Why My Wife and I Are Done Using Our Delta Amex Cards (Well, For This Year)

My wife and I decided to put our respective Delta Amexes in the proverbial sock drawer for the rest of 2021. We’re both well short of the $25,000 Delta Amex MQD waiver and our Status Boost bonus MQM spend levels.

Here’s what’s up.

Which Delta Cards Do We Hold?

Mrs. C holds the consumer/personal Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card. I have its business counterpart, the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card. We downgraded our Delta Platinum cards and my personal Reserve to no-annual-fee Blue cards. We’ll likely upgrade later.

Why Did We Stop Using The Delta Amexes?

There are two main reasons we’re putting our cards away.

Budgets and Shopping Habits

I’ll be honest: it’s going to take a while for my business’ and our family’s budget to recover from financial damage caused by COVID-19. We’re not going to rack up spending on a credit card just to earn an MQM bonus and MQD waiver — and then hope we have a way to pay the bill.

Plus, some of our other, um, creative shopping opportunities aren’t as abundant as before.

We Want to Avoid the Delta Amex $25,000 Spend MQD Waiver!

We’ll meet the $3,000 MQD requirement for Silver Medallion. We might even flirt with Gold. It’s not too hard, given that MQD earnings are bonused by 50%-75% through the end of 2021. So we plan to start 2022 as Silvers.

Both of us will roll over a bunch of MQM, though. So we want to hit a couple of Delta partner airline trips and rake in a bunch of MQD so we can reach Platinum relatively quickly in the first half of 2022. We’ll have that through the rest of 2022, all of 2023, and then January 2024. If our budgets and jobs permit, we’ll go for Diamond.

We’ll team up to put enough spend on at least one card to get the 15,000 bonus MQM after spending $30,000. (Our daughter’s school now takes Amex — so that’ll certainly “help.”) We’d simultaneously earn the MQD waiver, which would potentially help one of us with upgrades.

Will We Put Any More Spend on Our Delta Reserve Cards This Year?

Yes. We’ll still use our respective Delta Reserve cards for a few purchases.

If we need to buy something on board a Delta flight, then we’ll use our cards. Why? Delta Amexes give cardholders a 20% statement credit for purchases made on Delta flights.

Plus, the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card gives its members up to $20 in monthly dining credits. Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card members receive up to $20 in statement credits when using their card to pay a U.S. cell phone service bill. So our cards will still get some use. Just not very much. (Read more about these Amex Offers here.)

So Which Cards Are We Using?

We’re using Membership Rewards and Ultimate Rewards cards. I generally use my American Express® Gold Card at supermarkets and restaurants. Most streaming purchases go on our Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express (except for a few during Q3 — which will be paid with a Chase Freedom Flex). My Chase Ink Unlimited is getting a decent workout, too.

Final Approach

Budget constraints and 2023 Medallion status plans are the two main reasons we’re putting away our Delta Amexes until 2022. We’d rather use cards with more flexible earnings.

If you have a Delta Amex, what are your plans for the rest of this year and next?

• 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 Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express, please visit this link. Terms apply.
• To see rates and fees for the American Express® Gold Card, please visit this link. Terms apply.