FTD is currently running a promotion in which you can get 1500 Delta SkyMiles per order.  To get the deal, go to FTD via this link: ftd.com/deltasky20. 

It’s possible to optimize this by finding the cheapest items with the lowest delivery fees.  The best I could find were bears and cookies:

I Love You Message Bear by Build-A-Bear Workshop® Item #BB55		Mrs. Fields® Mother’s Day Bites Box Item #C547

Each of these is $19.99 with delivery as “low as” $10.99.  All-in, each item comes to $30.98.  Using a miles earning credit card to pay, you’ll earn 31 miles on your card plus 1500 miles from FTD.  The total cost per mile comes to almost exactly 2 cents per mile even if you don’t care about the bears or cookies.  While this isn’t the best deal I’ve ever reported, it’s not bad!

-Hat tip to MCB via Twitter

UPDATE: THE 10X DEAL EXPIRED 3/19/2012 AT MIDNIGHT

For quite a while, it used to be possible to earn 10 miles per dollar at Sears when shopping through the Aadvantage eShopping portal.  Similarly, the Ultimate Rewards Mall offered 10 points per dollar at Sears at various points in time.  Today Aadvantage is down to 6X and Ultimate Rewards is down to 4 or 5X (depending on which card you log in with).  However, thanks to this tip from DealSeeker, you can once again earn 10 miles per dollar!  The downside?  We’re talking Delta SkyMiles here:

Delta SkyMiles are definitely not worth as much as American Airlines miles or Ultimate Rewards points, but if you’re a regular Delta flyer, this can be a great deal.  Does anyone want to try to double-dip here?  Go through the mall to Sears to buy e-gift cards and then go through again to buy stuff with the gift cards for a possible total of 20 miles per dollar.  The process works with the Ultimate Rewards Mall, but not so well with the Aadvantage eShopping portal. 

Anyone?  Anyone?

Last year I signed up for the Delta Reserve credit card and went on my first ever pure mileage run in order to get to Delta’s almost-top-tier Platinum status.  Getting to Platinum status requires 75,000 MQMs (Medallion Qualifying Miles).  It’s not as impressive as Diamond status (which requires 125,000 MQMs), but it’s pretty darn good. 

My favorite benefit is the ability to change or cancel award tickets for free up until 72 hours prior to a trip.  With this benefit, my approach to booking travel has completely changed.  I used to wait until I was 100% sure of a particular trip before booking flights because I never wanted to risk the hefty change fees that would be incurred if plans changed.  The problem with that approach was that often the best flights and best prices would be gone by the time I got around to booking.  Now, however, if I’m simply considering a trip, I log into Delta.com, find the best award travel prices I can find, and I book it.  There’s no risk!  If I later find a better deal, or change my plans, I simply rebook the miles.

Here are just a few of the ways I’ve already taken advantage of this Platinum status perk:

• In planning travel to the Kiva DO in March, I accidentally booked my flight to LA instead of to San Francisco!  No worries, though: when I discovered the problem, I simply logged on, canceled the original flight, and booked a new one.  No fees.
• Over Christmas, my mom had a flight scheduled with a layover in Chicago.  Predictions of bad weather had us worried that her flight might be cancelled so I booked her an alternate direct route on Delta using miles, just in case.  Within 3 days of her flight, weather forecasts were looking better, so I cancelled the award ticket.  No fees, and her original flight was fine.
• In planning our summer vacation, I found low level award business class tickets to Paris, returning from Amsterdam.  Even though I wasn’t 100% sure the dates would work, and even though I might want to add additional legs to the flight, I went ahead and booked it, knowing that I can freely make changes as needed.  In the past I would have deliberated for weeks about the trip, most likely until the award seats were no longer available.

Higher Value Awards

In the past I’ve tried to ensure that I get at least 2 cents per mile value when redeeming miles.  For details, see: “When is an award flight a good deal?”  However, with the Platinum benefit, I can’t directly compare award flights to lowest cost paid flights because award flights are fully refundable (up to 72 hours before the flight).  So, now, instead of looking for 2 cents per mile value, I’m happy with 1.5 cents.  And, in cases where my travel is really unsure, I’ll go even lower.  The freedom and lower stress involved in booking refundable award tickets is, to me, a huge benefit that is worth paying miles for.

Keeping Elite Status

The irony in all of this, is the dilemma it causes.  Now that I have a taste for Platinum benefits, I can never go back!  However, the more I use the benefit, the fewer MQMs and redeemable miles I earn from flying (because you do not get miles from flying on award tickets).  My solution is to spend ridiculous amounts of money on my Delta Reserve and Delta Platinum Amex cards.  Between the two, I can earn 50K MQMs and 160K redeemable miles from absurd amounts of spending.  The final 25K MQMs needed to maintain Platinum will come from paid flights (I will still do some of those!) and hopefully some Delta promotions.  In the past Delta has often run promotions where people can earn MQMs from staying in certain hotels, transferring points from Membership Rewards, etc.  I expect we’ll see more opportunities like that in the future.  And, if I get to the end of the year and still don’t have enough MQMs, I’ll be back to mileage running.  Yes, I value Platinum that much.

