IBLevine86

Hi all, I'm a new user (and new to forum posting in general) and very overwhelmed by just how big this site is. I'm trying to comb through the forums to see if my specific question has been answered but have not been able to find anything as of yet. If I've posted this in the wrong place, I apologize, if you could point me in the right direction that'd be great!

Anyways, my wife and I have a trip to Hawaii in the works in October of 2019 and possibly a trip to Mozambique some time in 2020. I've recently started looking into the Chase Gauntlet and various other travel rewards cards as a possibility of using reward miles to get to one or both destinations. I currently have a Delta Sky Miles Platinum card by American Express. I've currently got right around 230k miles and am a Silver Medallion Status member. I became Silver Medallion by surpassing the $25k spend limit, I most likely will never reach Silver any other way as I do not travel for work and we only travel 4-5 times a year for vacation. My home airport is Jacksonville, FL so unless we drive to FLL, MCO, or MIA most of our travel goes through ATL.

My question is, should I look into opening more Delta Sky Miles cards offered by American Express to earn the 30-50k bonuses and increase my somewhat sizable pot of sky miles for my travel to Hawaii and Africa? Should I look into the Chase rewards cards (by my math I could earn somewhere between 250-500k points with Chase between myself and my wife) to diversify my travel reward options? Or is there another specific set of travel rewards cards that might be a better option than the 5/24 option from Chase?

Thanks for any and all help!

salsa

You will be much better off getting out of SkyMiles and putting your spend on Chase Ultimate Rewards or Amex membership rewards and even Citi cards. That is especially true if you aren't earning Delta elite status through flying. Those other programs and points are much more valuable and can be used in a variety of programs. Plus those cards have better travel benefits like Priority Pass lounge membership or Amex Centurion Lounge membership. Amex Platinum cards include SkyClub access.

fuyao

Its called SkyPesos for a reason
Always best to go with a card that offers you a variety of different programs to transfer the points to, like Chase Saphire Prefered or Citi cards...
But if your credit allows it, try to get a variety of cards just for the signup bonus.

javabytes

This. Transferable points are your friend.

That said, you may still need some more Delta miles to redeem your existing ones for where you want to travel, so still keep an eye out for decent sign up bonuses on DL cards. 30k miles is absolutely not worth burning your once-in-a-lifetime Amex welcome bonus over, so hold out for better offers.

Duke787

Would only continue acquiring DL miles under two scenarios:

1) You are a DL FF (like me) so you generate SkyPesos at a reasonably fast rate and don't hold on to them for too long given their frequent devaluations

2) You do an app-o-rama and take advantage of all the new AMEX offers (would want it to be at least 60k or 70k for Gold/Plat cards) and then spend without holding on for too long

Otherwise flexible currencies are your best friend these days.