Delta SkyMiles Platinum Business card review

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With four personal and three business Delta credit cards available, picking the right card for you or your small business can be a challenge. It’s a push and pull between earning the best bonus offer and the most valuable and relevant perks while keeping your costs low. Enter the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card, a middle ground between the entry-level Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business American Express Card and the ultra-premium Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card.

Apply for the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card here. 

With the card, can you earn a limited time offer 90,000 bonus miles and a $100 statement credit after spending $3,000 in purchases on your new card in your first three months. Offer ends 4/28/21. And big spending businesses can earn Medallion® Qualification Miles (MQMs) with the card’s Status Boost, as well as a Medallion® Qualifying Dollar (MQD) waiver which makes earning Delta elite status easier. You’ll also enjoy a number of elite-like perks, including free first checked bags, priority boarding and a 20% savings on inflight purchases on Delta flights.

Who is this card for?

This is a business credit card, so you’ll need some sort of business to qualify. However, you may be eligible and not realize it, because even side hustles or part-time businesses, like reselling online, freelancing, running an Airbnb, or being an independent contractor (like Uber or Lyft) can qualify you. Filling out the application isn’t even as hard as you may think because if you’re a sole proprietor you can use your name as the business name and you can use your Social Security number as your business tax ID. For more details, here’s our step-by-step guide to filling out an Amex business card application.

Because American Express only lets you earn the bonus once per lifetime on a credit card, you should be eligible for this bonus even if you have the personal Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card, as long as you’ve never had this card before. Make sure you study up on Amex’s other application rules, including the fact that unofficially, Amex typically limits you to only holding five credit cards at once.

Current bonus

Limited Time Offer: Earn 90,000 bonus miles and a $100 statement credit after spending $3,000 in purchases on your new card in your first three months. Offer ends 4/28/21.

Benefits and perks

It is now easier to earn Delta miles than before with this card. You’ll earn 3x miles on Delta purchases and purchases made directly with hotels, 1.5x miles on all eligible single purchases of $5,000 or more (up to 50,000 additional miles per year) and one mile per dollar spent everywhere else.

This card also has a wide range of useful perks, like a free checked bag, priority boarding and a 20% discount on select inflight purchases. including:

• Each year on your account anniversary you’ll get a companion certificate valid for domestic Main Cabin round-trip flights
• Global Entry/TSA PreCheck application fee credit (worth up to $100)
• The ability to stack up bonus MQMs. You can earn 10,000 MQMs after you spend $25,000+ on your card in a calendar year. And you’ll earn another 10,000 MQMs after reaching $50,000 or more in spending in the same timeframe.
• You can earn a Medallion® Qualification Dollar (MQD) waiver for status (up to Platinum Medallion) when you spend $25,000 or more on the card during the calendar year and if you spend $250,000+ during the same timeframe you’ll earn a MQD waiver for Diamond status.
• You can purchase Delta one-time lounge passes for the accountholder and up to two guests for $39 a person.
• Terms apply

For more details, read our guide to the Delta Platinum Business card’s benefits.

How to redeem Delta miles

Delta’s lack of an award chart makes it hard to speak about SkyMiles redemption in general terms, since prices vary on a day-to-day basis. By the time you sit down to read this post, there’s a good chance that prices will be different than what I see while I’m writing this.

For example, one-way economy awards between Chicago (ORD) and Atlanta (ATL) vary from 6,500 miles on the absolute lowest end up to 13,500 miles. You can expect to pay just over 10,000 miles for most domestic economy awards.

The variation on international routes is even more extreme. Take a look at these one-way business-class awards from Atlanta (ATL) to Amsterdam (AMS), which differ in price by as much as 3x day to day.

Your best bet for using Delta miles at a good value is to wait for one of Delta’s award sales. While the Delta SkyMiles program as a whole doesn’t offer the best value, these sales can be an incredible deal for a flexible traveler. This year alone we’ve seen some of the following discounts:

• Round-trip to Australia for 44,000 miles in economy
• Round-trip to South America for as low as 30,000 miles in economy
• Round-trip to Europe for only 16,000 miles in economy
• Domestic round-trips for as low as 5,000 miles in Basic Economy

We’ve also seen a number of sales for Delta Comfort+ and Delta One, as well, but these are just a few examples.

Is it worth the annual fee?

An annual fee of $250 (see rates and fees) is pretty steep for a non ‘premium’ credit card, but the Amex Platinum Delta Business card can still be worth it. Frequent Delta travelers could offset the annual fee by using perks like the free checked bags and the companion certificate and Delta elites (or wannabe elites) can get serious value out of the MQD waiver and status boost option.

Insider tip

Whenever you open a travel credit card it can limit which other cards you’re eligible for. For example, the Chase 5/24 rule restricts you from opening any Chase credit card if you’ve opened five or more cards from any bank in the past 24 months. But the nice thing about Amex business cards is that they don’t show up on your personal credit report. So you can open this card and it won’t limit your options with other banks.

Similar cards to the Platinum Delta SkyMiles Business card

The personal version of this card, the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card, offers a similar set of perks and a welcome bonus of 90,000 bonus miles after spending $3,000 in purchases on your new card in your first three months. Offer ends 4/28/21.

If you want to stick with a business card, you can also consider the Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business American Express Card which has a lower annual fee of $99 (see rates and fees) which is waived the first year. You can earn 70,000 bonus miles and a $50 statement credit after spending $2,000 in purchases on your new card in the first three months of account opening. Offer ends 4/28/21.

There’s also the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card, which offers 80,000 bonus miles and 20,000 Medallion® Qualification Miles (MQMs), and a $200 statement credit after spending $5,000 in purchases on your new card in your first three months. Offer ends 4/28/21. It has a $550 annual fee (see rates and fees).

Bottom line

The Delta SkyMiles Platinum Business card is a mid-level card between the Gold and the Reserve, with a welcome offer of 90,000 SkyMiles and a $100 statement credit after meeting minimum spending requirements. You’ll also get great perks without breaking the bank, including a free first checked bag, priority boarding, an annual companion certificate and a status boost.

This is a good bonus offer that many small business owners will be eligible for, even if your venture is a part-time side gig. If you’ve been enticed by one of Delta’s recent award sales but don’t have enough miles in your account, this is a great way to fix that problem.

For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles Gold Business American Express card, click here.

For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card, please click here.

For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card, please click here.