Delta roars back

17

Marriott Protea Hotel Kruger Gate Marriott Rewards sweet spot

This week on Frequent Miler on the Air, Greg and I talk about how Delta has roared back in a big way with major enhancements for top-tier elite members and huge new offers on their credit cards that are hard to ignore even if you assign relatively low value to SkyMiles. I still think Greg is kind of crazy to spend his way to Delta Diamond status, but now that I can find upgrade space online and use Greg’s global upgrade certificates to upgrade award tickets (and he offers to cover the miles!), maybe I’ll feel differently after he passes the GUC. Should you spend $90K on a shiny new Delta Reserve card to earn Platinum status and some (now even more) valuable regional upgrades? Watch or listen to this week’s show for our analysis on that and more.

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This week at Frequent Miler

Delta, Delta, Delta

Exciting enhancements for Delta’s top tier elites (On my mind)

a man sitting in an airplane
Delta One Suites

Delta made some downright exciting changes this week if you’re a Delta elite member. Upgrade certificates can now be used on award flights, which means that elite members with upgrade certificates can now book a cheap economy class award and then use an upgrade certificate to confirm a seat in first class, which could be a great deal (and is particularly awesome because of the flexibility of award tickets originating in the US). This definitely enhances the value of those upgrade certs and thereby the value of Delta elite status — possibly giving Greg the justification he needs to spend his way back to Diamond status next year.

Delta Upgrade Certificates can now be used for award & Miles + Cash flights

a baby sitting in a seat

I teased Greg a bit about this on this week’s Frequent Miler on the Air, but the truth is that this is huge news for those with Delta elite status. This means that those with Delta upgrade certificates can now jump on an award flash sale and upgrade your award ticket to fly first class for few points. This combined with free cancellations for awards originating in the US only increases the value of SkyMiles and SkyMiles flash sales. That’s awesome.

Delta now shows upgrade certificate availability in search results!Delta Miles + Cash regional upgrade certificate availability Delta Miles + Cash global upgrade certificate availability

In another great enhancement, Delta now shows upgrade certificate availability in online search results. That is huge because you previously had to call or message Delta to ask about availability each time you wanted to look at a flight. You will still need to contact Delta to actually apply the certificate, but this will make it much, much easier to find the opportunities to use them.

In credit cards and rewards

Beauty In The Eye Of The Cardholder: Stephen’s Top 6 Card-Linked Programs

Stephen's top 6 card-linked programs

Stephen Pepper has done some fantastic work lately in creating the most comprehensive and up-to-date post on card-linked programs that offer cash back or rewards for shopping with a linked credit card. That resource is huge, so in this post Stephen points out his top 6 programs and shows how to slice and dice prices by stacking offers and apps for max cash back. If you like getting stuff and then stuffing money back in your pocket, you’ll want to read this post.

Brex closed (and reopened) Nick’s account and there’s some cause for concern

a credit cards with a price tag

Brex certainly may end up being the deal of the year for 2021, but the experience hasn’t been smooth for everyone. The hiccups thus far helped me realize that, counter to our usual strategy with transferable points, the safe bet here is to redeem rewards as they are earned because Brex is a new and young program. After publishing this post, some corrections came to light and I realized that some misunderstood my key points and takeaways, so I updated the post to fix what I got wrong and clarify key points. For a shortened / condensed version with just the key details, see: Clarifying that Brex post: what it boils down to is the rewards.

Amex adds cell phone protection to most ultra-premium cards

a cell phone with a cracked screen

In an awesome development, Amex has added cell phone protection to several of its high-end cards. The good news is that the coverage looks particularly good: with just a $50 deductible and up to $800 in coverage per claim, it looks like a great option. Taken together with a temporary 5x on the Business Platinum or wireless credits on select other Amex cards, this will make it easy for many of us to switch our cell phone auto-pay over the next few months at least.

