American Express Membership Rewards - 30% Delta Transfer Bonus

Looks like 30% is back until July 31
https://www.delta.com/marketing/setyoursights/index.jsp

good find, thank you

So, I've got ~350K MR points. I understand that there's places I can put these where I can end up in luxury TransPac/TransAsia FC travel, but a part of me is beginning to wonder if all I'll really ever do with these is free or upgraded domestic travel. (I've been sitting on ~165K UA miles for a decade, for instance.)

I guess my question is, what are the downsides of putting all/most of my MR points into DL right now? (Oh, I just made FO a week ago, but I think I'm done traveling for a while.)

I'm FO with Delta and have a bunch of Amex too..however I always earn and burn my points.. no sense in sitting on them as they continue to get devalued!

The risk with DL is that their award structure is very expensive. You need to be pretty flexible in order to get 120k biz class Asia tickets. The downside of parking your miles at DL is that you lose the flexibility of Amex MR. For ex. if you want to hop to Europe for a weekend, you can't just put 80k in AC and book a biz award ticket.. you'd be stuck with Delta whose cheapest award to Europe is 100k and most often you can only find 200k tickets. It's very hit or miss, but DL miles are generally the most devalued in the industry. Then again, they are the easiest to earn (for ex. 30% amex bonus, 5k Skymiles for a 2 day Avis rental, etc etc).

I'd only move them to DL if you see tickets you want. They run 20%/30% promos a lot, so don't think this is a one-time only special offer.

Also- Amex MR are very valuable to trade on CC and often times you can get almost 2 DL miles for every Amex MR (100% bonus :D).

I am not disagreeing with the above poster on the inadequacies of Delta Skymiles. But I will provide these positive comments.


Amex MR transferability - Easy way to add to your DL SM balance with a low tranfer cost. BTW, I just did an online transfer from AX MR to DL SM, and the transfer was instant!
Amex DL SM Card bonuses - The opening bonus points offers are very generous and the first year is free.
Non-Flyer Bonus Miles Offers - Lots of opportunities to obtain massive bonus miles at no or little cost.
Access to Skyteam Partners for award redemption
Availability of Low mileage (saver) economy award tickets - YES, I know all the problems getting low mile award tix, they are all true. BUT, for the past three years I have been regularly obtaining 60,000 mile economy tix to Southeast Asia (But do not get me started on their 60,000 mile southern South America price!). They are hard to find, but they are available, IF your schedule is somewhat flexible.


If you want all my complaints about DL SM, I can give them too!

Unless you have hard plans to ticket an award flight on DL, I'd leave them in MR for the reasons outlined above. A transfer from MR to DL takes seconds, so if you want to book the DL award, you can immediately. You may find the need in the future to use the points for Continental, Virgin, Hilton or another MR partner.

Please don't speculatively move them to DL. Even at 1.3, there's a statistically significant chance that it'd be a huge waste of MR.

Thanks, everyone. In my MR account they stay.

Please don't speculatively move them to DL. Even at 1.3, there's a statistically significant chance that it'd be a huge waste of MR.

Very good advice. I'm sitting on over 400,000 MR points that would good for a DL transfer. However, my opinion is that DL is operating a very corrupt program.

The promotion terms states that the bonus will be posted within one week of the transfer. Has anyone received the bonus sooner than a week?

This is an excellent opportunity for FTers who need a Pile On Miles partner credit. Oh well, the few of us who don't already have a chunk of SkyMiles from Amex ;) !

The promotion terms states that the bonus will be posted within one week of the transfer. Has anyone received the bonus sooner than a week?

I am happy to answer my own question. The bonus posted two days after transfer.

How do promos like this work when transferring SPG points?

How do promos like this work when transferring SPG points?

A bonus for transferring MR to SPG is rare. Sometimes you'll see a 2 MR to 1 Starpoint "special", but its been awhile since the last one.

Better to apply for an SPG Amex card, up to 25K in Starpoints for applying.

I meant if i xfer SPG to Delta, but i answered my own question. Is is possible to go from SPG to MR?

I meant if i xfer SPG to Delta, but i answered my own question. Is is possible to go from SPG to MR?

Only bonus for SPG to DL is the 5k bonus if you transfer 20K Starpoints at once.

There's no vehicle to get from SPG to MR that I'm aware of.

Only bonus for SPG to DL is the 5k bonus if you transfer 20K Starpoints at once.

There's no vehicle to get from SPG to MR that I'm aware of.

I think you can transfer 1:1 from SPG to MR
Unlike the airline bonus, there is none with this transfer

I think you can transfer 1:1 from SPG to MR
Unlike the airline bonus, there is none with this transfer

Help me by posting the link, because I've never heard of being able to transfer from SPG to MR.

Help me by posting the link, because I've never heard of being able to transfer from SPG to MR.

