(EXPIRED) 90,000 SkyMiles Delta Gold Offer: How To Get Targeted

Last week, Miles to Memories spotted that when making a dummy booking on Delta’s website, there was an offer showing for 70,000 bonus SkyMiles when spending $2,000 in the first three months, as well as a $200 statement credit when making a Delta purchase in the first three months.

We covered that here, with reader Brian sharing that he was targeted for a different offer. Rather than getting a $200 statement credit, he was offered an additional 20,000 SkyMiles for a total of 90,000 SkyMiles.

If you’ve been thinking of applying for the Delta Gold card and would rather get an additional 20,000 SkyMiles than a $200 statement credit (perhaps because you’ll take advantage of Delta’s sweet spots), here’s how to get yourself targeted – although there is one caveat.

The Deal

• Earn 70,000 SkyMiles after $2,000 in purchases on the Delta Gold card in the first 3 months. Earn 20,000 bonus SkyMiles after charging a flight’s taxes and fees to your new card or making a Delta purchase on your new card in your first 3 months.

Key Terms

• Miles issued up to 8-12 weeks after Delta purchase.

Quick Thoughts

The method for displaying the 70,000 SkyMiles + $200 offer was to make a dummy booking on Delta’s website. After selecting your flights, the 70k + $200 offer shows on the trip summary page.

The 90k offer works a little differently. I tried all different kinds of searches with different criteria and on different browsers to try to get that offer to show up, but all I ever saw was the 70k + $200 offer. I’d initially missed that Brian specifically mentioned seeing it when making an award booking, but that thought did occur to me that Delta might display an offer with 20,000 bonus miles on an award search and show the $200 bonus offer on a paid search.

I thought that I was striking out when doing an award search though because I seemingly wasn’t being targeted for any offer – the trip summary page didn’t display any kind of credit card offer whatsoever.

A friend then gave me the heads up that they too had seen the 90k offer. It showed up for them on an award search too, but later on in the booking process. Sure enough, I was able to get the 90k offer to show up as well – here how.

When doing an award search, select the flight(s) from your search – both one-way and round trip flights work to display the 90k offer. On the trip summary page, click the ‘Continue To Review & Pay’ button and log in to your account. That should take you to the Review & Pay or Express Checkout screen; keep scrolling down and you’ll hopefully see the 90k offer:

The terms of the offer state that you’ll:

Earn 20,000 Bonus Miles after charging this flight’s Taxes & Fees to your new Card or making a Delta purchase on your new Card in your first 3 months (Miles issued up to 8-12 weeks after Delta purchase). Terms Apply.

If you’re getting this offer to show up when doing a dummy booking, you can apply for the card and not proceed with the dummy booking after you’ve been approved, but you’d still need to make some kind of Delta purchase within the first three months in order to earn the additional 20,000 SkyMiles.

If this offer shows up when you’re making an award booking for a flight you actually want to take, you can get an instant discount on the award cost. As you can see in the screenshot below, if you’re approved for the card and charge the taxes and fees to the card, they’ll immediately reduce the cost of your flight by the 20,000 SkyMiles – no need to wait 8-12 weeks for those bonus miles to show up.

It’s not entirely clear what happens if your award flight costs less than 20,000 SkyMiles. Your mileage cost will be zero (as seen in the screenshot below), but I don’t know if the additional miles will post to your account immediately or within 8-12 weeks.

The Caveat

I was subsequently able to constantly get this 90k bonus SkyMiles offer to show up when doing dummy award bookings, but it looks like not everyone is eligible for this offer.

I don’t currently have a Delta credit card and the 90k offer shows up for me. When doing similar searches when logged in to my wife’s Delta account, there was never any kind of offer displayed on the payment screen.

My wife has the Delta Business Gold card, so I suspected her being a cardholder was resulting in her not being targeted. To check this theory, Greg ran the same search that I’d done for both my wife and I. He has Delta credit cards and sure enough, the 90k offer wasn’t displayed for him on the payment screen either.

It therefore looks like you have to be a non-Delta cardholder in order to get the 90k offer to show up when making an award booking. Being an authorized user doesn’t seem to affect things because I’m an AU on my wife’s Delta Business Gold card – it appears that it’s only being a primary cardholder which affects your eligibility.

Different Delta Gold Options

There are now several different welcome offers available on the Delta Gold card, with the best option varying depending on how you value SkyMiles, the ease with which you’d earn statement credits and your personal situation when it comes to referrals.

• 70,000 SkyMiles + 20,000 bonus SkyMiles (dummy award booking)
  • This offer is a good option if you value SkyMiles at greater than one cent per point and if you don’t have anyone in your household with the ability to refer you to an Amex card.
• 70,000 SkyMiles + $200 statement credit (dummy paid booking)
  • This offer will be better for those who’d rather receive $200 than 20,000 bonus SkyMiles and also don’t have a household member to refer you.
• 70,000 SkyMiles + $200 statement credit (referral offer in one player mode)
  • This is the current offer showing on our Best Offers page. The difference between this offer and the one you see when making a dummy booking on Delta’s website is the way in which the $200 statement credit is triggered.
    With the dummy booking, you get the full $200 statement credit when making any Delta purchase – even just spending $5.60 in taxes and fees on an award flight.
    With the referral offer, you get up to $200 in statement credits when spending up to $200 at home furnishing stores including Home Depot, Lowe’s and Bed Bath & Beyond. If you’d be spending $200 at those stores anyway, this might be a preferable offer if you don’t have any plans to book a flight with Delta in the next three months.
• 70,000 SkyMiles + $200 statement credit + referral bonus for referrer + 4x at home furnishing stores for referrer (referral offer in two player mode)
  • If someone in your household has an Amex card they can refer you from, this final option will likely be the best. You get $200 in statement credits when spending up to $200 at home furnishing stores, so it’s the same on your end as the referral offer in one player mode listed above.
    Where this option shines is the additional rewards earned by the person referring you. For example, some Amex Gold cardholders are being targeted with 30k-35k Membership Rewards when referring someone to another Amex card. It doesn’t have to just be the Amex Gold card they refer you to – you can now refer across Amex brands.
    In addition to the large chunk of bonus points on offer, Amex is also offering 4x bonus points at home furnishing stores for the referrer on up to $25,000 of spend if you apply for the card using their link by May 5. That’s a potentially incredible deal which could far outweigh the value earned from the 90k SkyMiles offer when booking an award flight.

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