Called up AmEx regarding my Delta Gold SkyPesos card and said i wanted to cancel. They asked if I might be interested in keeping the card for an incentive. Sure, I said. They transferred me.

I spent $70K+ in the last year on that card. Putting all my charges through that puppy.

They only offered to waive the $95 annual fee or 12,500 miles. I feel cheap.

Should I be insulted or what are the other experiences others have had in trying to get the retention incentive?

I think that's pretty good. If I called to cancel my Citi AA card, I'd be lucky to get 3-4K miles.

I bet you got the max they were authorized to offer.

IMHO, they should have offered to credit you 10% of your purchases (10% of 70K = $7,000). After all AMEX racked up big fees from merchants for all these purchases .

You learn something every day

you mean 1% right? and I would have taken this deal. What's to prevent you from getting the incentive miles and then canceling in another couple of weeks?

Good point.

CSR: "Well, this is the most I can allow as a retention incentive and there are no other offers I can combine or offer you aside from this."
Me: "Okay, I guess then I will be going to other cards which are offering larger bonuses for sign on and spend."
CSR: "I notice you recently received the SPG AmEx, this is another good card to optimize and you should have received a nice sign on bonus for that."
Me: "I did. But, I can start earning more with an AA Citibank card and receive a 75K sign on bonus with spend that would only take me a week to fufill."
CSR: " I cannot speak to that. But, would encourage you to take the $95 annual fee waiver to keep your card open. We certainly value you and you have one of our most stellar account histories."
Me: Chuckled and said "Obviously, not valued enough in my opinion. But, I do thank you for your time."

I still cannot believe this is really a "generous" offer? Maybe it would have helped if I did not open the SPG card a week ago and now they know I will most likely use that guaranteeing AmEx using regardless of the card branding.

Well, it was either I receive the miles (with no pre-condition of spend) or I get the $95 annual fee waived. I suppose 12.5K miles is worth $95 too. . Oy.

I called Citi to cancel my AAdvantage card and all they said was "OK". No offer of anything. So the offer you have in hand looks good to me.

After calming down, perhaps I am being greedy in all this?

$70K in spend and not paying a single finance charge or any other fees gives me 70K miles.
$95 annual fee for 12.5K miles = $0.0076cpm - Better than any MR I have ever seen.
Plus, 25K sign on bonus, 5K for an additional card member and 5K x 2 for hitting spend thresholds.

I guess I am being greedy here.

These are DL miles, though. If you can use them, I'd take the miles, otherwise just waive the fee.

In the past, with different car rental promos DL miles have been easily available in the .0050-.0075 per mile range.

You are.

They gave you a good offer.

Not the best offer they have ever given anyone, but a good offer.

If you want to keep the account open, you should have accepted and said thank you.

I think the offer was pretty good. I have a Delta Reserve and in a huff over the weekend I thought about canceling it and they only offered me $70 and the option to go to another card.

You should be insulted that someone called you greedy.

+1

I think you got a great offer. I haven't seen many people on here get their fee waived in the past year. I called yesterday and asked for the retention department, the girl was puzzled.. then called it another name. They told me they couldn't do anything since I haven't been charged the actual fee yet. But I would have taken the fee waiver, but I guess you could use it with a pay by miles and get $120 off. When I called they were trying to tell me that I would be getting the $99 companion voucher, but from what I've heard they are really hard to use.

$70k in charges, with at least a 3-7% fee they charge, they've made at least $2,100 minus whatever they pay delta for the miles (110k miles).

I wonder if you could get away with asking for a fee waiver on an upgrade to the Plat Delta card, which is $150?