This one does not surprise me at all. The $150/year fee for the Delta Skymiles AMEX Platinum card was/is a flat out bargain for the price. I did a great comparison post on this a while back and this card with any Medallion level is a great combo for max perks. Also, the BOGOF in coach cert alone can offset the fee for a year or sometimes more.
An alert reader pointed out to me that this fee is going up as of 1MAY2014 for both the personal as well as the business card. Now if you apply before 1MAY2014 you get the first year fee at the lower amount and then after that year you get the new higher fee per year.
Is this a game changer for the card? I don’t think so as you are still getting all the same great perks and the value is still there at $195 per year. The only thing this does change is the choice between this card and the Delta Reserve card has just become a bit harder. For a little over 2x the fee you could go with the Reserve card that has more MQMs, more upgrades and Skyclub for yourself.
Bottom line is if you have been waiting to get this card, keep 1MAY2014 in mind! – René
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And it’s not even Friday afternoon — Also, I sure hope they don’t increase the fee for the Reserve Card. I mean after the downgrade — no longer being allowed to bring your spouse into the SC on the Reserve Card — it would take huge cajones to raise the fee in light of the downgrade in benefits.
I’ll be keeping my card. Heck, I may upgrade to the reserve card instead.
But I’ll probably cancel my wife’s card. When she flies Delta, she typically flies with me (free bags) or carries on (free bags). She only has the card for the BOGO. for $195 it may not be worth it.
Assuming I can get the $25K minimum spend then I understand the $200 sacrifice here, but really, since I’m already Gold, I don’t see any actual benefits to this card. One basically impossible to use companion pass is the only thing.
Yes, it’s still probably worth $200 – especially if I can get the companion pass to work, but I would probably ditch this card if it were not for my minimum spend requirement.
Or, do as I did for maximum MQMs. Grab the Platinum first, cancel after you get the bonus MQMs, wait exactly 3 months and then apply for the Reserve. Just had my first purchase 10k MQMs post, now working towards the spending bonus 15k + 15k. Apparently Amex views these as different products.
@Max – they DO NOT and you got lucky. I would not do this for so many reasons!
Sorry René but I am confused. I read that you need to wait a full year to get exactly the same AMEX card again, and 90 days if you had any consumer AMEX card. Is this not true anymore?
@jrseattle – from all the official verbiage from AMEX all still the same. IE you must cancel, wait 365+ days and not have applied for another consumer AMEX in 90 days also. However, keep in mind you can get BIZ cards as they are different product. Clear?
I assume this fee increase will impact the business version as well, Rene?
@Geoff – “An alert reader pointed out to me that this fee is going up as of 1MAY2014 for both the personal as well as the business card.” 😉
Woops, my bad. Thx.
I messed up and applied within a year (about 11 months) of getting gold amex and did not receive bonus and asked amex to give me bonus and they said no so i cancelled
do i need to now wait another year with no delta amex to get the bonus?
@asdfasd – if you were approved and got the card, YEP! plus, knowing the way AMEX computer work either way you had better plan from 365+ days from this NEW cancel date! Sorry (I did this also with SPG a year ago, I was 3 weeks too soon and they would not budge no matter what)!
My annual Renee is in May. Is there a way to pay the fee in April so I can put off the increase for a year? If not, I’m thinking I may just ditch that card and upgrade to the spouse reserve card. Then 365+ days I can sign up for the platinum card and finally get a bonus!
Interesting – fee auto-corrected to Renee?
Freudian slip? Fee turned into Renee? Hmmm!
@asdfasd – you say you applied for the platinum amex within a year of getting gold amex. Did you cancel the gold amex first?
I am still utterly confused. I was approved for a gold amex card on 8/28/2013 and my cancellation request was processed on 1/22/2014. My plan is to apply for the platinum amex card (a different product) 90 days after 1/22 (around 4/22) and get the bonus miles. Why would that not work?
Maybe Amex considers all personal Delta skymiles credit cards the same product?
@Jrseattle – YES all 3 are the same to AMEX: http://deltapoints.boardingarea.com/2013/07/04/rookie-extra-day-a-qa-all-about-delta-amex/ from E31 in the Essentials Tab: http://deltapoints.boardingarea.com/essentials/
@Delta Points – you say “YES all 3 are the same to AMEX” and I know you are the expert in this area. It does contradict the T&C for the platinum version though which says “bonus offer not available to applicants who have had THIS product with the last 12 months OR any other Consumer Delta Skymiles Credit Card account within the last 90 days”.
So I called Amex (877-4960559) and the representative told me that the THIS product ONLY refers to the Delta Platinum card. He said if I had the Delta Gold card last year but not in the last 90 days, I would qualify.
For what it is worth I guess.
Sorry for being difficult about this. I know I can just go for the business version.
@jrseattle – do keep in mind reps will say anything. Everything in print and in my experience is they are all viewed as the same card to AMEX.
re foreign exchange fees. I too got a letter saying “no more foreign transaction fees” but check your statements, I bought train tickets for an upcoming trip to Italy and got a transaction fee!