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In January I reported my strategy to buy Delta Platinum status and a million miles.  The idea is to use gift card churning and other tricks to spend a total of $110,000 on two credit cards (Delta Reserve and Platinum) in the calendar year.  Most of these tricks result in getting most of my money back so I won’t go poor doing this.  By spending $60K on the Reserve card and $50K on the Platinum card I will earn 50,000 Delta Medallion Qualifying Miles towards Platinum elite status.  The remaining 25,000 miles needed for Platinum status will be earned through flying.

In that same post, I suggested the possibility of earning an average of 20 points per dollar on spending I put on the Platinum card.  If I manage that, I would earn a total of 1 Million miles on top of miles earned directly from credit card spend and from flying.  Note that I’m primarily focused on earning elite status.  The million mile target is more of a nice-to-have bonus if I get there.

To meet these goals, I would need to spend, on average, $2115 per week using my Delta cards, and I would need to earn almost 20,000 points or miles per week in shopping portals.

So, with 7 weeks into 2012 accounted for, how am I doing so far? I’ve spent an average of $2195 per week so I’m slightly ahead on spending, and I’ve earned just over 24,000 points and miles per week from shopping portals.  I’m ahead there too!  Of course, the Nordstrom 36X deal accounts for most of my success on the latter point, but still it’s nice to see!  Hopefully we’ll continue to see mega-deals every couple of months so as to keep up the pace!

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My wife, who recently gained Gold status on Delta, just received an email in which Delta apologized for her having to sit in a middle seat on a Monday.  And they awarded her with 500 bonus miles:

MAKING THE MOST
OF THE MIDDLE SEAT

Here’s 500 bonus miles to thank you

Mondays are tough, and we’re sorry yours may have been less comfortable when you ended up stuck in the middle seat.
While we strive to give our most loyal customers our best seats, unfortunately, that’s not always possible. To thank you for your flexibility and understanding, we’ve credited 500 miles to your SkyMiles account.

It’s just one of the ways we’re expressing our appreciation for your loyalty to the SkyMiles program. And we’ll continue to take care of you—from booking to baggage claim and everywhere in between.

So thanks again. Next time, we hope to see you in First.

The funny thing about this is that my wife picked that middle seat intentionally.  My son and I were flying with her (we had the window and aisle seats), but we were on a separate reservation.  So, if you have status with Delta and you’re flying on your own reservation on a Monday, and you don’t mind picking a middle seat, give it a try and see if you get 500 points as well.

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Last week I wrote an analysis of the Delta Reserve credit card.  In that post I pointed out that the Reserve card has an excellent rate of return for daily spend (over 3.4 cents per dollar) if you are a very big spender and can hit the $30K or $60K bonus levels.  That card also has a very steep annual fee ($450) which is offset by various perks.

If you don’t want to go all out with a $450 annual fee, another option is the Platinum Delta SkyMiles credit card which has a $150 annual fee.

What you get for the annual fee (just the highlights):

MQMs and bonus miles:

The first year you have the card, you will be given 5,000 MQMs (Delta Medallion Qualifying Miles) and 20,000 redeemable miles after your first purchase.  Since I’ve argued that the fair trading price for MQMs is about 3 cents each (see How much should you pay for elite qualifying miles), and the fair trading price of redeemable miles is about 1.29 cents, this signup bonus is worth approximately $408.  Since the annual fee is not waved the first year, this amounts to a $258 signup bonus.  Not a great signup bonus if you’re into credit card churning, but its not bad if your purpose is to get the card for its ongoing benefits.  Note that if you do not expect to reach at least bottom level elite status (25,000 MQMs) even with the 5K MQM bonus, then that bonus will not have any value to you, and the total signup bonus value will reduce to $258 (or $108 once you subtract out the annual fee).

Companion Certificate:

After the first year, when you renew the card, you will receive a a free companion certificate.  This will allow you to essentially buy two tickets to and from anywhere in the continental US for the price of one.  These can be used for either coach or first class tickets.  Note two big downsides: the companion does not earn miles or MQMs and you and your companion will not be eligible for upgrades.  I like to use these certificates on regional jets that don’t have first class anyway.  Personally, I value this benefit at about $250.  This benefit alone makes the card worth holding onto even if you have no plans to spend any money with the card.

