Renew Sky Club Membership or upgrade to Delta Reserve Credit Card?
 

I'm trying to decide what to do to retain Sky Club access going forward, so I thought I'd see if FTers can help me make up my mind.

Here's the background:
I've been a Sky Club member for many years now, I first got access back when it was a PM benefit, then I paid for it for a while, then got access for free as a DM. I'm back at PM and my membership expired a couple of weeks ago.

I've had a Delta Platinum American Express card for many years, and until last fall I also had a Business Delta Platinum American Express card. I no longer have my business, and although I kept the card going for a couple of years to keep track of business expenses while working for another company, I decided to close that account last year. For the last several years, I've consistently received three (maybe 4 once or twice) 10,000 MQM bonuses on my credit cards (usually two on the person card and one on the business card; I sometimes charged some business expenses to the personal card). So I'm used to getting 30,000 MQMs each year to help put me over the top to PM, and once to DM. This used to be less important when I lived in Tampa and flew Delta 90+ percent of the time. But now I live in San Francisco and I end up flying United and Southwest (and Alaska) nonstop to many destinations; I don't always have time to connect using Delta.

As my membership expired, I was thinking that I would get the Delta Reserve Card instead of renewing, as I would have no problem spending $60K (on personal plus business expenses) on a single card to get the 30,000 MQMs I'm used to.

But the Delta Reserve card doesn't get me into Alaska Board Rooms, and I do a fair amount of flying between SFO and PDX, both locations with Board Rooms (both also have Sky Clubs but this requires a long walk to the AS gates -- and a trip through security at SFO). I've really come to enjoy the Board Rooms and would miss them if I get the reserve card.
Cost-wise it's close to being equal, the Delta Reserve card will cost me $300 more than the Delta Platinum, and as a PM, I can renew my SkyClub membership for $270 (for the next 2 days) with the SJN10 promo code.
Given the fact that the membership rates are going up, I'm considering buying a 3-year membership for $648 ($720-10%), as this will ultimately save me the most $ overall.

Another factor is that I understand that I can spend $25,000 on my Delta Platinum to get a 10,000 MQM bonus, and then upgrade to the Delta Reserve, and if I spend $60,000, get the two 15,000 MQM bonuses. And I can get a bonus of 5000 MQMs for upgrading. I'm pretty sure that I can hit $85,000 in spend this year, but it will be close.

So to summarize, cost/benefits of upgrading to the Delta Reserve:

• $300 per year in additional costs
• Likely one-time haul of 45,000 MQMs for this year, compared to the 20,000 I'll get if I stay with the Delta Platinum.
• 30,000 MQMs in future years instead of 20,000 MQMs with DL Platinum card
• Better companion ticket
• Other Reserve card benefits which probably don't hold much value to me

And cost/benefits of staying with Delta Platinum and paying $648 for a 3-year membership:

• $216 per year in cost (savings of $84 per year compared to Delta Reserve card -- less the time value of money). At the end of the 3 years, I would re-evaluate.
• Access to Alaska Board Rooms

Anyone have any advice or thoughts? Is there anything I'm missing in this analysis? It's hard to pass up MQMs given the fact that Delta has rollover, and they count toward Million Miler status (I'm a year or two from hitting Million Miler status). Other factors are my diminishing travel on Delta, making Sky Club access less useful, and meaning that I will likely not hit PM in the future, especially if I don't get the 30,000 MQMs each year. In some ways I'm tempted to switch over to United (I'm Silver there and have the United Club Visa card (similar in some ways to the Reserve card; I'm on a fee-free first year), but I they keep disappointing me when I fly them. And flying them out of SF is a hassle compared to flying either DL or AS.

Can you bring a companion into the club with you with the reserve card? Wonder if this would be an issue?

What about the Amex Platinum Card?

Yes, Reserve card members can bring two companions into the club.

Given OP has been splitting travel among several different airlines this sounds like the best bet to me. Keep the DL platinum card (you get 20,000 MQM for spending $50k spend) and get the Amex Platinum card as well.

I haven't spent a whole lot of time researching the Amex Platinum card (the "real" one, not the Delta one). I guess this would give me access to Alaska Board Rooms. But I recall that neither the Amex Platinum nor the complementary Priority Pass provides access to United Clubs. Of the non-Delta clubs I want to get into, United is probably more common than any other airline. And at both airports where I most commonly fly Alaska, there are Sky Clubs that I can use with some inconvenience.

Also, if I understand correctly, having both the DL Platinum card and The Amex Platinum card would cost me $600 per year. The Delta Reserve would cost me $450 per year.

Also, this suggestion would leave me at 20,000 MQMs per year instead of the 30,000 (or 45,000 for the first year). I think I'm better off renewing my Sky Club membership for $648 for 3 years, if I only want to keep 20,000 MQMs. I can buy a lot of non-Delta club accesses for the extra $450.

But thanks for the suggestion. Some of the other Amex Platinum perks are tempting, I hadn't looked at the benefits recently.

Maybe I was wrong about this. I see that I can use United Clubs in SF with Priority Pass. However, I also see that the Priority Pass website says the following for United Clubs: "Members holding a Priority Pass Select membership card and Priority Pass cardholders in the U.S. that receive their membership through a U.S. financial institution will not be allowed access to this Lounge."

This is confusing but it looks like I'm back to not getting into United Clubs with the Amex Platinum.

Reserve
 

I made the switch from a SC membership to the Reserve Card last year; for me it made sense for similar reasons - an extra burst of MQMs, plus due to the timing of my renewal on the Platinum card I already had, I was only forced to pay a prorated increase on my annual fee which was substantially less than the full year of SkyClub.

Now that a year has past, I think I made the right choice. One downside - the few times that I've flown another airline and been in proximity to the SkyClub, I was unfortunately unable to gain entry. If you always fly DL this isn't a problem.

Another benefit is that if you decide that the Reserve Card isn't a good benefit and you want to switch back to a regular SC membership, I'm pretty sure that you can downgrade your card to Platinum at anytime and receive a prorated credit for the difference in annual fees. Good luck if you ever call SC half way through the year and tell them, since you're not traveling as often, that you'd like half your fee back :)

You can buy the regular Priority Pass, IIRC $130 or so for the cheapest version, where you then pay about $30 per lounge visit. Don't forget that the regular AmEx Plat lets you use US lounges (so far) when flying any airline.

Thanks for your thoughts on your similar events experience. I had forgotten about the fact that I would have to be flying on Delta to get into Sky Clubs with the Reserve Card. This tips the scales pretty far toward renewing my membership instead. Living in San Francisco, I've used the SFO SC (which is outside security) when traveling on other airlines, and even when not flying at all. In fact tomorrow if morning, I'm picking up a colleague at SFO and the SC would make a good place for us to prepare for our presentation later in the morning.

But sadly, I've missed the deadline for the cheaper rates. I worked all day in Albuquerque, flew WN direct to Oakland, and presented at an evening event in Albany, CA. At 11:30, I finally went to renew online but the new rates had kicked in since it was past midnight elsewhere. No reason to pull the trigger now, so I guess I have longer to decide. I'll probably do Reserve Card now.