Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card review

How do I apply for the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card?

Applying for the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card is straightforward:

1. Click Apply now.
2. Complete the application with personal and financial details.
3. Review the application and submit it.

What credit score do I need?

To qualify for the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card, you’ll need a good to an excellent credit score of 670 or higher.

What are my preapproval odds?

You can check whether you’re preapproved for the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card by doing the following:

1. Go to the American Express pre-qualification page at: https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/check-for-offers/
2. Fill out your information. This includes your name, address, last four digits of your social security number and annual income.
3. Click on View my card offers.

You can’t specifically choose to check your preapproval odds for the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card. Instead, Amex will check your information against the whole suite of available cards. Afterward, you’ll be sent to a new webpage with your eligible preapproval cards.

Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card benefits

• Earn Delta SkyMiles. Despite being one of Delta’s entry-level credit cards, the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card is no slouch when it comes to earning SkyMiles. It earns 2x miles on Delta purchases, restaurants and US supermarkets. That’s only 1x mile per dollar less than the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card, Delta’s luxury offer. Since SkyMiles members already earn 5x miles per dollar spent on flights, this card effectively earns you 7x miles on Delta purchases. You can redeem your Delta SkyMiles on flights, upgrades, and more.
• Welcome offer. The Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card’s welcome offer is fairly valuable in spite of the cards modest annual fee. If you manage to earn the miles, you’ll enjoy up to $560 dollars in value depending on how you redeem them based on Finder’s current valuations. New to the card is up to $50 in statement credits on eligible US restaurant purchases made within the first 3 months of membership.
• Travel perks. The Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card also brings a solid selection of travel perks for cardholders. You get many of the standard travel perks you’d expect on a travel card, including priority boarding, fees waived on your first checked bag and car rental insurance. You’ll also get a Delta flight statement credit of $100 each calendar year after you spend $10,000 in purchases that year. You usually see these sort of statement credits on luxury cards, rather than casual entries.
• Pay with miles. The wording of this benefit is admittedly a little confusing: The whole point of earning miles is to pay for flights, after all. What this benefit actually allows is partial payment of flights using your accrued miles. You can take chunks out of your flight cost in $50 increments. This can prove useful if you have a tight month and need to pinch a few pennies. Using your points this way doesn’t affect their redemption value thankfully.
• Add authorized users. Authorized users are welcome on the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card. All additional users are lumped in under the main account. That means purchases made on extra cards earn rewards toward the main user account. They may also benefit from the card’s travel perks.

Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card drawbacks

• Annual fee. For the first year, the card has a $0 annual fee. But starting the second, expect to pay $99 annually.
• Steep pay requirements for flight credit. This card requires you spend $10,000 in a calendar year to obtain the $100 Delta flight credit which you can access after enrolling in your Amex account. This is a surprisingly steep requirement for an entry-level card and given the card’s modest earning rates, a $100 credit isn’t a huge incentive to use this card over another rewards card in your wallet for a large amount of spending.

Compare Delta Gold to similar credit cards

Here’s a look at the Delta Gold vs. two similar cards to help visualize the major differences between these mid-tier travel cards.

Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card

★★★★★

Finder Rating: 4 / 5

Terms apply, see rates & fees

Go to site
Minimum credit score 670
Annual fee $0 intro annual fee for the first year ($99 thereafter)
Purchase APR 15.74% to 24.74% variable
Balance transfer APR N/A
Rewards 2x miles on Delta purchases, restaurants and at US supermarkets and 1x miles on all other eligible purchases
Welcome offer Earn 40,000 bonus miles after spending $1,000 in the first 3 months. Also, earn up to $50 back in statement credits for purchases at US restaurants within the first 3 months of membership

United℠ Explorer Card

★★★★★

Finder Rating: 4.4 / 5

Terms apply, see rates & fees

Go to site
Minimum credit score 670
Annual fee $0 intro annual fee for the first year ($95 thereafter)
Purchase APR 16.49% to 23.49% variable
Balance transfer APR 16.49% to 23.49% variable
Rewards 2x miles at restaurants, hotels and United and 1.5x miles on all other purchases
Welcome offer 60,000 bonus miles after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months, plus 10,000 miles after spending $6,000 in the first 6 months

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

★★★★★

Finder Rating: 4.3 / 5

Find out more
Minimum credit score 670
Annual fee $95
Purchase APR 15.99% to 22.99% variable
Balance transfer APR 15.99% to 22.99% variable
Rewards 5x points on Lyft, 2x points on travel and dining and 1x points on all other purchases
Welcome offer 100,000 points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months. That's $1,250 when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®

Compare even more credit cards

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Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card reviews and complaints

Users on social media, such as Reddit, generally enjoy this card thanks to the number of travel perks offered for the price. A recurring theme among customers is how easy it is to make up for the card’s annual fee. Flying only twice a year with a companion is enough to wipe out the fee, so long as the both of you check a single bag each flight.The biggest complaints with this card came down to the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card’s overall superiority. For only $150 more per year, you get better rewards and a companion ticket each calendar year. We agree with this assessment.

American Express has been accredited with the Better Business Bureau since 1948 and earns an A+ rating as of April 2021. It’s average customer review on the site is 1.18 out of 5, with customers citing account and product issues for several of these filed complaints.

The provider earns just a 2.0 out of 5 on Trustpilot as of April 2021. Poor customer service is a common complaint among the logged customer comments. Adrian Tomkins, Senior Product Manager at Finder, echoes these sentiments after a poor experience while using his Delta Gold card: “Last year, I was traveling quite a lot both domestically and internationally and thanks to the card, I almost made status with Delta. Unfortunately, due to personal reasons, I had to cancel a flight in December. Not only did Delta not refund me any of the money for the flight, but they refused to grant me the miles just because I didn’t physically get on the plane — even though I still paid the full fare.”

How has this card changed over time?

Bottom line

The Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card is a perfectly solid card that offers travel perks you’d expect for the price. With that said, it’s handily outclassed by the mid-tier Delta SkyMiles Platinum card, which will largely prove the more valuable pick for most Delta travelers.

If neither of these cards suits your needs however, there are plenty of airline card options out there in the same range.