Priority Boarding and Free Checked Bag

If you have elite status with Delta, these benefits won’t matter to you.  Otherwise, this is a pretty good perk.  Priority boarding will allow you to get on the plane and find overhead bin space for your carry-ons before the bins fill up.  The value of a free checked bag should be obvious.  If you don’t have elite status, I would estimate the value of this perk to be about $75 per year.

Total cost each year (including year 1): $150

Total benefits first year:

• $408 for elites
• $483 for non-elites who will reach elite status
• $333 for non-elites who will not reach elite status
  

Total benefits ongoing years:

• $250 for elites
• $325 for non-elites

So, as you can see, the card pretty much pays for itself with its benefits.  If you value the particular benefits listed above, you might want to seriously consider this card.  Let me stress again, though, if your purpose is to signup for credit cards for their sign-up bonuses, you can do much better.  This card is one to keep for its ongoing benefits.

Benefits from Daily Spend

If you don’t spend a lot on this card, the return rate for using this card is not very good.  You will earn one Delta SkyMile per dollar on most purchases, and two Delta SkyMiles per dollar on Delta purchases.  Compared to several other cards, this is pretty lame.  Where the card shines, though, is if you manage to put exactly $25K or $50K of spend on the card in a year:

Big Spend Benefits

Once you reach $25K in spend in a calendar year, you will be awarded with 10,000 bonus miles and 10,000 Medallion Qualifying Miles (MQMs) which will help you get to the next level of elite status at Delta.  The same benefits kick in again at $50K of spend.  So, if you manage to put exactly $25K or $50K of spending on your card each year, you will earn 1.4 SkyMiles and .4 MQMs per dollar spent.  According to my Fair Trading Prices chart, SkyMiles trade at 1.29 cents each whereas MQMs trade at 3 cents each.  This means that you would earn 1.29 * 1.4 + 3 * .4 = 3 cents of value per dollar spent on the card!  This is a very good rate of return for non-category spend (some cards offer better rates of return for spend within categories such as gas stations, grocery stores, etc.).  Theoretically, you could spend $25K on Amex Gift cards by going through Big Crumbs to earn 1.6% cash back and increase your overall rate of return to about 4.6 cents per dollar!  The more highly you value elite qualifying miles (MQMs), the more attractive this option is likely to be to you.

Conclusion

If you are a frequent Delta flyer and you value annual companion passes, this card is a good one to keep in your wallet or in a drawer.  If you are also a big spender, this card is a strong contender!  The rate of return for big spend is not as good as the Delta Reserve, but it is close.  Personally, I hold both the Delta Reserve card and this Platinum Delta SkyMiles card (the business version).  I concentrate my spend on the Reserve card and keep the Platinum card for the companion pass.  If I manage to max out the Reserve card to $60K of spend, then I’ll consider putting additional spend on the Platinum card, but only if I’m sure that I’ll get to $25K of spend.

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I recently reached Delta Platinum status thanks to a mileage run, a signup bonus (10K MQMs for signing up for the Delta Reserve credit card), and a large roll-over of miles from the previous year.  Prior to this, for the past several years, I’ve had Gold status on Delta.  The difference with Platinum is that upgrades have become much more likely and I can now cancel or change award reservations at no cost up to 72 hours prior to a flight.  Since reaching Platinum status, I’ve flown 6 legs on Delta and I’ve been upgraded on all of them.  I’ve also taken advantage of free changes to award tickets twice already!  I already know that I do not want to lose Platinum status next year!  But how?

Flying

An interesting outcome of this points and miles hobby is that now that I have a huge stash of airline miles, using them is less appealing than ever before.  The reason?  When I fly using miles, I do not earn miles and so I get no closer to keeping elite status for the following year.  There are several approaches I can take to solve this conundrum (which I’ll write about in the future), but mostly I’ll look to use miles for big international trips where I can fly business or first class on miles, and I’ll pay for regional flights.

A bigger difficulty I’ll have with keeping elite status is that my job has changed to where I no longer travel for work.  There is no doubt that work-related travel was the primary reason I even achieved Gold status in the past, so reaching Platinum status by flying will be harder than ever!

Mileage runs are always an option.  I’ll keep my eye out for really great ones (let me know if you see any!), but I don’t see this as my primary avenue for reaching Platinum

Spending

A great alternative to flying many miles on Delta to achieve elite status is to spend huge amounts of money on certain Delta credit cards.  The Delta Reserve card awards 15,000 MQMs after $30,000 in spend and another 15,000 after $60,000 in spend.  Similarly, the Delta Platinum card awards 10,000 MQMs after $25,000 in spend and another 10,000 MQMs after $50,000 in spend.  I have both of those cards (one personal and one business), so I can theoretically earn up to 50,000 MQMs by spending a lot.  I would need a total of 75,000 MQMs to reach Platinum, and I know from experience that I can easily earn the 25,000 extra from flying.

