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Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card review
Earn 2x miles on Delta purchases or even more with elite status for a low annual fee.
finder.com’s rating: 4.0 / 5.0
★★★★★
- Get this card if you fly Delta at least three times each year.
- Pick the higher-tier Delta cards if you make at least four Delta round trips per year.
- Apply with a good to an excellent credit score of 670 or higher.
Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.
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40,000
Miles as welcome offer
Up to 2x
Miles
$0
Annual fee
intro for the first year ($99 thereafter)
19.99% to 28.99%
Purchase APR (variable)
Details
| Annual fee | $0 intro annual fee for the first year ($99 thereafter) |
|---|---|
| Welcome offer | 40,000 bonus miles after you spend $2,000 in your first 6 months |
| Rewards | 2x miles on Delta purchases at U.S. supermarkets and at restaurants worldwide, including takeout and delivery in the U.S., 1x miles on all other eligible purchases |
| Purchase APR | 19.99% to 28.99% variable |
| Balance transfer APR | N/A |
| Minimum credit score | 670 |
| Issuer | American Express |
cta text | Learn more |
Review by
Steven Dashiell
steven.dashiell@finder.comSteven Dashiell is a senior personal finance writer at Finder, specializing in all things banking and credit cards. With more than 300 articles under his belt, he aims to help readers embrace credit cards and maximize their banking rewards. Steve is studying to become a Certified Educator in Personal Finance, and is a frequent face on Finder’s YouTube channel, offering the latest in credit card hacks and advice. His expertise has been featured in U.S. News & World Report, Time, CBS, Fox Business, Lifehacker, Martha Stewart Living, among other top publications.
Expert review
The Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card is a mid-tier Delta card with a $0 intro annual fee, reverting to $99 the following year. It offers 2x miles on Delta purchases, purchases made at restaurants and U.S. supermarkets, and 1x miles on everything else. The card also comes with a strong welcome offer of 40,000 bonus miles after you spend $2,000 on purchases in your first 6 months. Depending on what you redeem your miles for, this can be worth $560 on average based on Finder’s current valuations.
The Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card sits in an awkward position among the Delta cards: For the price of the card, it’s remarkably similar to the “entry” Delta card, the Delta SkyMiles® Blue American Express Card, which also offers 2x miles on eligible purchases and requires no annual fee (see Terms apply, see rates & fees). On the other end of the spectrum, the card is rendered nearly irrelevant by Delta’s mid-level card, the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card. The Delta Platinum card costs $250 annually (see Terms apply, see rates & fees), but more than pays for itself so long as you use a few of its features — the annual companion pass you get from the Delta Platinum Card is by itself worth far more than $250.
It’s best to think of the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card as the actual entry-level Delta card and disregard the Delta SkyMiles Blue card entirely. While the Delta Gold card carries an annual fee of $99 after the first year intro, it also comes with a few travel perks absent on the Delta SkyMiles Blue card. Notably, your first checked bag fee is waived on each flight. As of April 2021, your first checked bag on a Delta flight costs $30. So if you use this perk four times in a year, you’ll save enough to cover the cost of the card’s annual fee.
At the end of the day, the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card is a perfectly solid entry-point for earning and redeeming Delta SkyMiles. But if you fly enough to make up for the cost of the Delta Gold, you may as well spring for the Delta Platinum. It offers better rewards, more perks and it’s easy to make up for the cost of the card despite the larger annual fee.
How do I apply for the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card?
Applying for the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card is straightforward:
- Select Go to site.
- Complete the application with personal and financial details.
- 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:
- Go to the American Express pre-qualification page at: https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/check-for-offers/
- Fill out your information. This includes your name, address, last four digits of your social security number and annual income.
- 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 U.S. 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 roughly $560 dollars in value depending on how you redeem them based on Finder’s current valuations.
- 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 Main Cabin 1 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 intro 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 |
United℠ Explorer Card |
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card |
 |
 |
 |
|
★★★★★ |
★★★★★ |
★★★★★ |
|
|
|
|
|
Minimum credit score 670 |
Minimum credit score 670 |
Minimum credit score 670 |
|
Annual fee $99 after the first year intro |
Annual fee $95 after the first year intro |
Annual fee $95 |
|
Purchase APR Up to 28.99% variable |
Purchase APR Up to 27.74% variable |
Purchase APR Up to 27.24% variable |
|
Balance transfer APR N/A |
Balance transfer APR 20.74% to 27.74% variable |
Balance transfer APR 20.24% to 27.24% variable |
|
Rewards Up to 2x miles |
Rewards Up to 2x miles |
Rewards Up to 5x points |
|
Welcome offer 40,000 bonus miles after you spend $2,000 in your first 6 months |
Welcome offer 50,000 miles after you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months |
Welcome offer 60,000 points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months |
Compare even more credit cards
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 August 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 1.9 out of 5 on Trustpilot as of August 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.”
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.
Editorial note: Any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer.
Insurance benefit note: Eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by Amex Assurance Company.
Insurance benefit note: Eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by Amex Assurance Company.
Compare Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card with other cards
How we determined the value of Delta Skymiles
To determine the average value of a Delta Skymile, we looked at the equivalent dollar value a redemption option would cost in the Delta Skymiles program. We calculated this average across all redemption options available through Delta to reach the approximate value you can expect when redeeming these points on average. In this case, the average value of a single Skymile came out to 1.4 cents per point.
Remember that your points could be worth more or less depending on what you redeem them on, so this figure should be used as a general guide.
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