Every once in a while, a terrific offer pops up on CreditCards.com — such as the amazing one-day offer earlier this year for 100K Amex Membership Reward Points. I did not get in on that offer, because, frankly, a $450 annual fee is way out of my league.
Now there is a new, special offer available from CreditCards.com for the Gold Delta SkyMiles Amex credit card with a 45,000 mile signup bonus. This is a better offer than the publicly available offers on the American Express or the Delta websites. Hat tip to View from the Wing.
The offer is available exclusively via CreditCards.com’s “Offers Matched for You” option (found at the top of the left sidebar on their website.) To access the offer, you need to enter your name and address in the form on the CardMatch page. The form asks for a social security number, but you can leave that field blank. This offer is likely targeted at people with excellent credit. Filling out the inquiry form constitutes a soft pull which is not recorded on your credit report.
The Upside
The offer is for 25,000 Delta Skymiles after the first purchase, and an additional 20,000 miles after spending $5,000 within six months. So you get 25,000 points right off the bat. Six months is a generous time period in which to meet the spending requirement.
The annual fee of $95 is waived the first year.
Upon meeting the minimum spend requirement, you would have a total of 50,000 Delta Skymiles, enough for a domestic award ticket.
Airfares are crazy these days and a free round-trip ticket can save you a lot of money! A free ticket for domestic travel in coach? I’ll take it!
Delta Skymiles can also be used to purchase tickets outright, or to partially pay for a ticket, with each mile worth one cent. See When a Delta Skymile is Worth Exactly One Point. So this offer is worth a minimum of $200 to $450 toward air travel on Delta.
Holders of this credit card are also eligible for a free checked bag for themselves and their traveling companions. At $25 per bag each way, if you and a partner fly once a year, you can recoup the annual fee.
The Downside
$5000 is a big initial spending requirement to get the second increment of 20,000 miles, and $95 is a hefty annual fee.
While a “low” domestic roundtrip award ticket on Delta costs 25,000 miles, these low awards are scarce as hens teeth. More commonly, a roundtrip award fare in the continental U.S. or Canada requires 40,000 to 60,000 miles, for travel in coach. Skymiles award travel is only offered for round trips.
Also, there is a more lucrative targeted offer for this card. American Express sometimes sends out mailers with better offers than the publicly advertised ones. A year ago, for example, I was approved for a personal Delta gold credit card with a targeted offer of 50,000 Skymiles after $1000 spend. That targeted offer is still in circulation.
In addition, there is currently an offer from Amex for a Delta Business Skymiles card with a 55K sign-up bonus after spending $5000. This offer was sent to members of Delta’s SkyBonus program for business owners. This card for small businesses carries a $150 annual fee (not waived). The offer is not available to anyone who has had a Delta SkyMiles Business credit card within the last 12 months. The deadline for applications is July 7, 2013. This business card also provides credits for Medallion Qualifying Miles (MQMs) — toward Delta’s elite status program.
Here are the specifics of the 45K offer:
I got an offer for the Delta AmEx with 35,000 miles. I had a hell of a time getting anyone at Delta to tell me how miles translate to free tickets…matter of fact, i still don’t know. You say that a mile is worth 1 cent. Is that always the case on Delta?
One cent is the minimum value of the miles. If you are trying to book an expensive trip, and can find award seat availability, you can do substantially better. In fact, I just booked a $1300 ticket for 37,500 miles — that was on United, though.