Delta Amex Business Credit Cards - 5% OPEN Savings on Delta purchases going away?
 

(I haven't been on FT much for a week or two, so I did the requisite searches and found nothing, so I'm posting a new thread on this issue.)

I just finally opened my March 17 statement for my Platinum Delta SkyMiles Business Credit Card. On the OPEN Savings Summary page, I see that the "End Date" for both the 3% "normal" savings and the 2% bonus savings for Delta flights now says "May 15, 2009". On past statements this has said "Ongoing" just like the End Date for the other 21 Programs shown on the 3/17 statement.

I can only presume that this means that the 5% OPEN Savings is going away as of March 15. I would hazard a guess that it is also going away for the Delta Reserve for Business Credit Card. I checked the Amex web pages for both cards and the 5% savings benefit is still listed on both pages - the footnotes shown for the benefit does not say anything about a limited term for this benefit as of today. Perhaps the are planning to "renew" this benefit on an annual or quarterly basis instead of showing it as "ongoing", but it doesn't look good to me.

If indeed this benefit is ending, I find this to be a huge devaluation of this credit card for me. I keep my Delta Amex Platinum for a number of reasons including the MQM bonus, the miles of course (although I've got so many now I'm starting to think, "what's the point"), and this 5% savings along with the other OPEN savings programs. I had nearly $600 in OPEN Savings from Delta purchase last year and a little more than $100 in other OPEN Savings.

I will seriously take a look at another credit card, especially for my business purchases. Later this year, I'm planning to move my family's primary personal card from a Delta Platinum Amex for my wife's SM account to a Delta Reserve CC for my SM account. I'll probably still do this, but with my typical annual business CC spending hovering just below the 50,000 threshold for the second 10K MQM boost (I managed to push it over last year), there's just not that much drawing me to this card anymore.

That would be a huge devaluation of the card for me as well. I'll try to check into it. Keep us posted if you get any confirmation about the program being halted.

It says the same on my March Reserve statement.

I also noticed that date on my Reserve for business statement. Now if that 5% discount were to really disappear, that would piss me off to no end. I justified the fee for the Reserve card in my mind because of the extra MQM potential obviating the need for a potential MR and the DL discount for DL coded tickets for myself and family.

Delta is being dropped; JetBlue is being added. It's at the very end of the ads/notes on my SimplyCash AX statement that cut yesterday.

It will be interesting to see if the JetBlue OPEN network discount is offered on the DL SM biz cards. That would be funny (except that, net net, we are still losing the DL discount that was valuable)....

Without that bonus you might as well just switch to a no-fee cash rewards card. Cash is better than miles and paying an annual fee for the "privilege" of getting restricted-use miles instead of cash is just insanity.

Jetblue has been on Open Savings for years.

My SimplyCash card which closed on the 27th only notes the "End Date" as May 15th. No note about jetBlue being added as they have been a part of the Open savings for quite some time . I believe since they started their own Amex card.

Any cash back card recommendations? I don't like how most of them hold you cash until you reach a threshold. The only two cards that have monthly cash back that I have found are the SimplyCash and the PenFed card.

Now I'm glad I just dropped my OPEN AMEX....

correction
 

Sorry, poor phrasing.

Delta dropped, JetBlue highlighted. The ad snippet on my statement explains that the DL benefit is being dropped, and if you want to save on airfare, use JetBlue. This is on an April SimplyCash statement.

I don't have the DL small biz card, so was not sure if it had the exact same selection of OPEN discounts as the others. I would have thought that DL would have a problem with JetBlue being rebated on its card. And we all know what kind of pull DL has with AX....

Apologies for the confusion.

If you are category cashback/points shopping, check out and/or contribute to this thread....

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other...-earnings.html

Yup its official... OPEN savings for Delta is going away. Here is the cust service response to my email:

Sure looks like the DL Amex cards are becoming worthless.

Thanks rylan for emailing Amex to get the official word. I got some more confirmation today when I received an email message from Amex hyping DL/NW with the subject "Introducing the World's Largest Airline!". There was all sorts of stuff about Delta and NW, miles boosts, pay with miles, etc. But down at the bottom when they talked about the benefits of Amex's OPEN program for business, the following item was included:
With Delta not listed, I figured that was one more sign that this benefit was going away. And then I logged on to FT and saw rylan's message.

I'll be taking a serious look at other cards - for example I just got an email message today from Hilton about a card that offers Diamond status for spending $40,000 per year.

I think all OPEN Amex cards are being devalued by the loss of the Delta 3-5% discount.

This is very disappointing news for cardholders.

Is it?

I pay $150/annually for my DL Plat Amex.

I get a companion cert I use every year that gets me a $200-300 value for free. That in itself pays for itself.

Then I don't know what you get for redemption rates, but I get a hell of a lot more than a penny a mile. I generally have 2-3 cents/mile as a minimum. which equals about 2-3% on a cash rewards card - which I haven't seen across the board. Then on DL purchases it's 4-6% for me.

Then look at the reserve card.

DL Plat Amex is already $150. However with the Reserve card you get a first class companion ticket - so a greater value. If you are also someone who joins the CRC - even as a Plat that costs $300/year. Add the two up and you are at the same cost.

If you don't fly much and/or don't use that companion pass then I would agree with you, but honestly even given some of the devaluations of the amex they are still worth it.

However if I wasn't such a skymiles addict I would have a SPG Amex or a Costco Amex. I personally rank them up there too.