MilesQuest points to a Delta offer for 100% bonus on purchased miles when you use a Delta Skymiles American Express card to make the purchase by June 30.
One Mile at a Time says that the 1.4 cent per point purchase price under the promo is worthwhile if you’re topping off for a Singapore Airlines award before the May 15 deadline.
But otherwise it’s hard to endorse such a purchase.
And in related news, half a dozen people have emailed me about the ‘news’ that Delta American Express cardholders would receive a first bag fee waiver beginning June 1.
This is hardly a big deal, it’s becoming a common co-branded credit card benefit, something that Continental already offers for its Mastercard holders for instance. The card isn’t free, if you spend money on it you’re earning Skymiles which already strikes me as suboptimal. So I wouldn’t run out and get this card and fly Delta so that your bags can fly fee-free. There are of course other options. And for elite frequent flyers this is of course no new benefit.
Update: As Gary Steiger so correctly points out in the comments — and why I shouldn’t post so early in the morning — is that American Express does offer Delta co-branded cards fee-free the first year. And Gary has links to such offers at his freefrequentflyermiles.com website.
I suppose I’m naive or just confused, but how is this deal worth buying:
http://viewfromthewing.com/2010/04/28/purchase-starwood-starpoints-for-1-45-cents-apiece-on-may-3/
while the 100% bonus skymiles isn’t?
Uhh… 1.4 cents per point for DL Skymiles vs 1.45 cents per point for Starwood points? Relative value of the points, do a bit of reading here and elsewhere 🙂
Since I don’t do this much and never travel for work I’m out of the loop on which programs are better than others. Most of my question is why people post on FlyerTalk about mileage runs and why wouldn’t they just do this rather than wasting the time sitting on a plane.
As for the free bag it’s a pretty big deal to finally get a concession from Delta about it. I’m tied to a Delta hub and had traveled a lot in the past (10 years ago) so I got the Skymiles AMEX card. It’s nice to see a benefit when so many others have declined yet the annual fee hasn’t.
One thing, would the AMEX card still accrue double miles for the purchase? So if 2000 miles are purchased at $56 would you add 2000 bonus miles plus 112 more for using the card?
“The card isn’t free…”
For as long as I have been tracking miles, the Delta American Express credit card has been offered with bonus miles and annual fee waived the first year, though rarely has this offer been on Delta’s website. You can see the offers on mine. I don’t dare put the URL for it or for the offers here, as your system seems to block posts with URLs in them. But Gary, you might want to post them.