Frequent Miler on the Air - How Greg uses his Delta Platinum credit card perks | Coffee Break Ep46 | 2-25-25

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

With a $350 annual fee, the Delta Platinum credit card is not cheap. But like most of these more expensive cards, it comes with perks and credits that help off-set that cost. Since Greg has this card, we'll find out how he makes use of these various perks and credits. Learn more about the Delta Platinum card here and the Delta Platinum Business card here. (00:15) - $350 (00:55) - 15% off when using miles to book an award flight (Delta metal only) (02:22) - Annual $2,500 MQD Headstart (04:49) - Companion ticket each year upon card renewal Learn more about Delta Companion Certificates here. (07:36) - Delta Stays rebate (09:14) - $10/Month Rideshare (14:12) - $10/Month US Resy restaurants (16:58) - Priority boarding, first checked bag free on Delta flights, and complimentary upgrade list: get added to the complimentary upgrade list after Delta elite members and Reserve cardmembers (17:53) - Cell phone protection Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media. Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn Heads

Welcome to Coffee Break, where we focus on a single topic related to miles and points. And each coffee break is limited to 20 minutes or less for your money back. Let's talk about the Delta Platinum credit card. This is a card that I know Greg has in his wallet and it's kind of an expensive card at $350 per year. That's the annual fee on the Delta Platinum card, but I know that it comes with some perks and I know that Greg the Frequenmyler wouldn't be carrying this card unless he was Getting good value out of them

So tell us how do you get good value out of an Amex Delta Platinum card? Sure first off I don't really carry it so much as I have it I never put any spend on this card at all. I keep the card because of its perks that are valid regardless of whether you spend on the card. So I'll get into some of what's on here and why I value these things. So first off, 15% off when using miles to book an award flight with Delta. Just by having this card or the Delta Gold or the Delta Reserve card, you get that discount off of award flights. So between my wife and I, we probably have, I don't know, close to 2 million Delta Sky miles.

And, you know, so we do use miles when we could get decent value from them. I mean, like, and when I say it like that, I mean, I don't expect to get way outsize value for my Delta Sky miles. They've become more and more like pennies as far as how valuable they are for most uses. But so as long as I can get, you know, over around 1.3 cents per point value,

then I'm gonna use my stash of SkyMiles and that's pretty common especially with this 15% discount factor. Wait I have a question here so is that good on all awards if I book any or like I book an award on Korean Air via Delta.com using my Delta SkyMiles do I get that rebate? No it only works when you're flying Delta itself but you know you do for those interested in chasing elite status award flights, but through Delta do give you elite qualifying dollars. And so you, you know, there's that extra value you get when you're booking awards through Delta.

And that I believe that does count even that part counts when you're booking things like Korean Air. Another feature that I use a little bit is the annual $2,500 MQD head start. So MQDs are medallion qualifying dollars, which are the metric that Delta uses to let you earn elite status. And just having a Delta Platinum or Reserve card gives you 2,500 MQDs. If you have two such cards, that's 5000, which is enough.

At least in 2025, it's enough to get you to silver status with Delta with that before you even step foot on a plane. The reason that I say I only use it a little bit right now is that last year there was the option to roll over the unused what Delta used to call MQMs, medallion qualifying miles, no longer exists as a concept but there was a way to turn them into multiple years of status if you had hundreds of thousands of these MQMs. My wife and I did so we rolled them all over. We both have diamond stats for a number of years going forward. But, so each year we are eligible for diamond

choice benefits, which are great, things like global upgrade certificates and more, but it doesn't give us access to platinum choice benefits. And so, yeah, so, you know, in a year when we're, when we're flying Delta a lot, we may get to platinum status naturally, even though we already have diamond status. Does that make any sense? And so if we, if we earn enough MQDs to get to platinum status,

even though we have that higher level status already, we get the platinum choice benefits and things like regional upgrade certificates, which have value to me. So that's why I'm just kinda kinda using that feature, but that's something that most people who are interested in elite status would value highly, I think.