Can I really spend that much money?  Can I really spend $60,000 on one card and $50,000 on another for a total of $110,000 in one year?!  Unlike Lucky and Gary, I do not have reimbursable business expenses, so it won’t be easy.  I would need to spend $5000 per month on the Reserve card and just under $4200 per month on the Platinum card to reach this goal.

My strategy will be to concentrate first on the Reserve card since it has a higher rate of return (.5 MQMs per $ for the Reserve vs. .4 MQMs per $ for the Platinum).  I should be able to average $3000 in personal spend per month, and I can afford to make Kiva loans to make up the difference to get me to $5K.  So, meeting the challenge with this card will be fairly easy (except that I will continue to put travel and dining expenses on my Chase Sapphire Preferred for its extra points in those categories, so maybe this won’t be that easy).

With the Platinum card, I will look for opportunities to spend money and get most of it back (e.g. Perpetual Point Machines, Gift Card Churns, etc.).  In December, for example, I used gift card churning techniques to spend over $2000 in a single day and I earned a huge number of points, and I got most of my money back.  This is the type of opportunity I’ll continue to look for going forward.  Whenever possible, I’ll share the details in this blog.  Will I make it to $50K of spend on this card using these techniques?  I think so, but only time will tell.  In the December gift card churn I earned over 20 Ultimate Reward points per dollar spent.  I doubt I will do that well with all of the churns, but if I do, and if I spend $50K with similar gift card churns, I will end up with well over 1 Million points and miles as a result!

Credit Card Churns

The strategy I described above will make it difficult for me to churn credit cards aggressively.  Credit card signup bonuses that require large amounts of spend will be difficult to take on since I’m already committed to very high spend on my Delta cards.  So, at least for 2012, I will be less aggressive than in the past with credit card signups.  I’ll wait for the big, can’t pass them up, offers rather than trying to score big every 91 days.  I understand that many readers have an opposite approach: maximize credit card churns and focus spending on meeting signup minimums.  This is a great approach too, and it will get you huge numbers of miles and points.  For me, though, I enjoy the PPM / Gift Card Churning game and I highly value Delta elite status so I choose to put my focus there.

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Note: I started writing this post before reading that The Points Guy is considering signing up for this card.  Brian, this one is for you:

At first blush, you would have to be insane to sign up for this card.  It comes with a jaw dropping $450 annual fee which is not waived the first year!  However, if you look a bit closer, you just might be swayed.

What you get for the annual fee (just the highlights):

MQMs:

The first year you have the card, you will be given 10,000 MQMs (Delta Medallion Qualifying Miles) after your first purchase.  Since I’ve argued that the fair trading price for MQMs is about 3 cents each (see How much should you pay for elite qualifying miles), this signup bonus is worth at least $300

Sky Club Access:

Once you have this card, you and two guests can get into any Delta Sky Club.  A Delta Sky Club membership costs between $300 and $450 (depending on your elite level).  Personally, I would never pay for that, though.  So, I would peg this benefit at about $150, but you should really judge for yourself how much it is worth to you.

Companion Certificate:

After the first year, when you renew the card, you receive a a free companion certificate.  This will allow you to essentially buy two tickets to and from anywhere in the continental US for the price of one.  Note two big downsides: the companion does not earn miles or MQMs and you and your companion will not be eligible for upgrades.  I like to use these certificates on regional jets that don’t have first class anyway.  Personally, I value this benefit at about $250.

Priority Upgrades

If you are on the upgrade list on a flight and other frequent fliers have the same status as you (e.g. Silver, Gold, Platinum, or Diamond) and they bought tickets in the same fare class as you, you will jump ahead of them because you hold this card.  This benefit is unlikely to help you very often, but if you fly a lot it will probably be the difference between first class and coach at least once a year.  I’ll call this one a $50 benefit (even though circumstances could make it worth much more).

Total benefits first year: $500
Total benefits ongoing years: $450

So, as you can see, the card pretty much pays for itself with its benefits.  If you value the particular benefits listed above, you might want to seriously consider this card.

