American Express Membership Rewards - Which Promotion Applies? (Or both?) 50% bonus vs. 40% "refund"

My wife and I have, between the two of us, about 200k MR points. We want to transfer these to DL. If we are both signed up for both current DL promotions, which one will control? Or will they both apply? As between the two, if I had a choice, I'd take the 50% bonus with MQM. But even if only one applies, I don't know how to figure out which. Is it the one you applied for first?

Thanks.

Likely the one you signed up for first. There is no chance of getting both. If I were you, to avoid possible headache, before you do the transfers I would call Delta and have the promotion you both do not want, removed from your enrolled promotions. Just make sure you have never transferred to either Delta account first, or you will not receive the MQM's.

Please follow this thread. I've signed up for both. The 50% bonus applied immediately (did sign up for it first), haven't received any certs yet.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-skymiles/1240586-new-mr-transfer-offer-67-bonus.html

Please follow this thread. I've signed up for both. The 50% bonus applied immediately (did sign up for it first), haven't received any certs yet.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-skymiles/1240586-new-mr-transfer-offer-67-bonus.html

You won't be receiving any certs.

My wife and I have, between the two of us, about 200k MR points. We want to transfer these to DL. If we are both signed up for both current DL promotions, which one will control? Or will they both apply? As between the two, if I had a choice, I'd take the 50% bonus with MQM. But even if only one applies, I don't know how to figure out which. Is it the one you applied for first?
Thanks.

I'm in a similar situation. Already transferred my points, will transfer my wife's if they post before the end of the promotion. Based on my experience and reports from others, it appears that if you've registered for both, the 50% bonus is applied if it's your first transfer. According to Delta email support, the second transfer will not get the 50% bonus, but should still be eligible for the 40% rebate. Who knows what will actually happen in practice though.
The lack of transparency with the rebate promotion is awful. The 50% bonus promo gives you instantaneous confirmation of the transfer, the rebate promo gives you no recourse if something goes wrong.

I just came here to ask the same question. Let's see if I understand correctly: I will definitely get the 50% bonus, that is, I will get 50% extra SkyMiles when I transfer from Amex MR to DL SkyMiles. So if I transfer 50,000 MR points, I will get 75,000 miles. Correct? Although I am also registered for the 40% rebate, since it would be double-dipping, I should *NOT* expect to get back 20,000 MR points.

While I would like to get both offers, I don't want to mess up the SkyMiles offer, since I need those miles. It looks like we all agree that I'm OK to transfer the MR points and get the bonus miles without any worry or confusion, even though I'm registered for both promotions. Only the rebated MR points, from the second promo, would be in question. The original promo is never at risk.

Correct? I'll hold off a few days more to hear other people's experiences before I do the transfer.

I just came here to ask the same question. Let's see if I understand correctly: I will definitely get the 50% bonus, that is, I will get 50% extra SkyMiles when I transfer from Amex MR to DL SkyMiles. So if I transfer 50,000 MR points, I will get 75,000 miles. Correct? Although I am also registered for the 40% rebate, since it would be double-dipping, I should *NOT* expect to get back 20,000 MR points.

While I would like to get both offers, I don't want to mess up the SkyMiles offer, since I need those miles. It looks like we all agree that I'm OK to transfer the MR points and get the bonus miles without any worry or confusion, even though I'm registered for both promotions. Only the rebated MR points, from the second promo, would be in question. The original promo is never at risk.

Correct? I'll hold off a few days more to hear other people's experiences before I do the transfer.


You are correct, although if you are not looking for the MQM's(First time transfer, 100k+, I also believe the 50% bonus will only be received if it is your first ever transfer) the 40% back nets you more SkyMiles per MR point than the 50%.

Me personally, I wouldn't waste my first time transfer without getting the MQM's, since you won't be eligible for them again. This one requires 100k to get em, the last two only required 50k transferred.

I am already a DL Gold, therefore, I thought the Silver Medallion part of the offer would not apply to me. Are you saying if I transfer 100K-plus MR points, I will still get the 25,000 MQMs? I don't know how long it would take me to get 100K points. I'm not any big spender...I already have 50K from my intro offer from Amex.

Yes, it would be a first time transfer. I am a complete noob to Membership Rewards, although I spent some time today reading thepointsguy pages about it. Not sure if everything sunk in...I understood it to say that if I transferred 100K points, I would be awarded Silver Elite and since I'm already Gold, kinda skimmed that part.


You are correct, although if you are not looking for the MQM's(First time transfer, 100k+, I also believe the 50% bonus will only be received if it is your first ever transfer) the 40% back nets you more SkyMiles per MR point than the 50%.