Yeah, it's kind of like, think of it like a milestone reward, right? The hotel program, even if you have top tier status, you still get the milestone benefits as you earn, as you earn them, as you get enough elite nights. So even if you have lifetime status with a hotel chain, you still need to earn the milestone benefits through night. So similar concept here,

that you're earning this platinum milestone essentially, or you may. Right, it is similar to that, but with the confusion that the diamond choice benefits I get automatically. Right, you get automatically, yeah, right, right confusion that the diamond choice benefits I get automatically. That's where it breaks the hotel comparison. Anyway, the next feature that I try to use each year is a companion ticket.

The companion tickets have become more valuable than they used to be. So you can fly, used to be you can only fly in like within the lower 48 states. And now you can fly to Hawaii and Alaska, within the lower 48 states and now you can fly to Hawaii and Alaska, you can fly to the Caribbean, you can fly to Central America and add a companion for free-ish. Like, you do have to pay the taxes and fees for that companion. I try to use this all the time. I try to get good value from it, but often the expensive flights I want are not available in the fare classes that qualify. So, for example, recently my wife and I,

we had to get away from the Michigan winter. And so we booked a last minute trip to Florida. And it would have been perfect because prices were really, really high. But there were just no, I checked all the airports in Florida and there were no options to return on Sunday with the required fare class. And we had to get back on Sunday. So, you know, so it doesn't always work. So sometimes we end up using it for fairly cheap like $300 round trip flights But still that's still $300 worth of value that you know, these are flights we would have taken anyway Yeah, very good. Very good American Airlines If you're listening that aviator silver companion certificate on the sort of semi equivalent

American Airlines card is not nearly as good as this Okay. Yeah, you're restricted to the discount fare classes, but you can fly to Hawaii, you can fly to Alaska, you can fly to the Caribbean. So it's quite flexible and a nice perk to get year after year for just paying agency. Another way it's better is that upgrades count. So you can get both your free upgrades,

you can apply regional or global upgrade certificates, which I'd be perfectly willing to blow a global upgrade certificate on a round trip flight to Hawaii. You know, right? Well, I guess it would take two for the round trip or four for both of us to do both ways. But that to me is a good use and to get, you know, to get it for the price of one person to pay round trip to Hawaii.

That's, that could be a great deal. Well, I actually had that booked, that exact scenario booked late last year, but we ended up, our plans changed, so we ended up canceling that, unfortunately. Bummer, bummer. But still. That's not all, right?

That's not it. So the companion ticket alone though, could potentially, I mean, that could be worth the cost of the annual fee, depending on how you're able to use it, right? Absolutely, yeah. But you do have to factor in, unless you fly Delta a lot with a companion, there's a reasonably good chance

you're gonna let it go unused some years. And so you have to consider that when deciding whether the card's worth it for you. Next, the next thing that I use, they call it a Delta stays rebate. So Delta stays is a website through Delta where you can book hotels and it's basically Delta putting their name over Expedia, I think. But here's the thing, if you book a prepaid stay

through Delta stays, pay with your Delta Platinum card, you get cash back each year. With the consumer Delta Platinum card, you get $150 back per year with the business one, which is what my wife and I each have, we get $200 back. And that works, you know, whether you're booking a non-refundable or a refundable stay. And so what I tend to do is early in the year, I haven't done it yet this year,

but I'm going too soon. Hopefully. I just book a stay that I may take like foreign the future. As long as it's refundable, I get back that $200 right away. And then later if I cancel it, I get the whatever the stay costs back as well. And so it's basically as good as cash for me. There you go. All right. So that's a nice perk that really reduces the net cost of the card probably. Though, of course, keep in mind, if you're booking a hotel stay, you do end up completing. If you have elite status with that chain, you may not get your elite benefits.

