Originally Posted by
DCflyer1222
I've been spending a lot of time the last 48 hours thinking this exact same thing. I am both a DL amex platinum holder and regular (vanilla) amex plat holder. Definitely planning to cancel the Delta card - but I'm still a huge fan of the amex plat. Is it crazy to spend, with my wife's help, $75k on the vanilla platinum just to ensure I'm not dealing with Delta's horrible rules. I really don't want to give the $ to DL directly after they destroyed the loyalty program -I am still a huge amex fan. We usually use SkyClub every trip (so 40+ a year)
Just do the math on the opportunity cost based on your membership rewards consumption habits and your alternative cards.. below is an order of magnitude annual credit card spend for me:
Amazon: $15K spend @ 5% back with Amazon Prime Card
Dining and Travel: $40K spend @ minimum 3.75% back with Chase Ultimate Rewards on the Sapphire Reserve (5-6% with transfer partners)
Grocery and General Stores / Online Commerce: $20K @ 2% with 2% cashback card
Costco (not eligible for Amex): $10K @ 2% with a 2% cashback card
Taking only the AmEx eligible spend that gets me to $75K, that's $2600 to $3500 in value from other cards. 75,000 SkyPesos is maybe $1000 in value. 75,000 MR is maybe $1000-1500 depending on transfer partners (of course higher is possible with international J, but then you'd have to adjust the Chase benefits too to >2 cents per point)
So.. the question is.. how much do you value the unlimited lounge access and how much do you value the "single card simplicity" (with an asterisk that you still need a Visa anyways). I look at the $1500-2000 difference and say - meh, that's not worth it to me. But others may have different math.
To answer the question about access post 1/1/25 - the simple answer is... I won't have access. I will drop my Amex cards. I don't really find huge value to lounge access as I try to optimize airport arrival time to minimize wait to departure and don't connect often. It's ironic as I literally just bought back into the Delta ecosystem this year but will drop on account of the changes.