Delta Amex Card Has The Highest Credit Limit In The World

by Gary Leff

Delta Air Lines has a corporate American Express card with a $1.1 billion credit line. They use it for fuel purchases – they’re one of the biggest buyers of jet fuel in the world. And they own an oil refinery.

The crazy thing is that they have to pay off this card monthly and they still max it out! JonNYC highlighted a discussion of their card on an aviation podcast, and it’s in the airline’s SEC 10-K filing since it’s part of their financing activity. Part of their American Express credit card deal is that Amex gets to earn the interchange on Delta’s fuel buys.

From the airline’s 10-K filing:

The comments on Jon’s posting are pure gold.

  • “Unfortunately gets them just short of SkyMiles Diamond now”
  • “And they still can’t get a Centurion card invite…”
  • “This explains how 1% of GDP goes on their cards” (here’s the actual explanation)
  • “They use those Skymiles to buy tickets for their execs. They can buy two RTs per month from ATL to LHR. In economy.”

I do have to wonder, though, why Delta isn’t able to qualify for no pre-set spending limit.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. I knew a guy who had a couple of successful businesses. He used an Amex Card to put a lot of his business purchases on and while he no longer has the businesses he has something like 30,000,000 Amex points. He is always bragging about them but he doesn’t seem to do anything with them except use them for Southwest flights to Florida and his retirement home.

    Amex must love customers like that who will likely let a bunch of points go unused.

  2. I remember when I got my Platinum Card back in the 80’s. There was no preset limit. At all.
    Somebody asked: What could you buy?
    I answered: Switzerland. But I would have to pay it off next month.

  3. There are clearly benefits to DL and Amex to use an Amex card for their fuel spending. Given the strong relationship the two have, it isn’t a surprise this is more of the more creative aspects of that relationship

    and, I am glad people bother to read 10Ks. There are all kinds of tidbits in them

  4. Now Gary is really trolling here.

    “why Delta isn’t able to qualify for no pre-set spending limit.”

    Gary knows exactly why.

Comments are closed.