You won't get elite credit. you won't earn hotel points. So there's some downsides to booking a stay through that platform, but you know, certainly there are ways to use it, like Greg said. Okay, but that's not it either, right? So there's that, there's all the other stuff you've talked about so far, but there's more, right? Yeah, the card gives you $10 per month

towards rideshare purchases or spend. So Uber, Lyft, things like that. I haven't been using this at all. Really? Yeah. Why not? Well, because with Uber, I get all of these credits from my platinum cards, not my Delta Platinum cards, my regular Platinum cards, and from the Amex Gold card. And so I don't use it there. And then,

Lyft, there's, there's other cards that are just more rewarding, like the, the, the Sapphire Reserve card has been giving 10X for Lyft. And so, you know, since I don't usually have $10 rides, I usually have like 50 or a hundred dollar rides to the airport, for example, it would, the $10 back would be a pretty small return. It would be better if it was just once, but I'd have to remember to then change it out if I'm gonna use that ride share more than once.

With Uber, there's no good way that I've found to buy Uber credit. It would be cool to be able to just buy $10 of Uber credit and get the $10 back, but I haven't found a way to do that. Well, question before you go to left. So two things. First of all, for people like me that don't have a Delta card and aren't familiar, I'm reading between the lines here that this does not work like the MX Platinum and Gold cards. It doesn't load Uber cash to your account. You have to actually use the card to pay for an Uber or a Lyft. And then you get statement

credited up to $10 is how I'm understanding that. Now with Uber, you can switch your payment method later on though, right? So you could later on go back and say, oh, you know what, I'm going to pay for that $10 ride with my Delta Platinum card. Right, right. You absolutely can. And that's something I really need to do. I need to, you know, monthly look at what rides have I taken in the recent past and make that decision. Like, is it worth switching those rides to one of the two Delta Platinum cards in our household? And I could get that value that way. And so, 100%, that's what I ought to be doing. I haven't been doing though. Fair enough, fair enough.

Kudos to you for being honest. You're not doing it that way. Good. But not worth the hassle for you, I guess. Okay, there's another. It's really something I hadn't really thought about much. I think it occurred to me like once or twice, but it just hasn't been top of mind.

So now that we've talked about it. Now, now that I called you out. All right, that's not the only $10 monthly credit on the card though. Yeah, but before we move on from that one, so Lyft, Lyft does let you buy Lyft cash and it does count towards a ride share credit. The trick is that the minimum you could purchase is $25. So you're getting $10 back on 25, which if you use Lyft a lot, that's a really nice discount. But

it's not something, yeah, I haven't used Lyft often enough that I can be sure that I would definitely use that and it'd be worth it, but this is again something I'm thinking about like, oh, that's kind of dumb, I probably should. I'm sure over time I would use Lyft enough, and that's what, that's like a 40% discount, right? Right, right, Right, right.

Well, and I've changed my habits. So I was long an Uber person all the time and I still use Uber Eats a lot, but because I use Uber Eats so much, I easily use the Uber credits from my various cars with Uber Eats. I use it so much when I travel anyway and I've been traveling enough now that I usually use that.

So I have actually changed my habit and domestically I take Lyft far more often. I usually compare and it's almost always cheaper. And you know, obviously it's gonna vary based on the time of day and the number of people and everything else. But in my, you know, anecdotal experience, it's almost always been cheaper than Uber to begin with.

So saving another 40%, I'd be in on that. Yeah. And you earn the built points. That's really why I changed my habit. Cause it was like, you know what? I should be earning built points too on my rides. And it's not very many, but it's more than nothing. So that's why I've changed my habit. Cause it was like, you know what? I should be earning built points too on my rides. And it's not very many, but it's more than nothing. So, so that's why I've changed.

If I add these cards to my built wallet, will the purchase of the lift credit trigger the built points? I don't know. Rewards points, probably not. Probably not, but. Definitely give that a try. So yeah, so I need to, now what I need to do monthly

is look back at my Uber rides and say, have I done one that's like, you know, in the sort of 10 to $20 range and then if so, switch it to the platinum card, to the Delta platinum card. And if not, I should buy $25 in Lyft credits, I think. You should, you should. I need to start using these credits because that's $120 worth of rideshare that I will eventually

absolutely take advantage of. Right. Right. There you go. There you have it. All right. So that's Uber Lift Rideshare, but there's another monthly $10 credit, right? There is. So, Rezzy Restaurants. So, Rezzy Restaurants, it means any restaurant that appears on the Rezzy platform is good and if you spend, if you use your card at that Rezzy restaurant, you don't have to have made a reservation through Rezzy. You just have to go to the restaurant.