Benefits from Daily Spend

If you don’t spend a lot on this card, the benefits are minimal.  You will earn one Delta Skymile per dollar on most purchases, and two Delta Skymiles per dollar on Delta purchases.  Compared to several other cards, this is pretty lame.  Where the card shines, though, is if you manage to put exactly $30K or $60K of spend on the card in a year:

Big Spend Benefits

Once you reach $30K in spend in a calendar year, you will be awarded with 15000 bonus miles and 15000 Medallion Qualifying Miles (MQMs) which will help you get to the next level of elite status at Delta.  The same benefits kick in again at $60K of spend.  So, if you manage to put exactly $30K or $60K of spending on your card each year, you will earn 1.5 SkyMiles and .5 MQMs per dollar spent.  According to my Fair Trading Prices chart, SkyMiles trade at 1.29 cents each whereas MQMs trade at 3 cents each.  This means that you would earn 1.29 * 1.5 + 3 * .5 = 3.435 cents of value per dollar spent on the card!  This is really an outstanding rate of return for non-category spend (some cards offer better rates of return for spend within categories such as gas stations, grocery stores, etc.).  Theoretically, you could spend $30K on Amex Gift cards by going through Big Crumbs to earn 1.6% cash back and increase your overall rate of return to about 5 cents per dollar!  The more highly you value elite qualifying miles (MQMs), the more attractive this option is likely to be to you.

Conclusion

If you are a frequent Delta flyer and you value Sky Club access, this card is a good one to keep in your wallet or in a drawer.  If you are also a big spender, this card is a surprisingly strong contender!  Personally, I plan to use tricks for spending a lot of money and getting most of it back in order to spend $60K per year on this card!

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Today Frequent Miler and Delta Points are joining forces to present a combination blog post!  Read Delta Points first to get the big picture, then make your way to Frequent Miler for step by step details.

Intro

In Delta Point’s post, he showed that it is possible for a couple to earn Delta’s most coveted Diamond status for one person and valuable Gold status for another.  Gold status gives you access to priority security lanes, priority boarding, free upgrades to First Class (when available), and more.  Diamond status is the very top tier of Delta’s elite system.  It puts you first in line for upgrades, allows you to make free changes to award travel, and in rare cases may even secure for you a private ride in a Porsche to take you from the airplane to your car!

All of these benefits do not come for free, however!  In order to make this work, you and a spouse (or relative, or friend, etc.) must each signup for two expensive credit cards ($450 annual fees!), and must each spend $120,000 within a calendar year: $60,000 on each card.

You should only consider this venture if you already have great credit ratings, you are already a relatively high spender, you pay off your credit cards every month, you have extra money in the bank, and you’re willing to take on some risk.  Yikes.  Are you still with me?  If so, read on and I’ll show you step by step what to do.

Preparation

• You and partner: Signup for the personal Delta Reserve Credit Card.  $450 Annual Fee.  This card includes SkyClub access and some other good perks, so it’s not a complete waste of money!  One great perk is that it puts you ahead on the upgrade list of other flyers with the same fare class and elite status as you.  And, after the first year, it almost pays for itself with a free companion pass.
• You and partner: Signup for the business Delta Reserve Credit Card. $450 Annual Fee. This has mostly the same perks as the personal card, so you should really only do this if the purpose is to go for high level Delta elite status.  In order to get to the business application, start by clicking through to the personal Delta Reserve application.  When you see “Are you a small business owner? Click Hereto find out about the Delta Reserve for Business Credit Card,” follow the “click here” link.
• Timing:  Credit card signups should be done right away!  In order to reach such high spend in a calendar year, you’re going to want to start spending on those cards as early in January as possible.

Spend $5K per card, per month

In order to reach $60K of spend on each card, you’ll want to spread out this spending across the year.  An easy way to spread the risk is to plan to spend $5000 on each card, each month.  Below is one way to do this.  Remember, this is just a suggested approach, you may have other options you prefer.

Personal Card:

• Put all of your day to day spending on this card
• Make sure to use your credit card, wherever possible.  Don’t use cash if you don’t have to!  Use the card for everything as small as a cup of coffee to as large as insurance payments, utilities, etc.
• At the end of every month, take a look at your spending for that month.  By logging into your account online, you can see “Recent Activity”.  Make sure to look at both completed transactions and “View Pending Charges” to see how much you spent in the past month.
• Figure out how much more needs to be spent to get to $5000 in spend.  Go to Kiva.org and loan the difference using your credit card.  Over time, you will get almost all of you money back, and in the meantime you will do some good in the world!  For details about this, see How to maximize points and virtue through Kiva loans.

Business Card:

• If you have business expenses, put all of them on this card.  If you have your own business that can benefit from advertising, consider putting up to $5K per month into ads.  If that would work for you, then you’re done!
• Assuming you do not have big business expenses, another approach to spending lots of money is “gift card churning”.  You can read about it here: The Art of Gift Card Churning.  The general idea is to buy gift cards at a favorable rate (or with a big rebate) and then find the best option for liquidating those cards so that you either make a profit or, at least, loose as little as possible.  Follow Frequent Miler posts regularly to learn about new gift churning opportunities as they come up.  To see one example, please read Mileage Run Shopping: Buying 162,000 Miles for $500.

