Funny you should say the Chase Freedom card, that's what they have now and they just redeem the points for gift cards or whatever. I didn't even realize there was a companion ticket option with any of the Delta Amex cards. I just got my Amex gold this year, so I haven't received our companion cert. That's good to know, I was just about to cancel my Amex since the annual fee was coming up soon. I wonder if I could upgrade my gold to the platinum to get the free companion cert rather than the $99 cert that comes with the Gold card and get the signup bonus?

These are all good options so far. Thanks for your input.