# Delta sticks with American Express



## Poobah (Apr 12, 2009)

A month, or so, ago Delta decided to stick with Amex as the card to accumulate SkyMiles.  Those of us NWAers were sort of left holding the bag, but I am sure we will be offered an AMEX card in the near future and, of course, we keep our NWA Miles.

That being said, I don't really care to switch, because many of the merchants we buy from on a day to day basis don't accept Amex. 

Our NWA Visa will soon be offering us a Visa card that accumulates "points" that can be used to get Award Tickets. I know this is nothing new, but I have no experience with this type of system. 

How do you go about turning in the points to get the travel award? Do they hook you up with a travel agency? Does it really work?

Cheers,

Paul


----------



## pointsjunkie (Apr 12, 2009)

make sure you get a delta skymiles number, once you have it then transfer your NW worldperks to your new Delta account. they are giving extra points to do this now. 

how many NW points do you have?

i have been able to get 4 free flights with delta 2 of them are 2 first class tickets to Italy.


----------



## DeniseM (Apr 12, 2009)

Poobah said:


> How do you go about turning in the points to get the travel award? Do they hook you up with a travel agency? Does it really work?



You will probably earn FF mils that you can use to book tickets on their website.  There will be no travel agents involved - you will make your own reservations, usually online.


----------



## Talent312 (Apr 12, 2009)

Poobah said:


> ... Our NWA Visa will soon be offering us a Visa card that accumulates "points" that can be used to get Award Tickets. I know this is nothing new, but I have no experience with this type of system. How do you go about turning in the points to get the travel award? Do they hook you up with a travel agency? Does it really work?



I think you meant that the bank which issued your NWA Visa will offer you a different Visa with points for a variety of products, including flights.  If so, I can tell you...

Yes, it works.  I just booked a free trip to England on *Virgin Atlantic* using "world-points" that I accumulated with a Bank of America Am-Ex card.  I made the reservation online at their website.
It was routed thru Carlson Travel Services, which issued the e-ticket.

... Nowadays, I concentrate my CC purchases on a H-Honors Am-Ex, since discounts on airfares are so widely available.


----------



## short (Apr 13, 2009)

Talent312 said:


> I think you meant that the bank which issued your NWA Visa will offer you a different Visa with points for a variety of products, including flights.  If so, I can tell you...
> 
> Yes, it works.  I just booked a free trip to England on *Virgin Atlantic* using "world-points" that I accumulated with a Bank of America Am-Ex card.  I made the reservation online at their website.
> It was routed thru Carlson Travel Services, which issued the e-ticket.
> ...



Were you able to book the airline and itin you selected or where you limited in you routing and selection.  Were you offered all airlines or just some and nonstop as well as connections?

Short


----------



## Judy (Apr 13, 2009)

Poobah said:


> A month, or so, ago Delta decided to stick with Amex as the card to accumulate SkyMiles.  Those of us NWAers were sort of left holding the bag, but I am sure we will be offered an AMEX card in the near future and, of course, we keep our NWA Miles.


The Gold Delta Skymiles Card from American Express recently raised its annual fee from $85 to $95 and at about the same time, discontinued its "Always Double Miles" (at grocery stores, home improvement stores, gas stations and the US Post Office) bonus. Since Delta now effectively charges double miles to book many/most award flights, I don't think the Amex card is a good value any more.    I canceled mine and use the Options SkyMiles Amex card just often enough to keep my Delta miles from expiring.  It has no annual fee, but only pays 1/2 mile per $ spent (1 mile per $ spent on Delta).


----------



## Carolinian (Apr 13, 2009)

I spent years as a Delta gold medallion before their first efforts to gut the SkyMiles program (see www.saveskymiles.com ) and then comped my elite status over to NW, whose ff program, I discovered, was far better than DL's had been at its peak.  I also had both personal and business Amex cards to earn miles.

Now things have changed.  After being forced by a customer revolt to retreat on their first major effort to gut the ff program, they are now hard at it again.  With their takeover of NW, Worldperks is being assimilated (think Borg from Star Trek) and is suffering the same fate.  It has not gotten as bad yet as SkyMiles, so if you transfer miles, I would do it DL to NW, not the other way round.

I am doing all I can to burn my NW WP miles while they still have some value.

