Delta members: CC Options

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Delta Platinum Card

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You want skymiles and free bags

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reserve

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You are chasing Diamond and you want sky club access

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AMEX Platinum

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You spend a lot and want flexability


To be honest, no idea which card is right for you. It does not sound like you fly enough to get any real benefit with the reserve card. The platinum card is fine if you want to earn miles. The AMEX platinum is great, but will you offset the $895 annual fee?

AMEX Platinum benefits are so heavily tilted towards travel. If you're not traveling a lot for work, expensing flights ... I don't believe it is worth it. The AMEX Gold would probably be much better if you were to move away from the Delta Platinum.

Agree with another poster, home airport matters a lot. Does it have a Delta lounge or other lounge you use? Also OP mentioned he carries a revolving balance, which means interest on top of the annual fee. I don't believe in carrying a balance on any CC, but definitely not on a travel-focused card.

Plus flying domestic 3-5 times year probably doesn't even get to Sliver anymore, so I would consider one of the cheaper Delta cards for checked bags, and maybe Amex Gold (cheaper, more non-travel benefits).

One last note, Resy is absolutely the easiest of benefits to use, its just picking one of thousands of restaurants and going to dinner. Please use it.

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Should I trade in my Delta Platinum Card for the AMEX Platinum or upgrade to the reserve?

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You and I have similar Travel scenarios. I switched last year from Amex Delta Platinum to Chase Sapphire Reserve as my primary card for business expenses and recently added Chase Sapphire preferred for my personal expenses because it only has $100 annual fee and a 100,000 point bonus.

Before you decide to switch make sure you compare miles/points for the given expenses. If I recall correctly Delta Reserve and Amex Platinum has limited miles escalators compared to Delta Platinum or Delta Gold. The true benefit of Reserve is club access and potential first class companion, but I have found the companion fare to be extremely restrictive with its availability. I would imagine first class would be even worse. I have achieved Gold Medallion with Delta but haven't found any advantages other than free checked bags and priority check in at the counter.

In my opinion the chase options give you more flexibility and options to use your points. You earn points at a higher rate and you can transfer them to most major airlines, hotels, or use directly through booking via Chase travel. For example last month I was able to fly direct to Baltimore from MSY for free via SW using points instead of Delta who didn't have a direct flight. If I wanted to fly Delta I could transferred the points to Delta on a 1:1 ratio and booked using miles.

I am going on vacation next week in Europe and paid for most my hotels with points. At one of the hotels I will get $100 property credit (free dinner). I wasn't close to having enough points to get airfare to Europe via Delta but was able to use money that would have gone towards hotels to upgrade my seat class.

There is website pointsguy or something similar that has several comparison blogs that you can use to determine which card brings the most value to you.