From now until January 31, 2018, you can earn 70k bonus SkyMiles, including 10,000 Medallion® Qualification Miles (MQMs), with the Platinum Delta Skymiles Credit Card from American Express.
Every now and then, this card offers increased signup bonuses, (the normal being 30,000 miles), but 70k SkyMiles is the highest I’ve seen so far. After getting the card, you’ll need to spend $3,000 in the first 3-months to earn those bonus miles, but you should be able to hit that benchmark with normal expenses and spending.
“Okay, 70,000 miles sounds like a lot, but what does that actually translate too flight-wise?”
I just did a quick search, and you could go roundtrip, from Boston to Florence, Italy, for 60,000 SkyMiles (+ taxes), and still have 10,000 left over to put towards your next trip!
In dollars, 70k SkyMiles is about $840, which makes sense that you can get a round-trip economy fare to Europe and still have some miles left. And that’s a crazy good bonus if you’re in the market for a new card!
For continued earning, you will get 1 mile per dollar spent on your card for normal purchases, and 2 miles per dollar spent with Delta. You can also hook up your SkyMiles account to your Lyft account and start earning SkyMiles for every ride you take!
I’ve had the Platinum Delta AMEX for 2 years now, and I love it. Beyond just the SkyMiles you get from the signup bonus, (which I used to go to Thailand), here’s why I continue to love the card, why because of this card Delta became my go-to airline for international travel, and why I made my wife sign up for her own card with this new offer!
Free Seat Upgrades (when available)
On many flights, those Delta Comfort+ and First Class seats go unfulfilled. If you have the Delta SkyMiles co-branded credit card, you become an eligible butt to fill those seats.
I would say on more than half of the the Delta flights I fly, I am bumped up to Comfort+ for free. And last year, while flying to and from Haiti, I was upgraded for free to First Class. It was like US Embassy and Military officials, and me, in this boarding zone…
This brought up a whole slew of conflicted emotions on the way back home. Having just spent my time in the small mountain village of Desab, experiencing a poverty within this country like nowhere else I’ve seen, and here I am being served champagne, chocolate chip cookies, and a gourmet salad. The contrast was stark and somewhat sad, but the perks were certainly welcomed!
Priority Boarding
My wife and I, bags in tow, are sprinting through JFK to catch a flight to Seoul, South Korea. Sweaty and exhausted after nearly not even getting out of Boston and thinking we might be missing this flight, we made it to the gate. Luckily, they had just begun the boarding process. Unluckily, the boarding line was a plane’s length of people long.
We settled in at the end, accepting our fate, until I heard the familiar call welcoming the Delta Sky Priority members to please board. I remembered, that’s us! Alexandria and I strolled on up, past the ENTIRE line, and walked right onto our plane to settle in for the ride.
Free Checked Bag
I try not to check bags often, but sometimes, it’s necessary. As a Platinum SkyMiles card member, your first checked bag on every Delta flight is free. And depending on what kind of mood your gate agent is in, or how nice you are to them, your second checked bag might be free too!
Annual Companion Certificate
Every year on your card anniversary, you get a companion certificate good for a roundtrip domestic main-cabin ticket for your spouse, friend, mom, or whoever you want to add onto one of your upcoming itineraries.
That’s not as awesome of a deal as Southwest’s Companion Pass, but you need to work hard to earn 110k Rapid Reward Points to get that Companion Pass, while here, you just need to have the credit card and someone you love flies free with you one-time over the year.
This offer is for you if:
- You can comfortably spend (and pay off) $3,000 in 3 months
- Frequent travel is a priority for you
- You’ve considered this card but missed out on the last big signup bonus
- There’s that big trip on the horizon and you could use these miles to get that ticket!
Will you be applying for either of these cards?
Just be sure to apply before January 31, 2018 if you’re interested. As I mentioned, I (and my wife) already did!