Does anyone have a Delta Skymiles or United Explorer Credit Card

[cyber888]

I'm retiring in a few months and ready to travel. Most destinations are Europe.

I was thinking of getting a Delta Skymiles credit card, a United Explorer credit card, or a Chase Sapphire Credit Card.

It has perks like $600-$750 starter points, Upgrades, Complementary pass, and stuff like that. Anybody ever use these cards for Max benefits or upgraded seats?

Thanks.

 

[DuluthGA]

I recommend you do some research at travel / points site before getting any new card. There are strategies to maximize points. Skymile redemptions can be crazy high so be careful there. (And that’s coming from a Delta Million Miler in. Atlanta)
The experts usually recommend the Chase Sapp Preferred as your first card. Don’t add spouse as authorize user. When you get your card, refer spouse to get own card and you both get bonus points.
As always its only worthwhile if you pay it off in full each month.
Check out the points guy, travel freely, geobreeze travel sites.

 

[OldShooter]

DW has a Delta card. She get miles, which Delta is constantly depreciating with rules changes. It is an Amex card, so it also gets refused often in the US and even more often outside the US. Frankly I don't know why she bothers with it.

 

[tulak]

I use a Chase Sapphire Reserve card. It’s a good value for me, but you want to look over the benefits and see if it makes sense for you.

I looked at the Delta card last year and jt wasn’t appealing. Too much required spend before you get any benefit.

 

[marko]

I have an Amex Delta card. I've been an Amex member since 1976 and converted it to Delta about 5 years ago. Just bought our First Class Florida tickets last week. We go back and forth all winter so using miles helps a lot. (I'm also Delta Diamond status, but that has nothing to do with the card)

 

[audreyh1]

When we were flying a lot I ended up using the United Club card pretty heavily. In addition to United Club access for me and companion it provided a lot of perks normally only available to first class fliers - multiple checked bags free (2 each), various premium services such as priority check-in, priority luggage etc. It also provided primary car rental insurance coverage which may have been my favorite perk.

Between that and my economy plus subscription and the free upgrades occasionally awarded me due to status, I was doing pretty well perk wise.

 

[53anddone]

I have the United card. Worth the $95 because:
Gets you Global Entry for Free.
Gets you a free bag and priority boarding.
Is a card without foreign transaction fees.

 

[explanade]

I recommend you do some research at travel / points site before getting any new card. There are strategies to maximize points. Skymile redemptions can be crazy high so be careful there. (And that’s coming from a Delta Million Miler in. Atlanta)
The experts usually recommend the Chase Sapp Preferred as your first card. Don’t add spouse as authorize user. When you get your card, refer spouse to get own card and you both get bonus points.
As always its only worthwhile if you pay it off in full each month.
Check out the points guy, travel freely, geobreeze travel sites.

I've had the Delta Amex cards several times, always getting a lot of miles on the welcome offers.

I've also done the same with the United Explorer cards.

I usually cancel them in a year or two not to keep paying annual fees.

The ones which I do pay annual fees on every year is the Chase Sapphire Preferred.

I used to rack up miles on Delta. I liked them but often flew Air France to Europe because they have nonstop SFO-CDG flights. Delta, AF and KLM are all in the SkyTeam alliance.

I left Delta when their award redemptions became ridiculous, hundreds of thousands of miles for Europe business class awards. They sometimes have sales though.

United is part of Star Alliance (Lufthansa, Swiss, SAS, Air Canada) They have the most flight options to Europe.

But people believe Delta has a better product than United, that is better food, better service. The actual business class seats are about a wash.

On Google Flights, you can filter between Star Alliance and SkyTeam to see which one has better flight options in terms of price and schedule.

 

[DrRoy]

We have a Delta card. You get a free checked bag, free domestic companion ticket per year, a little better boarding time, and modest discount on purchases on board. We are in a Delta hub and fly them often. Also, Delta has a quite good on time record in general.

 

[Willers]

We both have United cards. For $95 per card we get two club passes each/yr, no add'l fee bag check and priority boarding. Since United is the only year-round carrier in our resort town, it is worth it for us to keep them. In the past I used multiple airlines, but that isn't really an option anymore. I'm done chasing card rewards (did it for years) so we're just paying the annual fees and using the benefits.

 

[sengsational]

I've got and had many travel cards, and have had success at wrangling value from some of them. But the deals are always changing, so even a success story from a year ago (Chase Sapphire Preferred) isn't necessarily worth telling.

Go to the doctor of credit site and look at what's available now, and what folks are talking about as being the best deals around now.

I will add that the biggest benefit is going to come from sign-up bonus offers. The points and perks are OK, but there's bigger money on the sign-up.

