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finder.com’s rating: 4.0 / 5.0
★★★★★
40,000
Miles as welcome offer
Up to 3x
Miles
$250
Annual fee
15.74% to 24.74%
Purchase APR (variable)
| Product Name | Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card |
|---|---|
| Card type | American Express |
| Annual fee | $250 |
| Purchase APR | 15.74% to 24.74% variable |
| Balance transfer APR | 15.74% to 24.74% variable |
| Balance transfer fee | $5 or 3% of the transaction, whichever is greater |
| Cash advance rate | 25.24% variable |
| Cash advance fee | $10 or 5% of the cash advance amount, whichever is greater |
| Penalty APR | 29.24% variable |
| Foreign transaction fee | None |
| Interest free period | Up to 25 days |
| Late payment fee | Up to $40 |
| Returned payment fee | Up to $40 |
| Additional cardholder fee | $0 |
| Rates & fees | rates & fees |
Review by
Kliment Dukovski is a credit cards writer. He's written over 600 articles to help readers find and compare the best credit cards. Kliment has also written on money transfers, home loans and more. Previously, he ghostwrote guides and articles on foreign exchange, stock market trading and cryptocurrencies.
As part of the Delta line refresh, this card has a new $250 annual fee. For the price, however, you’ll now enjoy 3x miles on eligible Delta purchases and purchases made directly with hotels, 2x miles on restaurants and US supermarkets, 1x miles on everything else and a welcome offer of 40,000 miles and 5,000 MQMs.
You’ll also get a suite of Delta perks, including an annual companion certificate, free checked baggage, priority boarding, special pricing for Delta Sky Club access and inflight savings. New to the fray is a $100 statement credit for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry
These tweaks and new additions to the earning rate have transformed the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card from a card best for regular Delta flyers into one far more beneficial for general travel spending.
Get 40,000 bonus miles and 5,000 Medallion Qualification Miles (MQMs) when you spend $2,000 on purchases in the first 3 months after your account is open. Plus, you’ll earn $100 after making a Delta purchase in the same timeframe.
Collect Medallion Qualification Miles to achieve higher Medallion Status tiers in the Delta SkyMiles® frequent flier program.
You can also achieve higher status by collecting Medallion Qualification Segments (MQSs) and Medallion Qualification Dollars (MQDs). To learn more about Medallion Status, check out the Delta website.
Earn 3 miles per dollar spent on eligible Delta purchases like flight tickets, food or beverages and movies, and on purchases made directly with hotels. You can also earn 2x miles on purchases made at restaurants and US supermarkets. Earn 1 mile per dollar spent on other eligible purchases. Redeem miles for flights on Delta and Delta’s partner airlines.
The value of SkyMiles® depends on the service or product that you wish to redeem them for. For example according to the SkyMiles® website as of June 2018, you could use your miles to:
To make the most of your Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card, you may want to redeem your miles only for flights, as they have the highest value per mile.
Earn an additional 100 bonus miles after your 3 months. This is a one-time bonus, so you might think of it as part of the card’s welcome offer.
When you spend $25,000 or more on purchases in a calendar year you’ll earn 10,000 Medallion Qualifying Miles. You can earn this bonus twice, provided you hit the $25,000 spending requirement twice in a calendar year. This will help you achieve a Silver Medallion Status, which will give you exclusive benefits.
Each year you renew your Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card, you’ll receive a domestic main cabin round-trip companion certificate. This allows you take a guest on a round-trip domestic flight for only the cost of taxes and fees.
The companion certificate can be worth hundreds of dollars, helping you cover the card’s annual fee.
The Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card isn’t the only Delta product with a companion certificate. You’ll also find the benefit with the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card.
How to earn Delta SkyMiles quickly
You can buy reduced-price entry into the Delta Sky Club® for $39 — and bring up to two guests for $39 each. Normally, a Single Visit Pass costs $59. Unfortunately, this price jumped up from $29 during the recent Delta card refresh. If you often visit Delta Sky Clubs®, consider the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card, which gives you complimentary access.
For up to nine passengers traveling on the same reservation as the cardholder, first checked bag fees are waived. Save up to $60 per round trip.
