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Offers mentioned below may no longer be available
Delta and Amex have “4” co-branded cards
Gold, Platinum, Reserve, and the newly released Blue are offering some intriguing bonuses. It’s very important to sign up for these cards when they are offering all-time or near all-time high bonuses because of their sign up limitations. Remember, American Express limits sign up bonuses to once per lifetime so if you’ve had any of these cards before, you’ll be excluded from earning a repeat bonus. ( Some people have had success is more than 7 years have lapsed, but YMMV). Personally, I’ve carried personal and business gold versions ( at 50k offers, so this is better) so I’m ineligible. However, the Platinum 70k offer is quite enticing.
The Personal Versions
The bonus/min spend requirements
- Gold: 50k/$2k + 10k after another $1k in 6 months +$50 statement credit on Delta purchase
- Platinum: 70k/$3k + 10kMQM + $100 Statement credit after Delta purchase
- Reserve: 40k/$3k + 10kMQM
- Blue: 10k/$500
And the Business Versions:
Bonus and Min Spend
- Gold: 50k/$2k + 10k after $1k in 6 months + $50 statement credit after Delta purchase
- Platinum: 70k/$4k +10k MQM + $100 statement credit after Delta purchase
- Reserve: 40k/$3k + 10k MQM
A couple of thoughts on why I may go after the Platinum business version
Delta doesn’t publish an award chart. This allows Delta to confuse people on pricing and also devalue without notice, which they do. It’s happened a few times now, and it will most certainly happen again. Cardmembers get a wavier on meeting the spend requirement for status. Yesterday they announced that the MQM waiver for Diamond status was upped to $250k from $25k spend. For other tiers it was kept the same. Unreal. This waiver doesn’t apply to me as I haven’t and probably won’t vie for Delta status, but it continues to forecast the direction the program is headed.
70k Delta points is, I believe, the highest the Platinum version has ever offered. So it’s a good time to strike, and the business versions of the card don’t hurt your 5/24 status. Who knows what those 70k miles will be worth next year, so I’m thinking I might as well snatch up the offer before further devaluations occur and burn them on a lie-flat flight somewhere cool.
70k would fly me on Delta metal to Europe and 85k would put me on Virgin Upper. Crazy…2 years ago it was just 62.5 to fly Upper using Delta miles.
*Delta is a transfer partner of Amex so you can always shore up your account if need be…
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
$300 Chase Travel℠ Credit + Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- $300 Chase Travel℠ Credit + Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
- That’s worth $750 when redeemed through Chase Travel℠. Plus, get up to $300 in statement credits on Chase Travel℠ purchases within your first year
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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