non-AMEX card for Delta?
 

Is there a Visa or MC that allows you to earn Delta miles? We currently have a card with Chase Manhattan and, while we love the card and use it regularly, the 10,000 point/month limit keeps us from building miles as much as we want. Is there another card we could add to this one that will buy Delta tickets? We use our miles mostly to fly to Jamaica and St. Lucia in the Caribbean.

Uh, no. Not directly anyway.

Go to http://www.delta.com/skymiles/getmil...ners/index.jsp for a listing of all of their card partners. You can get a visa for a few locations outside of the US, but not within the US.

I don't think that Delta has any MC/VISA cards for the US, but if you are currently with Chase, you can save the Continental miles and use those for Delta/NW tickets.

To clarify my request - Chase allows you to use your points/miles to buy tickets on almost any airline because it is not affiliated with any of them (at least w/the card we have). I am looking for another card that is like this - no airline logo on the card, just a bank that has rewards.

There are dozens of "fake" mileage cards out there. Take your pick.

Why not just get a DL Amex? Also, if Amex is not way you wish to go....just pick up a second credit card just like you currently have in your spouses name so that you can max out at 20K monthly points.

food for thought.

Ric

A future option will be the Citibank Diner's Club card - with MasterCard acceptance after it is rebranded as a MasterCard sometime this year.

Diners Club points can be transfered to any airline - real miles.

If you never need expensive tickets a fake miles card is good - I would recomend the MBNA one. If you sometimes need expensive tickets, miles present a better value.
Expensive tickets:
- Flights between small airports with high prices
- Open jaw tickets with a stopover
- Last minute ticket: Miles usually work if you have them in enough programs; I have enough for a free ticket on every major US airline and between programs can always get a last minute seat.
- International tickets to certain destinations with little competition
- Most Business/First Class International tickets

If you never need any of the above - go for a fake miles card.

Equally important: If you only use miles for tickets, a fake miles card might work.

If you use miles for other things (most obviously upgrades, and at least with AA for lifetime status*), then a fake miles card is probably pointless.

(*AA lifetime Gold is 1 million miles from ANY sources, lifetime Platinum is 2 million miles from ANY sources, and ANY source obviously include credit cards. Most other airlines -- but I don't know about Delta specficially -- either don't have lifetime status or only count in-the-seat miles towards lifetime status.)

And, btw, if you use miles for only VERY CHEAP tickets, a fake miles card is also likely to not be the best value (a cashback card might work better in those cases)!