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I admit it: I’m a little late to the party on this one.
Perhaps like you, I have Delta incidental purchase credit to burn. (I selected Delta for the annual $200 airline incidental credit benefit on both my Platinum Card® from American Express and Business Platinum Card® from American Express.)
I haven’t used it for anything since my Pay With Miles booking early this year. And purchasing gift cards is done-zo. I don’t have any trips booked for the rest of the year. So using the rest of my credit before it expires on December 31 is proving rather difficult.
A couple of (trusted) relatives are flying Delta at Christmas. So I offered to give them my Platinum cards’ numbers and take care of their checked bag fees. (They don’t pack much — God bless ’em — so I don’t expect they’ll use the full amount.)
Then I remembered my SkyMiles Select purchase last year worked toward the statement credit. Bingo! I thought. I’ll buy one of them a SkyMiles Select membership! Maybe even give away one (or two) SkyMiles Select memberships on the blog for a SWAG Saturday!
Even though the Main Cabin 1 “priority” boarding perk is useless right now (Delta is boarding planes from back to front) and booze isn’t being served in Main Cabin, I bet we’ll see at least one of those things return to “normal” before the end of next year.
But my plan didn’t quite work out.
SkyMiles Select: Discontinued?
Turns out Delta discontinued the SkyMiles Select offer this past spring. I don’t remember hearing anything about it from Delta, other blogs, or even our readers or select social media trolls (some of whom love pointing out whenever we miss something 😉 ). Although I did spot a Thrifty Traveler post about the suspension while Googling “SkyMiles Select.”
I understand where Delta is coming from. The benefits are fairly useless right now. But last I heard, they could use a few bucks. So, to a degree, I’m surprised they aren’t selling SkyMiles Select memberships. One would think that may (slightly) boost the value of SkyMiles, which they recently leveraged. Or maybe they hope people will get Delta Amexes instead.
Final Approach
The airline incidental credit on select American Express cards is harder than ever for many of us to use. (I guess that’s the point when you’re, you know, not flying.) Even though most Medallions probably didn’t need SkyMiles Select, it offered nice perks to people who don’t hold elite status or are rarely upgraded.
Do you think Delta should bring it back? Please tell us your thoughts in the below Comments section.
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.
Chris,
I’ve been flying Delta a lot this year (40+). Delta has used Sky priority boarding every time.
We all have the credit going unused this year..Even if we get to fly before dec 31..we used our $$ to buy nice Champagne,, Not an option in SC this year since many cities will not allow alcohol service!!!
You’re luckier than me. None of my SkyClub purchases counted toward the credit. Lucky duck.
Today I logged into AMEX to take a look at my Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card account and noticed a $125 “Appreciation Credit” posted December 1. I did not even ask for it and received no other notice. If you called and complained about not being able to use the Airline Incidental Credit I would not be surprised if AMEX gave you some type of credit, although maybe not the full $200.