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Reader Tiffani asks the following question on the Ask Lucky page of the blog:
Hi to my fellow Tampa Bay area person. I’m interested in the Sapphire Preferred card and I can’t find anywhere if I can transfer miles to either American or Delta.
If I can’t do it with that card, which card is the best one for me for each airline?
I have Delta status, someone else in my family has American status so we are looking at two different cards.
For a long time now the Chase Sapphire Preferred card has been my go to credit card for everyday spend, as I outlined here. Unfortunately in the process I somewhat neglected other credit cards, like the ones that would suit Tiffani’s travel patterns and elite status better. Admittedly the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is pretty Star Alliance centric on the airline front, since the best transfer partners are Continental and United. While they’re also transfer partners with British Airways (One World) and Korean Air (SkyTeam), their award charts aren’t as lucrative as their US alliance counterparts for the most part, so I wouldn’t suggest using the Chase Sapphire Preferred card as a means for earning One World or SkyTeam miles.
With that in mind, here are my picks for the best cards to earn American and Delta miles:
Best card for earning Delta SkyMiles:
There’s no doubt in my mind that the American Express Premier Rewards Gold card is by far the best card for accruing Delta SkyMiles. The card accrues Membership Rewards points at the rate of three points per dollar spent on airfare, two points per dollar spent on gas and groceries, and one point per dollar spent on everything else. Furthermore, if you spend $30,000 on the card per year, you earn an additional 15,000 Membership Rewards points. Also keep in mind that Membership Rewards points are much more valuable than Delta SkyMiles, since they can typically be transferred to Delta at a premium. For example, Membership Rewards is presently offering a 30% refund (equivalent to a 43% bonus) for points transfers from Membership Rewards to Delta in increments of 50,000 points.
I’m not a huge fan of Delta miles, though if your goal is to earn them, this is the card to use to earn an insane number of Delta miles per dollar spent. When you factor in the category points bonuses, the annual bonus for spending $30,000, and the transfer bonuses, you can earn an average of close to 3-5 Delta SkyMiles per dollar spent.
As an example, I put roughly $30,000 on the card this year, and for that earned about 60,000 base points (I had a lot of airfare, gas, and groceries on the card), plus the 15,000 point annual bonus, for a total of 75,000 base points. If I had transferred those to Delta while they were running the 50% transfer bonus recently, I would have earned around 112,000 Delta SkyMiles, which is nearly four SkyMiles per dollar spent.
If you’re looking for a business credit card to earn Delta miles, I recommend the American Express Gold Business card, which offers three points per dollar spent on airfare, two points per dollar on gas, and one point per dollar on everything else. Since the card also earns Membership Rewards points, you can earn huge bonuses when transferring those points to Delta. This card also comes with a sign-up bonus of 50,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $10,000 on the card within five months. While that’s high minimum spend, that’s a fairly good sign-up bonus by American Express standards, given that they’ve hugely reduced the amount of their non-targeted sign-up bonuses as of late.
The only other card worth considering is the Delta Reserve American Express. The key benefits are that the card comes with SkyClub access and earns you 15,000 bonus Medallion Qualifying Miles if you spend $30,000 on the card annually, and 30,000 Medallion Qualifying Miles when you spend $60,000 on the card annually. That being said, the card comes with a $450 annual fee, and if it’s redeemable miles you’re after, the card is less than stellar since they don’t have many category bonuses.
Best card for earning American AAdvantage miles:
I hate to say it, but American’s credit cards are downright boring, especially now that miles earned through them no longer count towards million miler status.
The only one of their co-branded credit cards that you should even be considering is the Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard. The card comes with an Admirals Club membership, 10,000 elite qualifying miles when you make $40,000 worth of purchases in a calendar year, priority check-in/security/boarding, and a free checked bag. That being said, the card comes with a $450 annual fee, so is only worth considering if you value each of the above benefits.
For the rest of us, the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card is the way to go. The card offers one Starwood point per dollar spent, and those points can be converted 1:1 to American. Best of all, when you transfer in increments of 20,000 points, you earn a 5,000 point bonus, meaning you’re essentially earning 1.25 American miles per dollar spent. Beyond that, there are occasionally transfer bonuses from Starwood to American. In the past couple of years they have offered 25%-35% bonuses on top of the 1.25 miles per dollar, meaning you can earn close to 1.7 American miles per dollar spent if transferring while they’re running one of those promotions.
Starwood also offers the Starwood Preferred Guest Business American Express card, for those with a small business, which has the same benefits. Of course you also have added flexibility by using the Starwood card, since you can instead use those points on hotels, or if you prefer, transfer them to other airlines. Both of the Starwood cards come with a 25,000 point sign-up bonus after spending $5,000 on the card within six months.
Given that none of American’s co-branded credit cards offer bonus miles on spend categories other than American Airlines purchases, using the Starwood American Express is a no brainer.
Any questions? Anyone have different opinions on which cards are best for an American or Delta flyer?
Full disclosure: I receive a referral bonus for anyone that signs up through some of the above links. As always I will only provide a referral link if it offers the best publicly available sign-up bonus.