Delta SkyMiles Gold American Express card review – Forbes Advisor
Earn rewards
This card currently offers a welcome bonus of 70,000 bonus miles after spending $ 2,000 on purchases on the card within the first 3 months of opening the account. This offer expires on 11/10/2021.
Spending earns at the following rates: 2 miles per dollar on Delta purchases, at restaurants around the world, including take out and delivery, and at US supermarkets. Earn 1 mile per dollar on other qualifying purchases.
There is no limit to the number of miles you can earn, but unless you use the $ 100 airline ticket credit after spending $ 10,000 on your card in a year, you have better alternatives for a day-to-day reference card. expenses of the day.
Redeeming rewards
You can redeem SkyMiles by going to Delta.com and logging into your account. Delta’s Regional Loyalty Program has removed the rewards tables from its website and switched to dynamic pricing, making it harder to use them and the certainty that you are getting value for your money.
This means that Delta’s exchange rates are not fixed and fluctuate based on demand, spot price and season. More seats are available for booking with miles but at exorbitant prices.
A good way to redeem SkyMiles is to participate in one of the SkyMiles Deals promotions that Delta runs from time to time. It is possible to redeem fewer miles than usual for award flights to Hawaii, Central America, Japan and even Australia.
Delta is a SkyTeam alliance partner and its miles can be used to reserve seats available on flights operated by other SkyTeam carriers including Aeroflot, Aerolíneas Argentinas, Aeroméxico, Air Europa, Air France, Alitalia, China Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Czech Airlines, Garuda Indonesia, Kenya Airways, KLM, Korean Air, Middle East Airlines, TAROM, Vietnam Airlines and XiamenAir.
Other redemption ideas include Pay with Miles and the Delta Sky Club membership fee, but these two options only earn 1 cent per mile in value and are not recommended.
Reward potential
To determine the rewards potential of the Delta Gold card, we need to look at the bonus categories and calculate what an example American household might spend in those areas. Forbes Advisor uses data from various government agencies to determine both basic income and average spending in various categories. The 70th percentile of salaried households earns $ 100,172 per year and we base our spending on that number.
Delta SkyMiles Gold card wins 2 miles per dollar on Delta purchases, at restaurants around the world, including takeout and delivery, and at US supermarkets. Earn 1 mile per dollar on other qualifying purchases.
The $ 1,755 our sample family spent on plane tickets would bring in 3,510 SkyMiles, and the $ 10,903 spent on food and drink would bring in an additional 21,806 SkyMiles. The remaining $ 13,752 that could reasonably be charged on a credit card earns 13,752 SkyMiles for a total annual income of 39,068 SkyMiles on top of the first year welcome bonus.