Year End Gifting

With the approach laid out above, you and your partner will each get 60,000 MQMs that can be kept or gifted to another person.  For this to work, your partner must gift those MQMs to you.  Between your 60,000 MQMs, these gifted MQMs, and your MQM signup bonuses, you will exceed the required 125,000 MQMs for diamond status!  In future years, you will get 120,000 MQMs through this approach and will need to fly for the final 5,000 (not a difficult requirement at all!).

Once you make Diamond status, Delta will offer you your choice of two “choice benefits”.  One benefit you should choose is to grant Gold status to your partner.  The other benefit you can choose is 25,000 bonus miles.  With these miles and many more credit card miles, you will have more than enough to reward your partner further by redeeming for free international business class trips!

Is it all worth it?

With the money spending ideas shown above, you are likely to get most of your money back in the long run, but there is some risk, and your money will be tied up for some period of time not earning interest and unavailable for other investments.  So, in addition to the combined $1800 in annual credit card fees, these costs need to be considered as well.  With interests rates very low these days, let’s estimate this cost as 2% of money spent towards Kiva and gift card churning.  Let’s also assume that 75% of your total spend go towards those things.  In that case, the cost of this effort can be estimated as 2% of (75% of $240) = $3600.  Add in the credit card fees, and the total comes to $5400!  But we’re not done yet!  You could have spent all of that money using a 2% back card (see The Cost of Credit Card Points), so by spending all of this money on Delta cards, you are giving up $4800 in cash back!  Adding up all of the costs, we come to $10,200!  Yikes! (Hat tip to The Travel Abstract for reminding me about the cost of credit card spend)

Before you scoff at this, though, let’s look at what you gain:

• Diamond Elite status (worth about $3500)
• Gold Elite status (worth about $1000)
• 385,000 redeemable SkyMiles (worth about $4900 in fair trading price)
• Four companion passes each year, after the first year (worth about $200 each)
• Sky Club membership (worth about $300)

So, in total, the benefits are worth about $10K per year.  You will just about break even.  Is all of this effort worth it?  It depends how much you value top tier elite status.

Scaling Back

To a large extent, the prescription above is more of an academic proof that buying Diamond status is possible rather than a recipe for what you should really do.  The truth is, though, that Diamond status is not worth anything if you don’t fly much!  And, if you do fly a lot, you really don’t need to “buy” so many MQMs.  I’m not saying that the idea is a bad one, but rather that you should think about scaling it back.  Instead of getting two Delta Reserve cards per person, consider yourself getting two Delta Platinum cards instead.  The Platinum offers fewer MQMs (20K instead of 30K) for less spend ($50K instead of $60K), and the annual fee is $300 less!  So, if you scale back as described, you will save $600 in annual fees and have $20K per year less required spending.  Your partner will still need to get the Reserve cards, though, because that is the only card that would allow them to gift MQMs to you.  With this scaled back approach, you will earn a total of 100K MQMs per year (not counting signup bonuses).  125,000 MQMs are needed to get to Diamond status.  So, after the first year, as long as you fly enough to cover the final 25K, you’re golden diamond!

A note from Frequent Miler and Delta Points about credit card applications: If you use the links in our posts to signup for any of the listed credit cards, we will receive a referral fee and we’ll be very grateful!  If you’re willing to help us out in that way, and if you will be signing up for multiple cards, please consider using links from both posts.  Whether you use our links or any other method to signup, you will receive the same signup bonuses and card benefits.

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Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by American Express. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of American Express, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by American Express. This site may be compensated through American Express Affiliate Program.

Delta is currently running a special promotion in which they’ll double miles transferred to another person. Is it worth it?

Until December16th, Delta is running a promotion where they will double miles transferred from one person’s account to another. You will be charged 1 cent per mile to transfer those miles plus a $30 transaction fee. You can transfer up to 30,000 miles to a person in each transaction. Since it is possible to transfer miles back and forth between people, you can essentially buy Delta miles for 1.1 cents each with this technique. It is possible to reduce this amount very slightly by bundling transfers to multiple people in a single transaction, but to make this easy to think about, let’s just assume that the cost to buy miles is exactly 1.1 cents.

Is it a good idea to buy Delta miles? The answer depends on your situation. If you’re unlikely to use the miles, then the answer is no. If you would want to redeem the miles for gift cards, hotel stays, etc., then the answer is still no (since the value of such redemptions will typically be 1 cent per mile or less). So, when is it a good idea? Here are my top 5 reasons to buy miles before the promotion ends:

Reason #1: International Travel

If you are planning international travel, but don’t have enough frequent flyer miles for the trip, this could be a great opportunity. Suppose, for example, you are planning a trip from the US to Europe. With Delta, if you’re able to find low-level award availability, you would need 60,000 miles for coach travel or 100,000 miles for business class. To buy the miles would cost $660 or $1100, respectively. Often, the price for a flight to Europe, in coach, is more than the $1100 to buy miles for a business class ticket. In that case, and If you can find low-award availability on Delta for the times you would like to travel, buy the miles and either save a bunch of money by going in coach or live the good life in business class.