In award travel

My Round the World business class adventure (planning phase)

a man holding a glass ball

I always tell people that Greg is as good a guy behind the scenes as he seems. In the latest piece of proof, Greg has committed to helping relieve a reader’s insomnia by putting his ANA miles use to circle the world using ANA’s epic around-the-world award chart. In this post, Greg explores where he wants to go and routing ideas at a very high level that will help him narrow down how to accomplish the task of visiting all of the places he wants to go while maximizing his use of the round the world award.

Tips for booking ANA’s Round the World award

a child holding a globe

The ANA round-the-world award is the one thing in award travel that I feel like I’ve really missed out on. After spending some time building back balances, I’ve been itching to get with the program and put this ultimate sweet spot to use, so I’m loving Greg’s research here as I look forward to putting it to use at some point when the world is normal again. This post has all of the key considerations you need to know to get serious and get started if you want to do something crazy like fly around the world in business class topping in 8 cities for like 115K Membership Rewards points (give or take).

Gift hotel points, free night certificates, and award nights booked with points: Rules by program

a person holding a wrapped present

Are you points-rich and/or free-night-certificate rich and looking to share the love with friends or family? You may have wondered whether you can give your Marriott free night certificates to a friend (you can’t) or use a Hyatt free night certificate to book a room for your spouse to take  advantage of their elite benefits (you actually can if you “gift” it). This post has the rules for sharing your points, certificates, and awards in major hotel programs.

In updated resources

Delta Platinum complete guide

Delta Reserve complete guide

Credit card cell phone insurance compared


That’s it for this week at Frequent Miler. Don’t forget to check out this week’s last chance deals, updated every Sunday.

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17 Comments
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Captain Greg

Thanks for the great content, as always!

Everybody

After the whole brex things I don’t trust much of what Nick writes

Al C

Thanks for an interesting discussion. Of note, Greg wrote an article back in Dec which reviewed Delta elite benefits. He estimated platinum status to be worth only $750 but of course a lot of depends on how much you’ll be flying Delta. Since my home airport doesn’t have many Delta routes, it doesn’t seem worth it for myself. One question about tax payments, I just wanted to double check that I understand – one can make go online today and overpay your 2020 taxes. Then files your taxes, which include the overpayment, so that you would end up requesting a refund, which would mailed to you several weeks/months later?

Captain Greg

Yes, that’s the idea. I did a ton of reading on this yesterday on reddit, flyertalk and elsewhere. I saw one person who said that he overpays by $15k every year and never has an issue, but I also saw people claiming that it will give extra scrutiny to your taxes and can hold up your refund for weeks or months. I thought $15k was crazy, but the fact that we are talking about doing $90k puts some perspective on the situation. I’d love to hear from more people who say that they overpay their taxes by these types of numbers every year without issue.

I think the bottom line is that you can do this, but if you’re going to grossly overpay you should be sure your taxes are accurate and be ready to float the expense for months. I guess the IRS does pay you back with interest if they hold you up for more than a few weeks though.

anonymous

What that male lion is about to do is a very good metaphor for how Delta treats Skymiles members.

Larry K

Is there a minimum credit limit on reserve? What if you get hit with the big annual fee but then get a credit limit that makes $90k in taxes impossible or infeasible before the payment period unless you want to cycle your credit limit?

Gene

Delta should never be trusted.

Sea Pea

What’s wrong with spending your way to elite status if you were already going to spend that money anyway?

Gene

Because DL miles are worth 0.9 cpm.

Gene

1.3 cpm minus values not earned?

Gene

Also, 1 cpm for PW is worth less than 1 cpm since you do not earn MQD.

WR2

@Sea Pea. Opportunity cost. $90k in spend could yield a shit ton of points if put towards new card sign up bonuses. Would you rather 2M points across many programs to fly anywhere for free in F/J, or would you like Delta top tier status and 100k skypesos?

Everybody

Glad I won’t see you on the flights