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Delta American Express Skymiles?

If I love American Express but hate Delta Air Lines, what airline mileage charge card should I use?

  • Of all the credit card/charge cards that I've tried, I love the customer service provided by American Express. I'd like to use American Express as my primary charge card, but I also want to sign up for an Airline Mileage program. Can someone recommend an AMEX mileage reward card that is not tied to Delta Air Lines?

  • Answer:

    Your best bet is the Starwood Preferred Guest card. While technically not an airline card, it allows you to transfer points to airline programs -- often at a much better ratio than using an airline card. There are more than two dozen airlines you can transfer into. http://www.starwoodhotels.com/preferredguest/account/starpoints/transfer/airline_partner_list.html For many airlines, including American, Delta and US Air, 20,000 points transferred becomes 25,000 airline miles. Some carriers (e.g. United and Continental) have worse transfer ratios because it was undercutting their own co-branded cards with Chase. It's a much better value than most airline cards and even AMEX's own Membership Rewards program. You, of course, can also use the points for stays at Starwood Hotels. I think that's a better value than transferring for airline points, but YMMV. If you'd like a referral, ping me.

Rakesh Agrawal at Quora Visit the source

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I would think about the Chase Sapphire. Even though it's a Visa it has many perks. There is an 0% foreign transaction fee, 50k sign up bonus, transferrable to many of the top airlines, 2x points on dining and travel, and 7% annual bonus on ALL miles earned. http://www.noobtraveler.com

Geoff Whitmore

Rakesh is probably right.  I am a loyal Starwood card holder, and the card offers some of the most flexibility for most airlines rewards programs.  As I wrote in , the SPG amex offers a 25% bonus when you transfer 20,000 points. That is to say if you transferred 20,000 SPG points, you'd get 25,000 Delta Sky Miles.  The added bonus here is that you have flexibility with over 30 airlines, so you don't have to commit to one if you're looking to save up miles for a trip.  Honestly though, you're probably better off using the SPG points for staying at hotels, since you can frequently get better rates of return ($0.03 / point or better, which is the equivalent of 3%) when you use them to book hotels.

Jeremy Chrysler

It's true that AMEX Membership Rewards has suffered quite a bit of devaluation, given Continental leaving the program last year, the Aeroplan devaluation, British Airways devaluation, etc. That said, AMEX Membership Rewards does run transfer bonuses (currently 50% transfer bonus to British Airways Avios, see http://travelsort.com/blog/50-percent-amex-transfer-bonus-to-british-airways-avios-best-deals) and Avios can be used on any OneWorld airline. Best Avios uses are on nonstop domestic AA flights (including flights to Hawaii), AA flights to the Caribbean, LAN flights in South America, and even short direct intra-Asia flights, eg HKG-PEK etc. Back to your credit card question; if you do want to keep an AMEX card, I'd suggest the Premier Rewards Gold card, especially if you have much airline spend, since you'll get 3x Membership Rewards points. If you intend to fly much on United or Star Alliance partners, I'd second the suggestion to also get the Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa, since it transfers 1:1 to United miles and it's great to get 2x points for all travel and dining spend. http://travelsort.com/best-travel-credit-cards offers some other options and tips on applying for the cards.

Greg Batista

I use AMEX tied to American airlines. There is an advantage Visa card and an advantage AMEX card that you can use. You can find it here: https://creditcards.citi.com/credit-cards/citi-aadvantage-american-express-card/

Leena Jain

If you are in the USA, you need to recognize the fact of airline consolidation which is leading to continued retrenchment into hubs, leaving many/most flyers with a locally dominant carrier.  So, if for you, that's American, you should go with the Citi cobrand card; if its United, then go with the Chase cobrand card; if Delta, then Amex.

Ed Boyle

I have several personal and business cards with Chase's Visa Southwest Rapid Rewards and the flights add up quickly. I definitely think they are a good bet if you live in a Southwest city. I never fly any other airline unless I have to. http://www9.chasecreditcards.com/southwest/octsearch?CELL=6RRW&MSC=IQ33849235&jp_cmp=cc%2F05BrandedSouthwestMBR%2Fsea%2Fna%2FSouthwestBRChase

David Ledgerwood

The regular AMEX cards allow you to accumulate mileage on any airline.  Amex, Green, Gold, and Platinum.  Starwood Preferred Guest card also has a number of affiliated airlines.

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