Delta Skymiles members have a choice of various American Express Delta Skymiles credit card to choose from, the Gold, Platinum, and Reserve Card. But which one is the most suitable. In this post, I’m going to highlight how to choose between the three.

What to look for? – One thing I have to say about Delta credit cards is that they are all good. All allow you to earn double miles (like most frequent flyer credit cards). Having any Delta card gives you the unique opportunity to pay by points partially and the rest by cash. This option is not available if you do not have a Delta credit card. Depending on the card, you will either get discounts or even free annual companion tickets.

Obviously there are differences in annual fees, the type of companion tickets you get and bonus miles (see chart and table below). But the main thing in deciding which card to get is this:

Why is this so important? The reason is because the different delta credit cards give cardholders additional MQMs depending on how much they spend on the card.

Understanding Delta Skymiles Elite Level Qualifications and MQM Requirements

Below is the table showing how much MQMs you need (or sector you fly a year) to qualify for the Silver, Gold or Platinum status. Getting elite status confers great perks like complimentary companion ticket upgrade, earning extra skymiles etc. If you are a skymiles member, you know how valuable these are.

For those who qualify for the highest status just by flying – If you are just one of the true frequent flier with Delta and earn enough MQMs or fly enough sector to get the Platinum status, then you should actually just get the Gold version because they do not offer any bonus MQMs (but you do not need them anyway). Their annual fee is also obviously lower.

Folks who can consider the Platinum version – if you meet the spending requirements of the Platinum version and get the bonus MQMs, then you are just short of 5,000 MQMs to qualify for Silver status. If you earn just 5,000 MQMs from flying, that gets you at least an elite status. If you earn 30,000 MQMs from flying alone, the additional MQMs you will get from the Platinum version will qualify you for Gold Status. If you earn 55,000 MQMs from flying, the additional MQMs will get you top Platinum status instead of the Gold status.

Folks who can consider the Reserve version – Even without flying, meeting the cards spending requirement for earning bonus MQMs qualifies you automatically for Silver status! If you earn 20,000 MQMs just from flying, you will qualify for a Gold Status with the card (note that with 20,000 MQMs alone, you will not qualify for any elite status!). If you earn 55,000 MQMs from flying, the card will help you qualify for Platinum Status instead of just the Gold status if you did not have the Delta Reserve Card.

Summary – Your choice of which Delta credit card to get really depends on how many MQMs you can earn just from flying. If you earn enough to qualify for Platinum status, then stick with the Gold version. Otherwise, either the Platinum or Delta Reserve version will get you the elite status that offers all the perks you want. Frankly speaking, the annual fees on these cards isn’t even the issue. Having elite status will more than cover the cards annual fee.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 at 07:24 and is filed under Credit Cards FAQ. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.