In an interview with Ric Elias (CEO of Red Ventures) that was posted on TPG, Delta’s President Glen Hauenstein shared that the American Express Delta cards would be refreshed:
For those of you who do have a Delta card — we’ll be relaunching [it], and not diminishing the value, but increasing the value. So, if you don’t have one… maybe you should think about it!
This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise as American Express is in the process of refreshing the whole card line up. For example it’s expected that the American Express Green card will be refreshed in June/July and we’ve already seen the Gold Card and Platinum cards get refreshed as well. Earlier in the week it was announced that American Express & Delta had renewed their co-branded partnership until 2029.
Delta wants to double the revenue they make from this partnership from $3.4 billion in 2018 to $7 billion in 2023, given that aggressive growth target I’m hoping we see real improvements in the Delta card portfolio American Express offers. That being said when loyalty programs say something definitely isn’t a devaluation and value is being increase I’m always incredibly skeptical. Last year they also sent out a survey and some of the things being considered were:
- Lyft credits, $10/month or $200/year
- Price protection on flights, if the price changes within 10 days of booking you automatically get refunded
- Extended free cancellation up to 1 week after booking
- 0% APR periods for Delta purchases
- 2x earning on gas, groceries, or restaurants
- 2-5x earning on all travel
- 3-5x earning on Delta
- Waived guest fees on SkyClub access with Reserve
- Upgrade priority with Reserve regardless of Medallion status
That’s embarrassing as I have an annual fee due in a month and I was just considering close it….
I would wait. You should be able to close within 30 days after your AF hits and receive a refund, so you potentially have two months to wait and see if the changes (if announced by then) make it worth keeping.
The problem isn’t the cards. The problem is Delta’s program, which treats customers with contempt (hiding the award chart until you go to use it, and enormous, frequent, stealth price increases). Until you fix those things, they can shower a million skypesos on you for a signup bonus and it won’t mean squat.
Wondering if this meanssigning up for some cards i have never had makes sense now. If they are refreshed, are they sometimes considered new products? I know when new products come out often times increased bonusesfollow, and want to look at max value per card.
Amex may well consider them the “same” card for purposes of one per lifetime bonus. Even if the name changes.
Not at all likely to be considered new products.
Amex didn’t consider the refreshed and renamed Hilton Surpass->Ascend card new in terms of signup bonuses, they didn’t consider the refreshed and renamed Premier Rewards Gold->Gold new, they didn’t consider the refreshed and renamed SPG->Marriott Bonvoy cards new, etc, etc. So why in the world expect them to consider this card new?
On the other hand, increased bonuses can happen with new or old products. There’s less correlation to that.
They definitely should increase the earnings on buying Delta flights. It’s currently ridiculous: People who have the Amex Gold card can earn 3x on Delta flights (MR points that transfer essentially 1:1 to Delta), but if they use their Delta card they only earn 2x? What’s the point???
DL platinum and reserve has spending bonus and also earns MQM. trasnder MR to delta cost money. I like delta platinum card. much better benefits compare to UA/AA
Here’s what it might be like to travel on a stand-up airplane seat
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/standing-up-airplane-seat-testing/index.html
Less room, more passengers crammed in…like cattle
The next frontier is dynamic mileage accrual. The number of miles you get will be up to Deltas whims on the daily basis, and true to Ammex style you will not find out what you’re doing paid for two months until the second statement after earning closes.
If you have such low opinion about them, why do you even consider them for your business? Get cards from another bank, fly with another airline.
How can they make $7 billion without shafting you in the process? They have to sell you lot of miles and make them hard to use so they expire worthless.
That’s a revenue figure, so signing up more cardholders could increase that number without shafting anybody
think this may be why UA is doing the same thing? dynamic pricing?
Delta miles never expire
That scared me. Maybe the “value increase” will be new delta expiry policy, say 12 mon!
All their cards are now inferior than Amex charge card, its pathetic if not for the SUB.
hopefully they will add more bonus categories, but tbh, people usually sign up for airline cards now for just the SUB and the perks, not day-to-day usage.
Delta Card is highly unlikely to ever beat under cards that other churners have for categories except potentially on Delta purchases.
So I’d much rather see other added perks than another card with 2 or 3x on all the common categories.
Honestly, if there is one airline that would refresh a credit card without screwing people over with increased fees and useless perks I would expect it to be Delta. But then I remember we’re talking about Amex as well and my hopes are dashed.
The airlines always have more power with the co-branded cards. So if there is any “screwing” going on, it would be by Delta. That said, maybe we’ll get lucky and see some value added.