You might say its time had come. I applied for and received a Delta Reserve for Business Credit Card from American Express. Let’s explore why getting a credit card that comes with a $450 dollar annual fee was a good idea for me, and may be the right card for you. A while back I posted about the impact my relocation to Atlanta has had on my Delta SkyMiles experience. In short, I am all Delta, all the time. While I don’t consider myself a hard core “road warrior,” I certainly fly enough to obtain a middle level of elite status, and this year, an even higher level of status is well within reach. Assuming my current flying patterns continue, I will achieve SkyMiles Platinum Medallion status this year.

A hiatus in my travels last year led to my descent into the seventh circle of hades, aka being a Silver Medallion in Atlanta. Now that I am on the road again, I’ve been earning Medallion Qualification Miles (MQMs) at a pretty steady pace. Gold Medallion is on the horizon, and Platinum Medallion is probably coming just in time for Christmas. As I’ve been flying more, I began to consider what things I could do to obtain status more quickly. Right now is not a good time for me to mileage run even though I’ve seen some really attractive fares out there. However, with no need to apply for a mortgage, and being in a good place with my credit card situation, it is a good time to add a new card to my wallet. Since the Reserve Card includes 10,000 MQMs with your first purchase, I felt like this was a good option for me.

Applying for the personal Reserve Card was out since Amex won’t allow you to earn the bonuses that come with a new card if you’ve held another personal SkyMiles card product within the last 90 days. I already carry the personal Platinum Delta SkyMiles Card, so I applied online for the Reserve Card for Business. I completed the application, which was already partially completed thanks to using my Amex website login. I was instantly approved for a fairly generous credit line, and they expedited the card to me via UPS. I made my first purchase the day I received the card, and the 10,000 bonus MQMs posted to my account within a few days, even before my first statement closed.

While the MQMs were a big motivator in my application for the card, it does come with some nice benefits such as Sky Club access for you and up to two guests, priority boarding, and a first checked bag fee waiver for you and up to nine companions in your same reservation. The personal Reserve Card is now offering 10,000 bonus redeemable miles with your first purchase as well. With either card, you will earn a 15,000 bonus MQMs and 15,000 bonus redeemable miles when you spend $30,000 dollars on the card during a calendar year. If you spend an additional $30,000 during the same calendar year you will receive an additional 15,000 bonus MQMs and 15,000 bonus redeemable miles.

In summary, lacking the time for a well placed mileage run at the moment, the Delta Reserve Credit Card was the right option for me. In addition to the MQM bonus, the card comes with compelling benefits that make it worthwhile for me as a budding Medallion flier living in Atlanta. Did you know that the Reserve card is one of the “tie breakers” in the Medallion upgrade queue within your elite level and fare class? If you are in a travel situation similar to mine, the Reserve Card might be worth a look for you.

-MJ, May 13, 2013

LINK: The Delta Gold/Platinum/Reserve Credit Card from American Express 

If you apply for and receive a credit card through the link in this post, I will receive a commission. After selecting “Apply Now” you will see an option to apply for a business card if that is the type of product you are looking for.

Wow, yesterday’s post struck a nerve, a positive one. I got a lot of great comments on my little dilemma about being so close to the spend threshold with my Delta SkyMiles Platinum Amex that would net me a 10,000 Medallion Qualifying Mile (MQM) bonus. I know the post sounded like I had made up my mind, but I really had not. The comments offered a lot of great advice, but the final word came from non other than MrsMJonTravel. She read my blog post and said you have to do it or you will kick yourself next year.

Just in case you were wondering, I always listen to my wife. So…. in the last 24 hours, I have made 2 visits to the local CVS, met a friend called Vanilla, and another called BlueBird and solidified my collection of an additional 10,000 Delta MQMs. Details about the whole thing will be in a soon to be posted future blog post.

Back in the summer, as it became imminently clear that I would be relocating to Atlanta, I procured a Platinum Delta SkyMiles Card from American Express. One of the benefits of this card is a 10,000 Medallion Qualification Mile (MQM) boost for $25,000 dollars in spending during a calendar year. I just got my last statement for 2012, and as of 12/24, I am a mere $2,500 dollars short of $25,000 dollars in spending for 2012.

Seeing that I only had the card for 5 months during 2012, that is a pretty big amount of spend for me in such a short amount of time. Of course, I put a lot of our move expenses on the card, and there are just a lot of little expenses that add up when you relocate to a new home that might not be directly related to the move itself. Frankly, I was surprised when I saw how close I was to the MQM boost. Then I began to reflect on the last 5 months, and what I could have done differently. I could have put a little less spend on my Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa. Simply making the final payment for our European cruise with the SkyMiles Amex instead of my Sapphire Preferred Visa would have meant I would not even be writing this blog post. I’d have the extra MQMs in the bag. But I would have also missed out on a big pile of Ultimate Rewards points since I was getting 2 of those per dollar for our cruise. And it was some of those Ultimate Rewards that enabled me to do this.

In any event, I have a decision to make. Do I go out and spend $2,500 dollars in the next few days, or do I let the 10,000 MQM boost go? Don’t hate me, but I’ve decided to let them go, and here is why.

• 10,000 MQMs will not push me from Silver to Gold Medallion. Granted, I could roll them over to next year, and be that much closer to status for 2014, but I’m likely to fly enough to promote myself up the elite status levels anyway. If I don’t, oh well. If I were less than 10,000 MQMs from Platinum, or even Gold, I would go for it. I’m not.
• One of my very top rules for the road is that I will not spend money I would not otherwise spend just for the sake of earning miles. If I went out and spent the $2,500 just to get these 10,000 MQMs to be rolled over to next year, that is exactly what I would be doing. Yes, I realize that may make me sound foolish to some, but I am what I am, and I don’t begrudge you if you feel differently.
• Finally, I don’t have any degree of clarity on what SkyMiles will look like in the future. I am absolutely convinced that Delta wants to remake mileage programs and that SkyMiles is going to change to what I expect will be a “revenue based” mileage program. As you know, I don’t look upon this with the same sense of trepidation that others do, but I know it will be different. While any possible changes are not very likely to impact 2013, I don’t know that for sure. Will the Medallion program look essentially the same? Will the only changes be in the way redeemable miles are earned and burned? Don’t know. I expect that’s the case, but only time will tell. In any event, I’m just not feeling compelled to run out and front load $2,500 bucks of spend right now, especially after all the holiday expenses that many of us have incurred this month.

Now, I know that one option is to go out and buy $2,500 dollars in gift cards or load a pre-paid card of some sort. Maybe I’m just a little too beaten down by holiday spending or perhaps its because I just paid the bill from our Mediterranean cruise, but I’m just not feeling the need for these MQMs enough to go out and do that right now. Am I wrong about this? Really dumb? Or really in touch with my finances? What would you do? Feel free to disagree with my take on this. Just be nice.