Welcome to a regular feature on the Eye of the Flyer blog. This blog series covers a “rookie” topic of either a Delta- or travel-related theme — and attempts to break it down to a basic level. You can read up on all the previous posts HERE. Now on to this featured topic.
I’ve heard several people say words to the effect of “Well, you can’t have more than one Delta American Express card.” They — and a few others — are also under the assumption you can’t earn bonus MQM from multiple Delta Amex cards.
With the welcome offers available now for Delta Amex cards, this is a good time to tackle those questions.
Can You Have More Two or More Delta Amex Cards at the Same Time?
Yes. You’re certainly allowed to hold multiple Delta American Express cards. (Whether or not you should is something we’ll cover in a later post.) Delta and Amex are happy to accept your annual fee payments for as long as you can pay them.
Consider, though, that American Express allows people to hold four active/open credit cards at a time. (At least, that’s what current data points suggest.) So going Delta Amex-happy could limit your ability to get something else down the road — such as one of their other cobranded cards or, say, the Blue Cash Preferred Card or Blue Cash Everyday® Card.
For example, when I applied for the Blue Cash Everyday® Card to help finance a new laptop purchase I made last fall, I was originally declined because I was at the four-card limit. (And, yes, the limit can apply to a combination of consumer/personal and small business cards.) So I canceled my Delta SkyMiles Platinum Business American Express Card to make room.
But if you want to have multiple Delta Amex cards — and can afford it — then knock yourself out.
Can You Earn Bonus MQM from Multiple Delta Amex Cards?
Absolutely. I’ve done this several times. It usually was a combination of spending across both my
Delta SkyMiles Reserve American Express and Delta SkyMiles Business Reserve American Express cards.
So if you can afford the spend, it’s possible to earn Diamond Medallion status without even flying:
- Delta SkyMiles Reserve American Express: $120,000 spend = 60,000 MQM
- Delta SkyMiles Business Reserve American Express: $120,000 spend = 60,000 MQM
- Delta SkyMiles Platinum American Express: $50,000 spend = 20,000 MQM
- Delta SkyMiles Business Platinum American Express: $50,000 spend = 20,000 MQM
Dropping $340,000 during a calendar year will land you 160,000 MQM and satisfy the $250,000 Delta Amex MQD Waiver for Diamond Medallion status. (Consider that those earnings are boosted by another 25% during 2021.)
That’s an extreme example. Moral of the story: Delta will let you spend your way to any Medallion status level.
Keep in mind both the Delta SkyMiles Reserve American Express and Delta SkyMiles Business Reserve American Express currently offer 20,000 bonus MQM after new cardholders spend $5,000 on eligible purchases within three months of being approved. (That offer expires on April 28, 2021.) So if you got both cards and met their minimum spend requirements, you’d be 40,000 MQM richer. Assuming you meet the Delta Amex MQD waiver spend ($25,000 or $250,000), you can either bump up a tier to most status levels or go from tin (slang for “no status”) to Silver Medallion.
Remember, you can only receive a card’s welcome bonus once.
Final Approach
If you’ve wanted to hold multiple Delta American Express cards at the same time, rest assured you can — at least if you haven’t maxed out the number of Amex cards you can have.
For people who want to earn as many MQM as possible, having both the Reserve and Platinum cards’ personal and business versions (or some combination thereof) is a solid strategy. It all depends on your budget, spending habits, and travel goals.
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So to earn MQM on multiple Delta cards, they have to be different Delta cards right? In other words, if I want 120,000 MQM from two Reserves, it has to be a personal and a business Reserve — not two personal Reserves or two business Reserve cards.
Do I have that right?
Correct.
FWIW, I am one of the fortunate Delta frequent flyers and $300k+ card spenders. This personal and business spend goes on just 3 cards: First, $250k on personal and business reserve cards. Second, everything else (particularly purchases over $4999) go on the AMEX Business Platinum.
The reserve card spend + flights helps me lock in annual Diamond status with growing MQM rollover balances. The AMEX platinum spend gives me AMEX reward points (+35% bonus) to buy MY Delta flights via AMEX travel. These tickets net me MQM and MQD’s that Delta reward tickets do not.
This strategy is scalable for Delta’s Platinum and Gold Medallions too, however, Gold’s should do a cost benefit analysis first IMO.
I currently hold both the regular and business Reserve cards. I no longer have a need for the business card. Is it possible to transfer the credit limit from the business card to my personal card?
Unfortunately, no. Check out this post that explains it in a little more detail.
If I just want Silver, I could get one Reserve card and spend 25K for the extra MQMs and earn 105K miles? Would I be able to upgrade my spouse on the same flight to exit row or C+ if available with me?
@Liz – If your spouse is on the same reservation with you then yes you can choose exit row right away and both would qualify for the C+ upgrade at the Silver Medallion window.