I have 3 different credit cards, one cashback and two travel points cards. As I've become a more experienced traveler, some cards have grown on me much more than others. So I will be dedicating a few blog posts in the coming months to give my opinion on each card. To start off, I'll be reviewing my Delta SkyMiles Blue American Express card.
I've had my SkyMiles card for 2 years now and have earned a total of about 37,000 miles so far. This was my second credit card in general but my first credit card specifically for travel. I originally got this card for a few reasons:
Being from Atlanta (and with every intention of moving back), I figured Delta would likely be my most used airline since ATL is their base location.
Delta is one of the largest US airlines and has a huge network. This means that I could probably find a Delta or Delta-affiliated flight to literally anywhere I want to go.
The Blue SkyMiles card has no annual fee which was a big factor for me starting out.
They had a 15,000 point welcome bonus at the time which I thought was great!
However, after having the card for a few years now and also being able to compare it to other credit cards, I realized I don't think it's worth much for me personally. Here's why.
I'm not loyal to Delta.
Being a budget traveler, I follow the prices regardless of the airline. So sometimes I book Delta, but I've also booked Southwest, Spirit, American, or other international airlines just as much. This means I'm not really reaping any exclusive benefits from my card other than the standard "1x point on all purchases." And, unfortunately, "1x points" takes a long time to build up and actually be worth anything. For example, you have to spend like $15,000 on random purchases to eventually earn enough for the cheapest flight to Puerto Rico which is only like $150 to begin with. Now if you spend this much money regularly or you travel infrequently, that might be fine. But if you don't, it'll potentially take you years to earn even that much. And you can forget about more expensive flights, you'll never get there on your own...And TBH, if you are loyal to Delta and a frequent traveler, the gold or platinum card might be better for you anyway.
The welcome bonus was not all that (and is now nonexistent).
When I got my card, the welcome offer was 15,000 points when you spend $1000 in the first 3 months. At the time, that sounded great. But after searching for opportunities to redeem my points, I realized that's probably only enough to get you somewhere domestic. And after early 2020, it looks like they decreased it to 10,000 then 7,000 and now there isn't one at all. So what's the purpose???
The points aren't worth much regardless.
Unfortunately, the points don't seem to have much value when redeeming them. Now don't quote me because I haven't sat and done the math to get an exact points value ratio (NerdWallet does if you need exact numbers). But based on my experience, 15,000 points is worth more in my chase travel account than it is on the Delta website. I think this is because Delta flights are just more expensive overall. With SkyMiles, you only have 1 airline option available. However, in the Chase travel portal, for example, you can pick from a variety of airlines, which allows you to find a more budget-friendly option. So while $100 worth of points wouldn't provide many roundtrip flights through Delta, $100 could pick up quite a few Spirit flights in the Chase portal. And having more flight, destination, and airline options that fall within your points budget is always better.
You still have to come out of pocket at least a little because SkyMiles don't cover taxes.
I'm not sure how common or not this is but when I booked an international flight worth about $400 using Delta SkyMiles, I still had to pay $82 out of pocket to cover taxes. When I book flights in the Chase portal using points, I don't have to come out of pocket at all so it's completely free.
American Express isn't as widely accepted as Visa or Mastercard.
When it comes to using your card, especially internationally, all merchants do not accept American Express. In fact, I was at a restaurant in Atlanta yesterday that didn't accept American Express, so it's not even guaranteed domestically. If you already have Visa and Mastercard, this probably won't matter. But if this is your very first card (or you already have an American Express), I'd recommend looking for a company that uses Visa or Mastercard instead.
Now I'm not saying the Delta SkyMiles Blue American Express card is complete trash. In fact, one of it's biggest selling points is no annual fee which can be great, esp. for either an infrequent traveler or someone who is new to the credit card world. However, based on my experience, there are definitely better cards out there. If you are trying to figure out which card could be best for you, I'd recommend using https://www.nerdwallet.com/ to get a better understanding.
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