Renes Points

Boy the DELTA AMEX RESERVE card is becoming the red-headed step child now to the AMEX PLAT card. With the AMEX PLAT you get everything you get from the RESERVE card other than MQM's now. Plus, the PLAT get's you $200 in incidentals you don't get from DELTA card and now GLOBAL ENTRY is $FREE on PLAT as well:


http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfr...n-cardholders/


I am seeing less and less reason to hold on to my good old RESERVE card!
(yes I know move up on upgrade list but fare class is much more important than the card!)

mia

Moving to Delta section, a more suitable venue for discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of a Skymiles card.

DeltaFan4Now

I like my AMEX platinum, AMEX DL Reserve and AMEX DL platinum as they each have their own plusses and minuses, but those Reserve 30K MQMs can get you a lot more than $200 in incidentals if it pushes you over PM and especially DM. Global entry will be a very nice additional perk...

MR_MAMA

Plus the Reserve card never qualifies for any AMEX promotions. The foreign transaction fee is not waived. For $450 a year, it should not be this way.

MNAudiS4

I gave the DL amex Res. a one year try. So far it is has not helped with any BattleField upgades. I have to many other cards and do not need the miles in my DL account. I only tried it for the year because i needed to renew my SkyClub anyways. I thought i would give it a try. 10 months to go!

Seabilly

I upgraded from the AMEX DL Plat to Reserve and also got the AMEX reg Plat charge card mid/late last year,both for extra MQMs. After the year is up I will see if they are willing to give me a deal to keep one over the other. Otherwise I will likely down grade both and use the savings to purchase my own sky club membership.

KyRoamer

Doesn't the Reserve card improve your upgrade position. For example don't Reserve card gold medallions go ahead of other gold medallions?

mattsteg

Yes, but only within fare class.

RobertS975

The Reserve card gets me 30,000 MQMs a year for spending that I do anyway... that is 10,000 more than the Delta Platinum Card... so I think of it as an inexpensive mileage run without the travel.

dagnyt

Honestly, I'm looking at going the completely opposite direction and ditching the Amex Platinum. Yeah Plat's it's got a lot of benefits--but how accessible are those benefits? Not very.

Airport lounge access works, but that international 2 for 1 ticket thing is an widely acknowledged boondoggle, their hotel program isn't great unless you want to stay in certain types of places and when I've tried to use it, I've found their concierge service to be pretty pointless. As for getting back bag check/incidental fees. I never fly anything but Delta and so don't have to pay them anyway.

The GE free reimbursement will be nice when they add it, but again, not worth it, given the card's hefty pricetag. So I'm taking the MQM, the Skyclub access and the better status and feeling good about it.

mattsteg

There are lots of Plat benefits - some very accessible and useful on a regular basis, others less so.

Lounge access works, and gets you into more clubs than the Reserve, especially with the upcoming priority pass addition.

Recurring MQMs. Clear reserve benefit. Upgrade priority, difficult to quantify benefit.

Fee waiver - I agree it does lose some value when you don't encounter many fees. Still some potential usefulness.

Free Global entry - useful, but not really recurring

Car Rental - useful for securing upgrades if you haven't rented enough with eg. National previously.

SPG Gold status, for whatever you value that at

Free Tripit Pro - I've found it a useful app.

Private Jets - I use this one every day (or not...)

There's plenty of "accessible" benefits along with plenty of complete pie in the sky benefits. The club access is the biggest one, and MQM vs. the misc benefits of the Plat is the tradeoff.

samonyc

Agreed, and for $150 a year, the Delta Platinum AmEx shouldn't have the forex fees either.

nfg05

Reserve was already low-value for DMs, now looks even worse compared to the AMEX Platinum.

mooper

Bingo! Also, the spending $30K or $60K on the Reserve gets you at *least* (can be 2+ with promos) 1.5 miles per dollar spent. Amex Plat (except with promos that aren't consistent) can't do that.

But those MQMs are the primary incentive and benefit for many of us! I'd trade all the other perks for another 50% MQMs. Speaking of which... if Amex wants to ensure that the Reserve card keeps its relative edge, they should remove the MQM cap at $60K in spending, and allow another 15K MQMs for additional $30K spending thresholds. For those motivated primarily by MQMs, there'd be no other way to go.

The priority bump from the card isn't much. Consider, however, that for anyone who is a higher Medallion level *because of* the Reserve card 30K MQMs, that priority bump is much more instrumental.

Great way to view it. I know others love mileage runs, but you'd have to pay me thousands to spend my day on flights primarily intended to earn MQMs. I'll gladly pay $450 and keep my time, instead.

Not if you either used the Reserve card to become DM in the first place, or if the banked (remember Rollover) MQMs will be vital in keeping you one in coming years.

MegatopLover

Not getting the ForEx fee waived on the Delta Reserve, when it is now getting waived on the Plat Amex, really pissed me off. I've gotten the $50/yr (free the first year) Chase Priority Club Visa. All my ForEx spending goes on that now.