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When Delta Air Lines and American Express refreshed their co-branded credit cards last month, each product’s physical card received a makeover. Plus, the Platinum and Reserve cards were switched to metal cards from the traditional plastic.
I hold all four of the Platinum and Reserve products and took advantage of the free metal card replacement for each. (Here’s how you can order your complimentary metal card replacement from Amex.) All arrived within a few days of each other. Let’s take a look at the new metal Delta Amex cards!
New Metal Delta Amexes
The four Delta Amexes with metal makeovers are:
- Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card
- Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card
- Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card
- Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card
Their metal makes picture-taking a little interesting when it comes to lighting. But here are several images to give you an idea of what my new cards look like:
The cards are nice. Nothing amazing — but definitely attractive. I also appreciate that metal is much more durable than plastic (which we’ll see in just a couple of minutes).
Aesthetically, I prefer the metal Delta Platinum cards to their Reserve counterparts. Despite purple being one of my favorite colors, it just doesn’t work in this presentation on the Reserve cards.
The metal Delta Amexes seem to have more of a matte finish than the shinier The Platinum Card® from American Express and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express.
Business Card Differences
In addition to the word “Business” emblazoned on front of the Platinum and Reserve business cards, another difference separates them from their consumer counterparts.
The business cards have mini Delta logos brushed into the right side of the cards.
Metal vs Plastic Comparisons
Here are the newer, metal versions of each card alongside the old, plastic cards:
I really like the refreshed Platinum cards’ designs. And you can see my Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card and Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card got decent workouts over the years. I appreciate metal cards because they hold up better (at least, in my experience).
Again, I don’t love the Reserve cards’ new looks. It would have been cool to see the now-old Reserve card designs on metal cards. But I understand designs had to be updated across the board.
What Do You Think?
Have you received a new metal Delta Amex? If not, will you order a replacement now or wait until your current card expires? What do you think of the new designs? Please share your thoughts in the below Comments section!
–Chris
To see rates and fees for The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, please visit this link. Terms apply.
To see rates and fees for The Platinum Card® from American Express, please visit this link. Terms apply.
To see rates and fees for the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card, please visit this link. Terms apply.
To see rates and fees for the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card, please visit this link. Terms apply.
To see rates and fees for the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card, please visit this link. Terms apply.
To see rates and fees for the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card, please visit this link. Terms apply.
Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
I changed 3 of my cards to the metal, but the expiration date and security code changed on them so I had to change all my stored payment info at various vendors, utilities, and other automatic payment sites.
Do the metal cards set off the TSA detectors? I’ve heard that from a few people who had Amex Black cards which have been metal for some years now.
@Jeff: I put my wallet into a carryon before going go through the metal detector, so I personally have no idea. Anyone else have datapoints?
What is the benefit to Amex in producing metal cards?
@Barry Graham: It’s sort of a status symbol thing. People see others using a metal credit card and might go “Oh, cool, I want one!” Voila! Amex (or Chase, etc) may suddenly get a new customer. Or your friends and family see the metal card, tease and rib you as a fancy-pants, and insist you foot the bill at dinner. (Been there, done that.)
My current Reserve card is well worn and should be replaced. I suspect the new metal cards will be more durable than the plastic predecessors but if Amex will throw back some of the annual fee increase $$ I would happily hold on to the old plastic version.
@Jeff, My Amex Plat has been the metal variant for a while now and I can’t recall having any TSA issues because of it. YMMV of course.
Are the new metal Delta cards the same weight – both Platinum and Reserve? Are they the same weight at the Amex Platinum or lighter?
Both my wife and I think the Platinum and Reserve cards are the same weight. We also think the Amex Platinum has a slight bit more weight than the Delta-branded cards.