[Expired] Delta SkyMiles Card from American Express Sign-Up Bonus Now 50,000 Miles
Note: The offer mentioned in this post has now expired.
For just a few weeks, American Express has just raised the sign-up bonuses on its Delta SkyMiles credit cards to 50,000 miles after spending $1000 within the first 3 months. It also comes with a $50 statement credit after your first Delta purchase made within 3 months. The $95 annual fee is waived the first year. This offer is going to last until September 8, 2014 and after that I expect it will drop back to 30,000-35,000 miles where it usually is.
Redeeming Delta SkyMiles
50,000 miles plus a $50 statement credit for just $1000 minimum spending is a decent deal for those who can use the miles. And offering free checked bags and Priority boarding brings in some added benefits for Delta flyers.
Unlike other airlines, Delta does not charge a close-in or last minute award booking fee (usually $75 for many other airlines for booking awards within 21 days of departure dates). So if you happen to find some awards that open up close to departure with Delta SkyMiles, then Delta can be very good miles to use.
Delta SkyMiles can be redeemed on SkyTeam partners for international travel as well as domestic partner Alaska Airlines. All awards are priced as round-trip. That is, you can book a one-way award, but you will be charged the round-trip price. They will begin allowing booking of one-way awards in January.
Travelers on the West Coast actually have a distinct advantage using Delta miles as they can combine Alaska Airlines award seats with award seats on other partners. As an example, my friend Tatyana flew to Cancun for 35,000 Delta miles round-trip by finding award space on Alaska Airlines to Mexico City and then connecting to Cancun via Aeromexico. Given Aeromexico frequently has excellent award space, this can be a viable option for flying to lots of destinations within South America.
You can find a full set of Delta SkyMiles award travel charts here.
Offer Details
Full offer details:
- Limited Time Offer: Earn 50,000 bonus miles after you use your new Card to make $1,000 in purchases within your first 3 months.
- Earn a $50 statement credit after you make a Delta purchase with your new Card within your first 3 months.
- Earn As You Spend: Get 2X miles on Delta purchases and 1X miles for all other eligible dollars spent.
- Check your first bag free on every Delta flight – that’s a savings of up to $200 per round trip for a family of four.
- Settle in sooner with Priority Boarding.
- $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $95.
- Terms and Restrictions Apply.
Another thing is that Delta miles never expire. So if a seat should happen to open up sometime in your lifetime, the miles will still be there to use.
That’s a very good way to put it :)
Even if you cancel the card?
Btw, I had this card once a few years ago but eventually cancelled it. If I sign up for it again, will I still get the bonus points?
Can someone have 2 of this card at the same time?
If you get different products of this card, then you can have two. For example, this offer is now available on the Gold, Platinum and Business credit cards.
Do they have a list of blackout dates?
do you think AE will match the offer? I just received this card with the 30K miles offer about a month ago.
It’s definitely worth asking :)
DL actually has pretty good south america availability I guess LAN and AA have saturated the market, so very few DL FQTV flyers fighting to get those free DL seats. Other than that, I consider my DL miles only useful if I need to make an emergency last-minute domestic flight… or rarely, an expensive domestic flight, such as Bozeman Montnta to go to Yellowstone.