Me personally, I wouldn't waste my first time transfer without getting the MQM's, since you won't be eligible for them again. This one requires 100k to get em, the last two only required 50k transferred.

I am already a DL Gold, therefore, I thought the Silver Medallion part of the offer would not apply to me. Are you saying if I transfer 100K-plus MR points, I will still get the 25,000 MQMs? I don't know how long it would take me to get 100K points. I'm not any big spender...I already have 50K from my intro offer from Amex.

Yes, it would be a first time transfer. I am a complete noob to Membership Rewards, although I spent some time today reading thepointsguy pages about it. Not sure if everything sunk in...I understood it to say that if I transferred 100K points, I would be awarded Silver Elite and since I'm already Gold, kinda skimmed that part.

Yes if you transfer 100k, it will add 25k MQM regardless of your current status.(Although they word it as enough to give you silver status, it is just 25k MQM added to your account.) So in your case it would move you up to PM for rest of this year and following. I assume knowing this, you likely will want to go this route now. That being said I would call DL first and have them remove the 40% return promo you signed up for, that way there is no headache of it possibly attaching to the promotion you do not want instead.

You are correct, although if you are not looking for the MQM's(First time transfer, 100k+, I also believe the 50% bonus will only be received if it is your first ever transfer) the 40% back nets you more SkyMiles per MR point than the 50%.

Me personally, I wouldn't waste my first time transfer without getting the MQM's, since you won't be eligible for them again. This one requires 100k to get em, the last two only required 50k transferred.

The terms and Conditions do not say how the cert work. Anyone has actual experience on that?

How can I tell which offer is signed up first, by the order they display in my DL account?

Can the CSR tell the sequence? When I call them to ask for explanation of the terms and conditions, they all immediately pull up the 40% offer. I have to ask them to look further in my account to find the 50% first time offer.

Also, the ratio on AMEX website is 1:1, how does the 50% bonus post when I transfer the miles? Does the 50% comes from DL posts immediately or a few days / weeks later after the transfer?

I'm in a similar situation. Already transferred my points, will transfer my wife's if they post before the end of the promotion. Based on my experience and reports from others, it appears that if you've registered for both, the 50% bonus is applied if it's your first transfer. According to Delta email support, the second transfer will not get the 50% bonus, but should still be eligible for the 40% rebate. Who knows what will actually happen in practice though.
The lack of transparency with the rebate promotion is awful. The 50% bonus promo gives you instantaneous confirmation of the transfer, the rebate promo gives you no recourse if something goes wrong.

So it does not matter which one you signed up first? I could not remember which promo I signed up first.

So the 50% bonus posts immediately after you transfer?

Where you find the email address to send for clarification on this matter?

OK, thanks for the explanation. I think I missed the boat though. The offer expires on Sept. 30, no way I can spend and post another 50K points in that amount of time.

OK, thanks for the explanation. I think I missed the boat though. The offer expires on Sept. 30, no way I can spend and post another 50K points in that amount of time.

Do you have a platinum card? You can advance 60k points, so if you have 50k, advance 50k and that will do it.

No, just the gold. I'm not a very big spender compared to most flyertalkers, I think. This was the card where the bonus was 50K for $500 spend so I can't really complain about what I'm getting...!!! I appreciate your ideas and help though. It will probably help someone else if not me specifically.

Do you have a platinum card? You can advance 60k points, so if you have 50k, advance 50k and that will do it.

No, just the gold. I'm not a very big spender compared to most flyertalkers, I think. This was the card where the bonus was 50K for $500 spend so I can't really complain about what I'm getting...!!! I appreciate your ideas and help though. It will probably help someone else if not me specifically.

Personally I would wait if I were you. Last year DL had a 4th Q promo that gave 50% bonus and 25k MQM for 50k transferred. In the beginning of this year they repeated the same promo. Now they have the 100k one. I wouldn't be surprised if they brought back the first one again for this 4th quarter.

I think the DL MQM bonuses for "first transfer" are primarily intended to encourage Platinum Cardholders who are CO flyers to transfer to DL rather than CO, and to see some benefit in retaining the card. However, the promotion as implemented allowed new Platinum Cardholders to transfer their new account bonus to DL, close the card account, and receive a refund of a substantial portion of the annual fee. Obviously, this would not be a successful promotion for American Express.

I think the revised promotion plus changes in American Express practices concerning Points Advance, and the posting of Pending Points, are designed to slow down this process and reduce their expose to annual fee refunds while giving new cardholders more time to learn about the other Platinum benefits.

I would be surprised to see the DL offer drop back to 50,000 points unless American Express also throttles back on new account bonuses, because this doesn't seem to be a sustainable strategy.