JORBUST

Can't believe the benefits on this card!

Delta SkyMiles American Express® Gold Card – Japan
With Delta SkyMiles American Express® Gold Card, you’ll get:
Privileges of Delta SkyMiles Gold Medallion status
8,000 enrollment bonus miles
3 miles for every 100 Yen on Delta purchases
1 mile for every 100 Yen on all other purchases
25% bonus miles on overseas purchases
Up to 3 times of 5,000 bonus miles and MQM for every 1,000,000 Yen spend per a year
3,000 renewal bonus miles with the membership renewal
25,000 bonus miles for BusinessElite or 10,000 bonus miles for Economy of your first flight

Free gold medallion status??? Plus no MQD requirements? I wish I lived in Japan!

MSPeconomist

Relax. The welcome bonus is small (even if you buy a BE ticket), just 8000 RDMs with nno MQMs. You can only earn 15,000 MQMs per year for about $30,000 spend (versus the Reserve card where you can do this twice a year). Getting about 3 miles per dollar spend on DL is better than the USA cards which only give two miles per dollar, but the rates on other spending are the same.

On balance, it's not clear that the USA based Plat and Reserve cards don't have better terms overall.

BER Flyer

The germam Skymiles Mastercard gives you free silver Medallion Status. So far no "upgrade" to higher tiers via cards are possible.

FireEmblemPride

I have this card, and indeed it does grant Gold Medallion. There's also a Silver Medallion version for half the annual fee. I've since qualified for Plat (thanks in part to the 15,000 bonus MQM), but it's good to have a fallback to Gold.

If you live in Tokyo, then it also functions effectively as a SkyClub membership as well if you're flying internationally from NRT. All for about $275 per year.

ShinkeiNo

I am just trying to understand... so does this card continuously grant Gold Medallion status, or only for the first year? I couldn't find it spelled out in such granular detail on the card's site... granted, my Japanese is not fluent.

FireEmblemPride

You get Gold Medallion as long as you hold the card and pay the annual fee.

bonster

I got this card last year and enjoyed the Gold Medallion benefits on Delta and KLM, but now I am realizing that rollover miles may not be one of the included benefits as I did not earn enough for medallion status on my own in 2015 (only 9,800 miles) and have not received these miles as rollover yet. I suspect this Gold status is the same as having it gifted to you by a Diamond member??

FireEmblemPride, can you or anyone else confirm that in order to reach Platinum Medallion I still need to earn 75,000 miles in a given year?

Cheers

Molinelaw

Yes. You only roll over the miles that are earned over a medallion threshold. This card works exactly like a gold medallion gift from a Diamond member. You would not have rolled any miles over into the next year under any circumstances because you did not earn enough miles to reach Silver. Only the amount over the medallion threshold roll over. So if you earned 55,000 miles (5,000 more than Gold) you would roll over only 5,000 miles. If you earned 24,000 miles, (1,000 less than silver) you would roll over nothing.

Molinelaw

And yes, you still need to earn 75,000 miles to reach Platinum. Gold status isn't the same as being gifted 50,000 MQM.

Bowgie

I'm quite surprised by the free Gold status feature, but I guess I shouldn't be.

The Amex Hilton Honors Surpass card and the Citi Hilton Honors Reserve (which I have) both give Hilton Gold status just for having the card.

The Chase IHG Master Card ($45 per year in my sock drawer) gives free Platinum status for that hotel chain (and one free night annually) just for having the card.

There's no real reason why a US-based credit card couldn't also offer free mid-tier airline status. Hotels are already there. Credit card companies already are the tail wagging the frequent flyer dog. I'd find it attractive to quit the Skymiles rat race for Diamond status for the simple cost of a credit card annual fee. With recent the recent devaluation on the redemption side of Skymiles, I'm already there.

rcurry01

Hold on a sec. This would totally clog up an already clogged system and would give away far more than necessary to attract customers.

A Delta flyer in Japan is in a totally different position that one in the US. First of all the Japan based flier who takes one or two round trips to the US already has silver status (no MQD requirement in Japan). If that flyer is going to a hub, the status benefits are worth very little. If you are not already doing a round trip a year why would you even want the card? This AMEX basically gets you lounge access and maybe an upgrade on your connection.

I bet most of these Japan based fliers already spend more time on ANA and JAL, because... well... They give access to more markets than just North America.

This benefits are necessary to be competitive in this market. I bet JAL and ANA credit cards don't give status. They don't have to and it would clog up the system.

bonster

Thanks for the confirmation Molinelaw.

I guess I shouldn't have been so naive to think that Diamond status could be so easy.

And as rcurry01 alluded to, yes this card is just Delta throwing a juicy "looking" bone to potential customers in Japan as they have less to offer in terms of flights. But any big spender who consistently qualifies for Gold or better would be better served with a US based card with their larger MQM bonuses or none at all if they fly enough.

As for me, I'm torn on whether I will renew this. Since I live in Kyushu, Delta offers even fewer options unless flying to the mainland via Honolulu, which is why I usually travel United/ANA when going home. And I usually only travel Delta if traveling domestically in the US, so getting Silver, let alone Gold status the old fashioned way would be difficult. SkyTeam Elite Plus status and lounge access on partner airlines is nice and the priority lines did keep me from missing my flight once, so we'll see...