delta status: this year, you need $5 000 for Silver, $10 000 for Gold, $15 000 for Platinum, and $28 000 for Diamond.

Examples of using the card

These examples assume you spend all your airfare budget on Delta Airlines. And I’m going to base this on the personal card, which is more relevant for my readership.

Spend per month

	Example A		Example B		Example C		Example D
Groceries (2x)	$300	600	$200	400	$600	1 200	$400	800
Gas (1x)	$0	0	$100	100	$200	200	$100	100
Airfare (3x)	$700	2 100	$200	600	$0	0	$400	1 200
Hotels (3x)	$1 000	3 000	$200	600	$0	0	$300	900
Gen Travel (1x)	$400	400	$0	0	$300	300	$100	100
Dining (2x)	$600	1 200	$300	600	$300	600	$0	0
General (1x)	$1 000	1 000	$500	500	$500	500	$400	400
Total	$4 000	8 300	$1 500	2 800	$1 700	2 800	$1 700	3 500
Average points/$		2.08		1.87		1.65		2.06

This card’s 3/2/1 earning structure means that the average points earned has a decent range of 1.65 – 2.08 points/$, which is worth 1.82 – 2.29 ¢/$. This earn rate is a bit on the low side for a card with a $350 annual fee, but is decent for an airline co-branded credit card. There is a slight advantage to earning SkyMiles through these cards because you don’t have to pay the transfer tax that Amex makes you pay.

Specific examples

Card	Delta Airlines Economy class ($750)  (% return)	Marriott Hotel night ($230/night)	Points values (Delta/Hotel)
No rewards card	3 500 AM (5.1%)	2 200 MP (7.3%)	$38.50 / $16.79
General 2% cashback card ($0)	3 500 + $15.00 (7.1%)	2 200 MP + $4.60 (9.3%)	$53.50 / $21.39
Chase Sapphire Preferred ($95)	3 500 + 1 500 UR (8.1%)	2 200 MP + 460 UR (10.3%)	$61.00 / $23.69
Amex Green Card ($150)	3 500 + 2 250 MR (9.3%)	2 200 MP + 690 MR (11.5%)	$70.00 / $27.14
Delta Platinum Card ($350)	5 750 AM (8.4%)	2 200 MP + 690 DM (10.6%)	$63.25 / $24.38

Is this the right type of credit card for you?

I think these Delta Platinum cards likely have more general appeal than the Reserve card. If you actively want to use your credit card spend to earn status, then these cards make less sense. The credits offered on this card, along with the free checked bag can make this card start to make sense for many people, but the $350 annual fee is a really hard sell for me, given that you’re really only going to be averaging about 2% back on purchases. If you can make easy use of the Rideshare (easy in a city), Resy (not too hard in major cities) and Delta Stays credits (easy if you don’t mind losing elite perks) each year, then I think this card could make sense if you want the companion certificate and to directly earn SkyMiles. The Delta Platinum Personal card has the best SkyMiles earnings of any Delta card.