 

[Chuckanut]

I had a Delta card. It's best use was free luggage but since I normally only flew Delta overseas, free luggage came with the package. The other great use was it's linkup with a local doughnut chain. They had a special offer one year, every day for a month, walk into the store, show the card and get a free cup of coffee and a doughnut. I rarely eat doughnuts, but I think I used it 10x that month. Only a very few 'special' doughnuts were excluded. It also had 60,000 miles bonus which with the required spend miles, netted me three round trip domestic tickets.

Today, Alaska Air just fits my needs better.

 

[Gumby]

I have a United Explorer Mileage Plus card and run all my spending through it. I got reimbursed for my Global Entry fee, and I have used the points to get several free domestic flights. You get one free checked bag on every flight, priority boarding and two one time United Club passes per year. I'm satisfied.

 

[mpeirce]

I'm retiring in a few months and ready to travel. Most destinations are Europe.

I was thinking of getting a Delta Skymiles credit card, a United Explorer credit card, or a Chase Sapphire Credit Card.

It has perks like $600-$750 starter points, Upgrades, Complementary pass, and stuff like that. Anybody ever use these cards for Max benefits or upgraded seats?

Thanks.

I was just reading the Delta Sky Club rules and noticed they are cutting back on who can use them - apparently they are now too crowded or something. Anyway, the listed a bunch of credit cards that used to grand access to the Clubs but no longer will.

So double check before you get a new card.

 

[FIYes]

I have in the past used both the Delta and United cards to accumulate miles. I would sign up and get the initial bonus offer, use the card for a year, and then cancel when it was time to renew and I would be charged an annual fee. I have taken several trips paid with miles using this technique.

One thing that helped with this technique was that I would alternate between DH and myself. Get a card in his name, accumulate the miles, cancel, and then get a card in my name. One mistake that I made in this was not using the club access. The last time that DH had a United card we had a long layover and used the club access. I was kicking myself for letting this expire and not using it other times.

I haven’t had a Delta or United card since Covid so my experience is out of date. I did jump on the Chase Sapphire offer last year and even renewed it and paid the annual fee! The $95 annual fee makes me wonder if I should keep it or not when it is time to renew again. I do use the $50 hotel credit so that brings the annual fee down to $45 in my mind. I learned about the Chase card on this forum.

 

[Chuckanut]

I have in the past used both the Delta and United cards to accumulate miles. I would sign up and get the initial bonus offer, use the card for a year, and then cancel when it was time to renew and I would be charged an annual fee. I have taken several trips paid with miles using this technique.

One thing that helped with this technique was that I would alternate between DH and myself. Get a card in his name, accumulate the miles, cancel, and then get a card in my name. One mistake that I made in this was not using the club access. The last time that DH had a United card we had a long layover and used the club access. I was kicking myself for letting this expire and not using it other times.

I haven’t had a Delta or United card since Covid so my experience is out of date. I did jump on the Chase Sapphire offer last year and even renewed it and paid the annual fee! The $95 annual fee makes me wonder if I should keep it or not when it is time to renew again. I do use the $50 hotel credit so that brings the annual fee down to $45 in my mind. I learned about the Chase card on this forum.

I am also wondering if I should keep my Sapphire card. $45 after the hotel credit is not a bad yearly fee. I see that BofA has just upped the Alaska Air card to $95.

 

[TripleLindy]

Personally, I wouldn’t get a fee-based credit card, unless there was a signup bonus and the 1st year was free and I had no intention of renewing. Rewards are SO hard to redeem (and getting harder if you don’t have elite status), especially airline rewards, and you can find free cash rewards cards that will earn equivalent rewards.

Having said that, I have AA Platinum status for life based on lots of business travel, so I don’t need any status perks that may come with a card, like free checked bags. I used up most of my miles several years ago and since I now only travel for leisure, replenishing those miles takes a long time. My wife and I are traveling to South Korea in April, so I signed up for an AA card that came with enough miles for a Business Class upgrade. There’s no fee for the 1st year and I’ll cancel the card after that.

 

[Sojourner]

I left Delta when their award redemptions became ridiculous, hundreds of thousands of miles for Europe business class awards. They sometimes have sales though.

Oh, it's gotten even worse than that now. I just checked a few days ago on a nonstop Delta flight from Atlanta to Rome this coming fall (late September), and the best mileage redemption I could find for "premium select" seats (one notch DOWN from business class) was 300,000 SkyMiles! The business class seats were something like 550,000+ miles!! This works out to about 1.0¢ per mile, which is shamefully low compared to other airlines and rewards/miles/points programs.

