Originally Posted by
tulips*n*truffles
If I keep the Delta Reserve card, I'm comfortable with the MQMs I collect there. So you're both saying if I added another AmEx (Delta branded?), I would be able to accumulate miles fast and those would convert to SkyMiles with a small fee, is that right?
Would that last paragraph be the biggest benefit of choosing a business card over a personal card? I've only used a personal card for business purchases for 15 years...but don't really know any better other than I was accumulating miles.
Thank you for breaking this down for me!! There is so much information out there it's overwhelming!
I went back and edited my original post. Any flights you booked with the Business Plat 35% rebate are normal revenue tickets in the eyes of Delta. Therefore, you earn MQMs and Skymiles as you would normally.
The cards MIA and I mention aren't Delta branded cards. They are the non co-brand AMEX cards. These cards collect AMEX Membership Rewards points which can be covered into Skymiles, amongst other partners. Cards like these include the AMEX Plat (not the Delta one), AMEX Business Plat, AMEX Premier Rewards Gold, AMEX Business Gold, AMEX Everyday, AMEX Everyday Preferred.
As mentioned, the 35% rebate, and 1.5x points on purchases 5k and up are unique to the Business Platinum (the plain AMEX one, not the Delta one). However, the lounge access mentioned also applies to the personal AMEX Plat (which gets 5x points on airfare booked directly with airlines).
The small fee MIA refers too is the Federal Excise tax. This only applies when transferring points from AMEX Membership Rewards to US based airline programs. There is a maximum of $99 per transaction. If i'm doing my math right you'd need to transfer in 165K points to hit that $99 fee cap.
For each conversion of points into the Frequent Flyer program of a U.S. airline, a fee of $0.0006 per point, with a maximum fee of $99, will be charged to your Card account.
AMEX Membership Rewards also partners with Flying Blue (Air France, KLM) which are big Delta partners . There is no tax/fee when transferring to them. I'm not sure how their award chart is compared to Delta.
Did some quick research. It seems 60k/yr on the Delta Reserve card gets you 30k MQM (plus bonus redeemable miles). After that, if you put additional spend on cards that generated more then 1x (or 2x for Delta purchases) you're getting more miles.