Don't hold your breath for the link.. would be very, very surprised if this was possible.

Don't hold your breath for the link.. would be very, very surprised if this was possible.

As would I, but am giving the poster the benefit of the doubt.

I'd like to book a reward ticket for Business Class LAX-DUB for departure Friday or Saturday. The inventory is available for 140,000 miles, but I will have to transfer from Amex to Delta today because my Delta balance is zero. Will the bonus hit soon enough to book and hold the ticket for a couple of days? I'm former Delta elite but not in 6 years or so therefore I'm not familiar with Delta's practices in this area. thanks for any suggestions.

Your MR to Skymiles xfer will post almost immediately. The 30% bonus can take a week or so (my last one took 6 calendar days, earlier this month).

YMMV.

Your MR to Skymiles xfer will post almost immediately. The 30% bonus can take a week or so (my last one took 6 calendar days, earlier this month).

YMMV.

Thanks for your reply. I was encouraged a bit by an earlier post in this thread in which the bonus hit in 2 days, but I suspect your experience is more typical. I don't want to end up with excess inventory in my Skymiles account if I can help it.

Any other empirical data that someone can share? :)

In March 2009, my MR to DL transfer was virtually instantaneous and the bonus miles (20% at the time) posted the next day.

Question. Can't you get the bonus at Delta and then transfer to Northwest to give more options on use?

Question. Can't you get the bonus at Delta and then transfer to Northwest to give more options on use?

For the time being you sure can. Transfers between your DL and NW accounts are instant.

Just another data point, from a ways back: It's possible to xfer MR<SPG, but the exchange rate is terrible: 3:1. So it's only 3000-some SPG you're getting for your 10,000 MR.

Just another data point, from a ways back: It's possible to xfer MR<SPG, but the exchange rate is terrible: 3:1. So it's only 3000-some SPG you're getting for your 10,000 MR.

Everyone is aware of that, and the option to devalue your MR points at the 3:1 ratio still exists today.

Up thread someone mistakenly said you can go from SPG -> MR which is not possible.

Sorry, my bad. Had been under the impression not "everyone" was aware.

FYI for those in the process of merging DL/NWA, setting up new NWA to get 10K point bonus, etc.: You also get the 30% for transferring into NWA. But! MR reserves up to 7 days to link either your DL or NWA account to MR, so time to get a move on if you hope to score bonus by end of month.

Link:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/northwest-worldperks/975237-nw-30-mermbership-rewards-transfer-bonus.html

I guess transfering 1k MR points to Delta is a cheap way to extend Delta miles for 18 months for someone, like me, that doesn't fly Delta often.

...

Also- Amex MR are very valuable to trade on CC and often times you can get almost 2 DL miles for every Amex MR (100% bonus :D).

I have about 125K Amex points I would like to trade into 200K Skymiles. How do I go about this?

Pitbrian, I have never seen 2:1! Usually close to 1:1 when no bonus is in effect, because 1 Amex point will getcha 1 mile.
Thinze, CC is a special forum only for FTers with >90 posts & those who make dozens of trivial posts quickly are disqualified if noticed. U R best off to register for the 30% DL bonus, then transfer your Amex into your DL, where 125K will become 162,500.

Thanks. I guess a Delta direct exchange it is. I just checked and actually have about 144.5K which will give me about 187K with the bonus. I put flights on hold today (100k each). Will Delta hold the flights until the bonus comes through?

My original plan was to transfer in Marriott points to Delta 1-1 from a travel package, but If I can swing this Amex deal, I'll transfer those to another FF account.

Has anyone transferred their MR points to DL, gotten the bonus, then transferred them back to MR points?? It would cost ~92$ to do 80,000 MR points back and forth, but you would have 104 MR back in your account.

Is the 90$ worth 24000 MR points??

Has anyone transferred their MR points to DL, gotten the bonus, then transferred them back to MR points?? It would cost ~92$ to do 80,000 MR points back and forth, but you would have 104 MR back in your account.

Is the 90$ worth 24000 MR points??

There is no means to move Delta SkyMiles into the Membership Rewards program. How are you suggesting that part be accomplished?

Just a reminder today is the last day for the bonus unless Delta/Amex decides to extend or create a new offer. Normally I would say you will not see this bonus offer until the following year (2010) after peak summer travel but who knows with this bad economy

I got 190K MR points... and do all my traveling on delta now... still not sure about transfering the points and getting the bonus.... oh what to do, what to do.. need another beer!

I got 190K MR points... and do all my traveling on delta now... still not sure about transfering the points and getting the bonus.... oh what to do, what to do.. need another beer!

well 3 beers later, I decided to go for it. So I transfered 190k points to delta.

Darn, I forgot to do it yesterday. I did it a little while ago, so it's only 20k that I would transfer.

Any chance it's still on today?