 

[explanade]

I got in the mail today an offer for a United card which would give you 100k miles but $550 annual fee.

I think United Club membership and probably some other benefits like Global Entry fees.

I tossed it in the recycle bin, didn't bother to bring it in house.

I have 700k Chase Ultimate Rewards points that I could transfer to United -- or a number of other programs.

 

[folivier]

Both DW and I have had United Explorer cards, different accounts, for 20 years or so. She uses her points to fly once or twice from the cabin back home each summer. My points are just sitting there. The way things are now a days I have no desire to fly. Maybe to Australia in a couple years.
I really need to see how to use the miles on other things.

 

[OldConch]

I'm retiring in a few months and ready to travel. Most destinations are Europe.

I was thinking of getting a Delta Skymiles credit card, a United Explorer credit card, or a Chase Sapphire Credit Card.

It has perks like $600-$750 starter points, Upgrades, Complementary pass, and stuff like that. Anybody ever use these cards for Max benefits or upgraded seats?

Thanks.

DW and I each have Delta Reserve cards. We fly Delta a lot, like to use the lounges when we can, prefer to sit in the front of the plane when possible, and the yearly companion tickets can have tremendous value. DW just booked a r/t cross country trip in first for $1k. My ticket was $48. For us the annual $550 x 2 is well worth it. We use Delta miles for upgrades on domestic flights.

For international flights we like transferable points from Chase, Amex, and Cap1. AA and Alaska miles can also be very valuable. Off peak flights to Japan from the west coast are 60k AA/Alaska miles each way in business class.

Whichever card you choose, you might want to wait until a great offer comes along. We got the cheap Delta cards when they had great sign up bonuses. A few months later Amex sent us an offer to upgrade to the platinum for more miles, statement credits, and companion tickets the first year. We took the offers. A couple of months later they did the same thing for upgrading to the reserve card. Within 6 months we each had a boatload of Delta miles, $400 in statement credits and 2 companion tickets, one of which could be used in 1st. We were able to use all 4 companion tickets. Airline cc's can be a very good deal.

 

[cyber888]

Thanks everyone. Your info helps a lot !

 

[cyber888]

DW and I each have Delta Reserve cards. We fly Delta a lot, like to use the lounges when we can, prefer to sit in the front of the plane when possible, and the yearly companion tickets can have tremendous value. DW just booked a r/t cross country trip in first for $1k. My ticket was $48. For us the annual $550 x 2 is well worth it. We use Delta miles for upgrades on domestic flights.

For international flights we like transferable points from Chase, Amex, and Cap1. AA and Alaska miles can also be very valuable. Off peak flights to Japan from the west coast are 60k AA/Alaska miles each way in business class.

Whichever card you choose, you might want to wait until a great offer comes along. We got the cheap Delta cards when they had great sign up bonuses. A few months later Amex sent us an offer to upgrade to the platinum for more miles, statement credits, and companion tickets the first year. We took the offers. A couple of months later they did the same thing for upgrading to the reserve card. Within 6 months we each had a boatload of Delta miles, $400 in statement credits and 2 companion tickets, one of which could be used in 1st. We were able to use all 4 companion tickets. Airline cc's can be a very good deal.

Thanks. Did you ever use it for Europe or international flights or only for domestic?

 

[OldConch]

Thanks. Did you ever use it for Europe or international flights or only for domestic?

Yes and no. We use a multi cc approach and will often reposition from our mid-size city to larger metros for flights across oceans. In November we're using AA miles to fly to/from Japan but are using Delta miles to fly to/from Korea on the same trip. In May we fly to Madrid from Chicago using Avios and will use Delta miles to get to Chicago. In June we fly to South Africa from Seattle using Avios and will use Delta miles to get to Seattle.

Delta SkyMiles don't get us across oceans but in combination with other miles/points they make those trips possible.

 

[audreyh1]

I got in the mail today an offer for a United card which would give you 100k miles but $550 annual fee.

I think United Club membership and probably some other benefits like Global Entry fees.

I tossed it in the recycle bin, didn't bother to bring it in house.

I have 700k Chase Ultimate Rewards points that I could transfer to United -- or a number of other programs.

That’s funny, because I have used that card heavily over many years. Looks like in 2021 they upgraded us to this VISA infinite version.

My favorite perk is the premium services: premier check-in, first boarding etc. and especially the priority luggage handling which usually means our bags come off the plane first, or in the very first batch.

Plus the primary insurance for car rental.

And I did get it because we used the United Club a lot. The high fee matches an annual club membership with a $125 discount.

But of course it has to match the way you travel, and it covers a companion on the same reservation, so much more useful when two are traveling together.