Even if you’re not planning an international trip right away, but you know that you will go on a number of such trips in the future, it is probably worth it to buy miles speculatively in the hopes that it will work out. This is a bit risky, though, since you might find no low level award availability on the dates you want to travel.

Reason #2: Holiday Travel

Suppose you failed to plan ahead and you are just now looking for flights to visit family and friends for the holidays. You are likely to see astronomical fares for the flights you want. I took a look recently at some sample fares and the corresponding Delta award availability for the same flights. While you won’t be able to get your round trip tickets for 25,000 miles (low level award), there are plenty of medium and high level awards available that can still save you hundreds of dollars per ticket. For example, suppose you have 30,000 miles to work with and all you can find are high level awards (60,000 miles within the continental US). Transfer all 30,000 miles to a friend for $330 and have them book the ticket for you. Since many such flights are running $800 or more, this can be a pretty good value for you.

Reason #3: Gift Miles

Want to give someone an incredible gift? How about transferring your miles to their account with a card saying something like “Use these miles for the trip to Paris you’ve been dreaming of”. Of course, like a gift card, they would be able to use the miles for any trips they want.

Reason #4: Last Minute Travel

Every now and then something may come up in which you need to travel right away. Two interesting things happen when you are within a day or two of travel: flight prices skyrocket and award availability opens up wide. That means that you might have the option to pay something like $1,200 for a last minute flight or use 25,000 miles for that same flight. Since 25,000 miles would only cost you $275 with this promotion, I’d highly recommend banking some miles now for that just in case situation in the future.

Reason #5: Combine Miles

Many families face the situation of having small amounts of miles in multiple accounts. Separate, the miles are fairly useless since you need a minimum of 25,000 miles to book award travel. Use this promotion to move miles all to one account and not only will your total family miles double, but you’ll also have them together where they are now usable! If anyone in the family has elite status with Delta, then make sure to have the miles end up in that person’s account because they will have better award redemption options than people without status.

I took advantage of this promotion when it ran previously in September and I’m thinking of buying a few more miles again in preparation for future travel to Australia or Asia. How about you, are you going to go for this promotion? Let us know why or why not.

Today I added a new permanent page to the Frequent Miler site: Preparing for Miles. Look for the link at the top of every Frequent Miler page. This page will grow and evolve over time, but for now I’ve saved you the trouble of clicking through to the page by posting its current contents here:

I regularly post schemes for earning points and miles. For example, you will find a series of posts about the search for the Perfect Perpetual Point Machine. A perpetual point machine (PPM) is a technique for earning miles and points over and over with minimal cost or effort. Another series you will find here is about Gift Card Churning. Gift card churning is the process of earning points and miles for buying, upgrading, and using or selling gift cards.

Often, these schemes require certain credit cards to make them work. It’s also the case that opportunities come and go quickly so you need to be prepared to take advantage of them when they appear. My recommendation is to arm yourself, in advance, with the credit cards that are most likely to be needed for these opportunities.

This page will be updated regularly. Please check back often!

Credit Cards Needed for PPMs and Churns:

At some point this may change, but for now the best opportunities seem to come from Chase. Not only does Chase offer some of the best sign-up bonuses, but they have some of the best opportunities for earning points and miles once you have the cards. Here are the cards that I most highly recommend:

Chase Sapphire^SM Preferred Card

This card is the star of the show. If you only get one credit card, this should be the one. This card does two important things for you: it makes it very easy to earn points AND it makes the points you earn more valuable.

Earning Points: You will get 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points simply by signing up for this card and spending $3000 in 3 months. Just as importantly, though, you will gain access to the Ultimate Rewards Mall. Through the mall you will be able to earn extra points for purchases at merchants that you are likely to buy from anyway. It is true that there are many other online shopping malls that award points, but in my experience this one is the best. It is not unusual, through the mall, to earn 10 extra points per dollar on purchases! Outside of the Ultimate Rewards Mall, you will 2 points for every dollar spent on travel and restaurants and 1 point per dollar on everything else. This is also the only card that gives you an extra 7% bonus on all points earned every calendar year.

Redeeming Points: You can redeem your points for cash or gift cards, but then the value of those points is limited to exactly 1 cent per point. What makes this card (and the Ink Bold) really shine is two new options you have that are not available with other cards: 1) You can redeem points for travel and get 1.25 cents per point value; or even better: 2) You can redeem points for hotel and/or airline miles. Points redeemed in this way transfer instantly and can be put in anyone’s account. This is really a big deal because it is very easy to get more than 2 cents per point value from United Airlines miles or Hyatt points, both of which are transfer partners with Chase Ultimate Rewards. It is due to this capability that most experts value Ultimate Rewards points (when used with this card or the Ink Bold) at 2 cents per point or more.