Then you get $10 back. And so what I've done in the past with this is I've gone to a local restaurant that is on Rezzy and bought gift cards. So I've had like multiple cards that have Resy credits and just said, you know, hey, I wanna, let's say a $70 gift card, put $10 on these cards, $20 on each of these cards and you know, whatever. So I've mixed it up and gotten gift cards that way and that works,

that triggers the credit as long as you do it in person. It can sometimes trigger the credit when you do it online. I recently did a test where I bought a gift card from online from a restaurant that I really like and it did not automatically credit, but it was an easy online chat with Amex to get it credited. Like it was no problem at all to get that credited. So I'm hoping that they'll, you know, update their systems to recognize that there's a Rezzi restaurant

and that that would be automatic. So that is basically my go forward plan for my Rezzi credit. Again, this is not something I've been doing monthly So that is basically my go-forward plan for my Rezzy credit. Again, this is not something I've been doing monthly, but I should. It's one of those things that just feels like so piddly that leave the $10 a month, but at the same time, it adds up. And then if you find a restaurant that's also on in-kind

and you use in-kind, you can be getting 20% back plus your $10 back, because I've had that stack work and in-kind restaurant paying through the in-kind, you can be getting 20% back, plus your $10 back, because I've had that stack work, an in-kind restaurant paying through the in-kind app with an Amex card that has a Rezzy credit. We have our mixed data points on whether or not that works, but it's worked for me so far. Right, right, so there is a local restaurant named Miss Kim where that's both on Rezzy and on in-kind,

and so I should definitely try it there. That would be, so it's the tip that you pay with a credit card, right? And you pay the rest. Well, if you have credit anyway, if you have Inkind credit, then yes, it's the tip you would pay on their credit card. I mean, if you don't, you can still just use your card

and then you would get the 20% back. If you have credit, which goodness knows, I mean, Costco puts those gift cards on sale 40% off from time to time. So you could be saving that 40% and then just put the tip, yeah, on your Delta Platinum card and get your $10 back and hopefully anyway, hopefully it'll work. Right. I should definitely do that. That'll be a satisfying experiment. The food's good there,

so it'll be satisfying whether or not it works. Very good. Very good. And so, and then there's other, there are other benefits that you probably would make use of if you didn't already have elite status, right? Yeah, exactly. So, you know, the card, like a lot of airline cards, it comes with some things that are useful if you don't have status like priority boarding, first check bag free, and that's for you and all of your, everyone else on your reservation. Now here's what's unusual for a mid-tier card.

You get on the upgrade list for free, like upgrade to first class just for having this card. You don't have to pay for your flight with the card or anything like that, it's just having the card. But you're after Silver Elites, you're after Delta Reserve card holders. So your chance of actually getting an upgrade is infinitesimally small.

Well, maybe you get an upgrade to comfort plus or something. I don't know. But still, I think that's a pretty, pretty compelling perk for a lot of people. It also has cell phone production, which I don't use at all because I use other and other cards for my cell phone stuff. Not bad. So for 350 a month, this seems like it could be a pretty good deal for a lot of people. Anyway. Yeah, I mean, totally. Because because you know, you've got the $200 Rezzy, I mean you had $200 Delta stays rebate. You've got $120 in both ride share and Rezzy restaurants So, you know between those things if you're actually using all those credits you're gonna be getting back more than the 350 annual fee and

You're going to be getting back more than the $350 annual fee, and you're also getting the companion ticket and the other perks. So I think this is actually a really good card for a lot of people. Don't forget, if you've enjoyed this and you'd like to get on our email list, you want to go to frequentmiler.com slash subscribe to join our email list. Follow us on all the various social media and check out our Frequent Miler on the Air episodes dropping every Friday.