If you have elite status, you should think about doing a complimentary status match with CO, UA, or AS.  AA is also doing it some, but that is hit and miss.  For details on how to ''comp'' status, see:  www.dlsucks.com/nwaseis.pdf


----------



## Talent312 (Apr 13, 2009)

Posted by Talent312:
I just booked a free trip to England on Virgin Atlantic using "world-points" that I accumulated with a Bank of America Am-Ex card. I made the reservation online at their website.  It was routed thru Carlson Travel Services, which issued the e-ticket.



short said:


> Were you able to book the airline and itin you selected or where you limited in you routing and selection.  Were you offered all airlines or just some and nonstop as well as connections?



The BoA "World Points" travel program offered me initially, a choice of: (1) a basic routing in which it selected flights for me, or (2) selecting my own flights and paying any difference between a maximum price and the actual price my preferred routing.  I chose the latter option, becuz I needed to accomodate others travelling with me. The additional charge was a grand sum of ~$15.00


----------



## Poobah (Apr 25, 2009)

*NWA Sues US Bank (Visa)*

The credit card plot thickens. NWA (in reality Delta) is suing US Bank to stop them from issuing the new "FlexPerk" Visa Card before the conversion to AMEX in August. They are suing because all of the NWA Visa customers will not accrue WP Miles to their accounts from the time the FlexPerk card is issued and August. Very benevolent of NWA (in reality Delta) to watch out for their customers. 

That is true, however the reality is that once those "FlexPerks" Visa cards are issued US Bank will no longer be purchasing WP Miles from NWA (in reality Delta). That couldn't possibly be the real reason could it! 

BTW, NWA (in reality Delta) is unhappy with the name "FlexPerk" and wants the court to rule that US Bank can't use it. 

Delta should have allowed both cards, because it is win/win. For the NWA customers it is business as usual and Delta doesn't lose a customer for Sky Miles. I am sure that Delta/Amex look at the dropping of Visa as a windfall particularly for AMEX. The reality is that some people are not going to switch and therefore Delta will in fact lose customers for their Sky Miles  and the AMEX card.

Delta is just giving its NWA customers another "up yours." 

We got the offer last week to opt for the AMEX Cards: no annual fee for the first year and you get enough bonus miles for two 25K tickets. I think you have to charge $500 to qualify for the tickets. I think the plan forward is obvious.

Somehow I have a feeling the game ain't over yet.

Cheers,

Paul


----------



## Talent312 (Apr 25, 2009)

IMHO, there is enuff "unreasonableness" if not "irrationality" to go around, both by Delta for it's clumsy migration of NWA customers to the Delta brand, and US Bank for blithely trying hang onto NWA customers.  The long +short of it is that the jig is up, game over.


----------



## pointsjunkie (Apr 26, 2009)

i wish delta would bring back the double miles on everyday purchases. once they got rid of that, i got rid of the card.


----------



## Carolinian (Apr 26, 2009)

Talent312 said:


> IMHO, there is enuff "unreasonableness" if not "irrationality" to go around, both by Delta for it's clumsy migration of NWA customers to the Delta brand, and US Bank for blithely trying hang onto NWA customers.  The long +short of it is that the jig is up, game over.



Actually, much of the NWA migration, at least for those who live in cities with real alternatives and not fortress hubs, is to CO, UA, or AA, not to DL.

You might want to take a look at this site set up by a disgruntled NWA customer : www.dlsucks.com


----------



## x3 skier (Apr 27, 2009)

If one wants an AMEX card, I suggest a regular AMEX Gold or other and sign up for their in house Membership Rewards program. Even though there is a fee involved for MR, you have a good choice of airlines to use the miles on. Believe it or not, I transferred 200000 MR points to Delta and got two round trip DAY-LGW Biz Class tickets.

If Delta irritates you so much you don't want to deal with them, you can choose from others like Virgin, KLM/Air France, Frontier, Continental, Air Tran, Singapore and others including Delta. If it included AA, I would be happier but one cannot have everything one wants so I am not whining. 

If you don't want a AMEX, don't get one. If you do, there are options.....

Cheers


----------



## dougp26364 (Apr 27, 2009)

Poobah said:


> A month, or so, ago Delta decided to stick with Amex as the card to accumulate SkyMiles.  Those of us NWAers were sort of left holding the bag, but I am sure we will be offered an AMEX card in the near future and, of course, we keep our NWA Miles.
> 
> That being said, I don't really care to switch, because many of the merchants we buy from on a day to day basis don't accept Amex.
> 
> ...



That's to bad. After a really bad piece of customer service from Am-Ex maybe 10 years ago and, the reports on The Cosumerist web site about Am-Ex issues, I have no desire to ever have an Am-Ex card again.


----------