Caution: do not confuse this card with the regular Chase Sapphire. Unless it is the “Chase Sapphire Preferred” you won’t be able to transfer points to other programs and therefore your points are limited in value to 1 cent each.

Chase Freedom® Visa – $200 Bonus Cash Back

By itself, this is a pretty good cash back card. It earns 5% cash back within rotating categories of purchases and 1% cash back on everything else. Note that the 5% bonus is limited to $1500 of spend per quarter. Here are the bonus categories for 2012:

Q1: Amazon.com and Gas Stations
Q2: Grocery Stores and Movie Theaters
Q3: Gas Stations and Restaurants
Q4: Airlines, Hotels, BestBuy and Kohls

What makes this card really shine is that when paired with the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Chase Ink Bold, the points accumulated can be turned into Ultimate Rewards points and redeemed for airline miles and hotel points. If you value Ultimate Reward points at 2 cents each, this means that you can earn the equivalent of 10% back from your in-category spend!

You can also sign up for something called “Chase Exclusives” and earn even more. See Dan’s Deals for more about Chase Exclusives.

The New Ink Bold^SM with Ultimate Rewards

The Ink Bold is a business card, so you need to own a business to sign up for this one. That being said, you can own a business simply by saying so. If you sell things via yard sales or EBay, then you legitimately have a Sole Proprietorship business. If you are in that situation, then simply use your own SSN for the business Tax ID when filling out the application.

The Ink Bold has very similar benefits to the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Like the Sapphire Preferred, you will earn 50,000 points as a signup bonus, but this one requires $5000 of spend in 3 months. Also, like the Sapphire Preferred, when you have this card, your Ultimate Rewards points are worth more because they can be transferred to hotel and airline programs.

In one area, this card is even better than the Sapphire Preferred. The Ink Bold will give you 5 points for every dollar spent on office supply stores, cable and wireless service, and landline communications! You will also get 2 points for every dollar spent on gas and hotels.

Credit Cards Needed for Airline Elite Status:

Platinum Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express

This card has some nice perks by itself that make it worth the $150 annual fee, but the real kicker here is that this card allows you to earn Medallion Qualifying Miles or MQMs. In order to reach elite status on Delta, you need 25,000 MQMs for Silver, 50,000 MQMs for Gold, 75,000 MQMs for Platinum, or 125,000 MQMs for Diamond. With this card, you will earn 10,000 MQMs after spending $25,000 in one year and another 10,000 MQMs after spending $50,000. So, with this one card, you can get very close to Silver status without flying. Here are some other perks:

• Get 20,000 bonus miles upon your first purchase with the Card (5,000 of which are Medallion Qualification Miles)
• Get 5,000 bonus miles when you sign up for two Additional Cards
• Check your first bag for free on every Delta flight
• Receive Zone 2 priority boarding on Delta flights
• Receive 20% In-Flight Savings on food and entertainment
• Complimentary companion coach ticket each year upon renewal

Delta Reserve Credit Card from American Express

This card is similar to the Platinum card, but it allows you to earn even more MQMs, but with a steep annual fee of $450. With this card, you will earn 15,000 MQMs after spending $30,000 in one year and another 15,000 MQMs after spending $60,000. So, with this card you can reach Silver status and be on your way to Gold without flying. Here are some other perks that help pay for the high annual fee:

• Get 10,000 Medallion Qualification Miles (MQM) upon your first purchase with the Card
• Enjoy Delta Sky Club^TM access (for you and up to two guests!)
• Check your first bag for free on every Delta flight
• Complimentary First-Class companion certificate each year upon renewal
• Access to Concierge services
• Receive 20% In-Flight Savings on food and entertainment

Delta SkyMiles® Business Credit Cards

For each of the Delta cards described above, there is a corresponding business version of the same card. The business versions usually have identical annual fees and benefits with the one addition of American Express Open which gives you 5% rebates for certain business purchases. The great thing about the business cards is that American Express will allow you to hold both a personal card and a business card and therefore you can earn signup bonuses and MQMs for each of them!

Other Credit Cards:

There are many other credit cards that can award you elite status and other perks. One of the best summaries I’ve seen is from Dan’s Deals: Credit Card Benefits, Categorized by Benefit. Browse the list and figure out which cards you need to meet your goals.

Disclosure: For most of the cards listed above, I will get a referral fee if you signup. I would never recommend a card, however, if I didn’t truly believe it was a great deal. With the exception of the Chase Freedom card, I personally own and use all of the cards listed above. And, you can bet that the Freedom is high on my list for my next credit card churn!