Originally Posted by
javabytes
One question would be double miles for Delta purchases. Don't know if you get this when booking DL flights through third party sites; happy to be corrected though.
Depends on how the OTA charges the ticket. The one time I bought a ticket (TATL) through Orbitz because DL.dumb would not give me the flights I wanted even though I knew the inventory was there, there were two charges on my card: one from DL that posted just like if I booked on DL.dumb and one from Orbitz. I didn't use a DL AmEx for that, but I believe that the charge would have gotten double miles.
I honestly don't know who really gets a monetary benefit out of that card: the bags. Unless you're travelling only like once a year with your whole family having a bag to check, nothing is really worth the fee. After 2/3 trips, you'll be FO anyway.
Your perspective as a frequent TATL flyer is different to the typical person they're targeting for the gold card. I have friends who fly a few times a year within the US48 with their two small children, but neither parent flies enough to get anywhere near silver. When you consider that checking two bags for a family of four each direction on one round trip is worth $100, if you do a couple of trips like that, you're ahead.