AMEX Reserve Likely New Benefit (15% OFF Reward Bookings)
 

https://thriftytraveler.com/news/cre...-card-benefit/

AMEX appears to have jumped the gun in announcing new benefit. 15% off for awards on all Delta metal for Reserve holders.

The benefit was listed on AMEX website, but has been removed later in the day. However the fact it was listed, likely they just jumped the gun. (Or DL IT needs more time to implement)

I admit this is interesting as I have been contemplating my Reserve Card future. Lately, have been pretty happy with PWM and have found that to be a better deal than an outright award ticket. This is an interesting development.

Setting aside the other benefits of the card, you would have to redeem at least 366,666 miles per year on DL-operated flights to break even on the $550 annual fee, valuing SkyMiles at $0.01 each.

This is a nice kicker for enfranchised Delta customers, and is a way to make the Reserve distinct from the Amex Platinum.

Delta will just increase Award ticket prices by 17% (rounded up of course).

Lol, they've already increased award prices by way more than that just based off cash prices going up... and intl D1 awards are insane.

DL award pricing has basically been at 1.1 - 1.2 CPM domestically for several years now. More recently, it's now true generally for international D1 awards as well (at least out of US/Canada). There's no point in further devaluations since you can get 1.0 CPM as a floor with Pay with Miles. Since they are largely revenue based, they will naturally go up as revenue fares go up in price. Note that they have yet to fully go revenue based on awards out of Mexico/Caribbean and you can still find decent deals out of those regions if you are flexible.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...5ef90ceaa3.png

There can also be hidden-city values if you are hub hostage based. There are D1 awards on BOS-LHR starting at 148K miles roundtrip. While the $2275 roundtrip D1 fares on BOS-LHR require non-stop routing, the roundtrip D1 awards do not.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f78f2b53b6.png

15% off of a gazallion is still 85% of a gazillion

Still cannot justify the 600 annual fee, while chase Ap comes with 25k status , only cost 95 US dollars annually.

Probably means there will be an annual fee hike soon as well but if not this is a good development considering the Reserve has the worst earning rates of any card (1x on basically everything except DL purchases).

Not sure what 25k status means, but DL AmEx Reserve comes with free SkyClub and Centurion lounge access, as well as MQM boosts that I know no Chase card has. Plus 3x RDM on Delta purchases, among other perks.

It absolutely does, but when I was first looking at it I had to tip my cap to the people who figured it all out. They made it so that you had to either make a tough decision, or get both Plat and Reserve with both annual fees. Brilliant from the business side.

The card has lousy earning, but the bells and whistles make it worth holding (specifically the SkyClub membership/Centurion access, the MQD waiver, and the bonus MQMs). Being able to get a free meal on a layover and/or to relax on the SkyDeck at ATL isn't something to sneeze at. I do miss the MilesBoost (since that basically meant a generic 1.5 points/dollar in earning if you landed close to the threshold in question), but it's still a decent card.

This wouldn't be a game changer, but being able to effectively get about another few inches out of award bookings is at least a modest improvement. There are definitely some folks with mileage piles that they haven't been able to "dump" until recently who might benefit from this.

After $150k spend everything gets 1.5x.

Hidden-city ticketing on awards can be dangerous as DL can just seize the additional miles anytime after you have completed travel. On revenue tickets DL cannot do this.

That's true on the business Amex Delta Reserve card. Is it also true on the consumer card?