Originally Posted by
Ooompa Loompa
No it does not. The credit card doesn't give 25% more miles, free upgrades, free premium seats on ALL flights, free EC on domestic flights on day of travel, higher priority customer service line, priority waitlist, or discounted EC on international flights. As someone who spent the first 4 months of last year with no status and a credit card, then the next 5 months as an FO, I can tell you these things make a big difference.
And FO doesn't carry a $99 annual fee after the first year (it's paid for in blood sweat, tears, and time spent on an airplane).
My upgrade rate was 2/30 last year as a card holder (and I don't think either upgrade had anything to do with the credit card), and my upgrade rate was 4/5 after making FO for the last month of 2012. I have no real complaint though if people want to pad Delta's bottom line by paying fees to grab an earlier boarding zone and to be able to book a window/aisle seat in the first 1/3 of the Y cabin - I get that for free as a Silver flier and I own Delta stock so those fees they're paying help to keep the machine chugging along/moving forward/going higher.