Reading through the previous 13 pages, Delta has accomplished its goal of having the cobranded DLAX cards remaining relevant in y’all wallets post 10/14. Personally, too much coupon book accounting to mentally ponder about each month, I’m glad I’m not in the DLAX ecosystem. I don’t use all of my AmEx Platinum Uber credits each month, as Uber has drastically raised prices post pandemic, so the new DLAX Uber credit is really a wash to offset this increase and drive additional ride share volume to Uber. Resy is OK, but I travel quite often to Europe for vacation where the Fork is the restaurant booking platform app. I applaud Delta for raising the annual fee across the DLAX card portfolio and having an overwhelming positive acceptance with the back of the napkin math examples previously posted to justify the annual fee increase. The additional 1,000 MQD bonus for existing DLAX card holders is Delta throwing a goodwill bone, as we all know that complementary domestic upgrades is nonexistent these days, and DM is 28,000 MQD, which keeps people in the game chasing DM. For the people with multiple hundred-thousand MQM’s who can extend DM status for years, what is the point of a DL reserve card?

My game plan is continuing to use the AmEx IAP fares for long haul international travel as I head towards 3MM and annual DM which makes the DLAX game useless.

The DLAX Reserve annual fee increase is now only $45 less than the AmEx vanilla Platinum card, which I personally feel has a significantly higher value of card benefits.