This card offers a $100 statement credit toward the application fee of TSA PreCheck or Global Entry every four years.
Settle into your seat sooner with a Main Cabin 1 priority boarding for you and up to eight passengers traveling on your reservation.
Since this is a travel card, use it freely when traveling abroad and you won’t pay any international transaction fees.
Get 20% savings as a statement credit when you make in-flight purchases of food, beverages and audio headsets.
Receive insurance on eligible car rentals, protecting you from liability for loss or damage. And eligible delays to your trip and lost, damaged or stolen baggage is covered when you purchase your transportation fare with your Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card.
When you travel more than 100 miles from home, you get 24/7 access to legal, medical, financial or any other emergency service you may require.
You bought an item and you don’t like it, but now you can get a refund even if the merchant won’t take it back within 90 days of the purchase date. Get 2-day free shipping with ShopRunner and protection against damage and theft of your phone or other eligible items.
Delta has been renovating its Sky Clubs®, and you’ll find superb lounges in its portfolio. A few of the newer lounges include those at Newark Liberty International Airport and Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport. Consider visiting the Sky Club® at the Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which comes with an open-air Sky Deck®.
A Single Visit Pass to a Delta Sky Club® costs $59. With the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card, you can buy a pass for $39.
Jon Brodsky
Finder CEO, USA
I’ve been using the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card for several years after switching away from the Amex Platinum Card. Delta is my primary airline, so I wanted a card that’d let me earn miles for the routes I travel constantly.
The thing I love most about this card is that the miles just show up in my Delta account, where I can then share them with my family so we can book reward travel. When I’ve used credit card concierge services in the past to book my travel, I always had a hard time converting points to miles and found it super frustrating.
I also love the lack of foreign transaction fees for overseas travel (difficulty in getting Amex cards accepted elsewhere notwithstanding), the free checked bag and the priority boarding even when I don’t have status. And the Pay with Miles option for flights, which lets you split the cost between miles and cash, is really convenient.
The downside of the card is that my wife, who’s on my account, doesn’t get the free bag or priority boarding that I get unless she’s traveling with me. And I’ve never used my free companion tickets. Every time I’ve considered them, the cost of buying the full-price ticket required for the free one is way more money than simply buying two tickets on Flight Finder.
The Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card comes with a $250 annual fee.
Because this is an American Express card, you may have limited opportunities to use it overseas.
Making late or returned payments could cost you a penalty APR as high as 29.24% variable. You may also incur late and returned-payment fees as high as $40.
You’ll receive an annual round-trip companion certificate for a domestic flight, but you need to pay taxes and fees up to $75 out of pocket.
All Amex Delta cards have relatively high APR ranges on purchases and balance transfers when compared to other cards. The Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card has a 15.74% to 24.74% variable APR, while the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express, for example, has a 12.99% to 23.99% variable APR (see rates & fees).
To apply for the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card, you must be:
You’ll need to provide information, including:
Apply with a good to excellent credit score of 670 or higher. You’ll have a better chance of being approved for the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card if you have a stable income in addition to a high credit score.
Customers love the companion certificate, the Status Boost and the overall travel perks that come with the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card. Inflexible company policies and poor customer support are cited in most customer complaints.
Trustpilot has given American Express a TrustScore of 3.1 out of 10, while the Better Business Bureau (BBB) has rated the credit company with an A+. Customers have given American Express a composite score of 3.78 out of 5 on the BBB website.
Back to topYou’ll likely find out whether you’ve been approved quickly thanks to American Express’s automated preapproval system. If further review is needed, it could take up to several weeks to get a decision.
Upon approval, you’ll receive the card within 7 to 10 business days.
Another Delta card — the Delta SkyMiles® Blue American Express Card — earns 2 miles per dollar spent at restaurants. This card has no annual fee (see rates & fees), and you can easily clear the welcome offer for additional miles.
If you spend less than $25,000 on purchases with your Delta card per year, the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card may be a better option. Otherwise, you’ll find that the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card is a powerful travel card with a strong welcome offer, useful perks for Delta customers that can offset the annual fee and a robust suite of travel protections.
You may want to compare other credit cards before settling to find one that best suits your needs.
Images: AmericanExpress.com
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