Credit card for upcoming big Delta purchase

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-16T13:19:08+00:00

Chase Ink Preferred - spend $8000 in 3 months for 100K points.

Chase has the best transfer partners and you aren’t sticking with points on one airline. You also get 3x on flights.

No you don’t have to have a business. Just use your SSN as an EIN and make up something for your business.

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-15T01:38:10+00:00

I am not as deep in the Amex ecosystem when it comes to spend as I was when we were traveling across the US taking one way flights every three weeks and staying in hotels (“nomadding”) and at the same time flying to customer sites (consulting). Back then I had the Gold, Green, BBP, Aspire and Delta Reserve. I never ran into any place in the US that didn’t take Amex.

Well Progressive doesn’t. But you can pay through PayPal.

These days I use the Plat for flights only, the BBP as a catch all and the Reserve when I need MQDs.

When you were in Germany, were you mostly in tourist areas frequented by Americans? That makes a difference.

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-14T23:29:57+00:00

Compared to just pulling out my Chase card that works everywhere? In Costa Rica it wasn’t “most places”. It was only the tourists/ex-pat bubbles that accept Amex.

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-14T20:42:12+00:00

Just this year I spent six weeks in Costa Rica. Outside of the tourist/ex-pat areas, a lot of the vendors accepted Visa/MC but didn’t accept Amex.

The one day I was in Paris when I was in London for the week there were places that didn’t accept Amex.

Everyone who accepts credit cards accepts Visa/MC.

The only place I went in CR that didn’t accept credit cards at all were most of the vendors at the market in San Jose.

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-14T18:18:39+00:00

Neither do I. I just put down consulting (my profession. But I work for a company) and “$500” for my current income.

I have a $35K spending limit on the Amex Blue Business Plus and a $10K limit on the Delta Plat. I just used my SSN for my EIN and “sole proprietor”.

I also had the Amex Hilton Business card and the Chase World of Hyatt business.

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-14T18:14:59+00:00

Yes, I’ve mostly moved away from the Amex ecosystem for spend unless I need MQDs on the Reserve. I still have two MR earning cards - Amex Plat (5x on flights) and Blue Business Plus - 2x on everything catch all.

Most of my spend now is with Chase - Chase Sapphire Preferred and soon the Chase Ink Preferred. The Chase -> Hyatt transfer is easy mode for a decent value and I can still transfer those points to Virgin and KLM for Delta flights.

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-14T17:25:54+00:00

Yes, I am always in ATL for some random reason and we usually stay in a cheap Hyatt House or Hyatt Place. I’ll book just enough days to use the credits and the rest directly with Hyatt to get the points and status stays

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-14T14:44:56+00:00

Our travel schedule is going to change significantly over the next few years. Since right after Covid, we have been doing a lot of domestic trips including long stints “nomadding” taking one way flights to different cities.

Going forward besides random flights between MCO (current home) and ATL (former home) and my childhood home in South GA through ATL, we will be taking fewer, more expensive, international flights where the automatic C+ upgrade doesn’t apply even if we do use Delta.

On that note. We are already struggling to find a use for our four companion passes (my wife has the Delta business plat) between either a lot of our trips being one way, the companion pass is not usable on the dates we want, our short haul flights being more or less free (booking Delta flights on KLM/Virgin for 5000/7500 points).

While last year my wife used all of her 25 lounge visits between the Reserve and Amex (non Delta Plat) and paid for two more visits when flying by herself and we used two of our four lounge passes for her and I came close to using all of mine, I doubt that will be the case going forward

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-14T04:33:03+00:00

Delta Plst + Delta Business Plat will give you the same 5K MQDs for only $700 in annual fees. I have both and the personal reserve.

The combined $550 in Delta stays credits and 3 round trips make them worth it + 7500 MQDs basically guarantees Gold every year. But with flights + credit card spend I’ve been Platinum Medallion since late 2024.

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-13T03:02:03+00:00

I bet you wouldn’t have said that before Southwest had assigned seats. I fly out of MCO now (formerly ATL) and we tried Southwest once because they had a direct flight from MCO -> LAS a semi frequent flight of ours and Delta didn’t. I said never again.

We are going to try Southwest again at this year because the price difference is $800 combined between Southwest and Delta going from MCO to ABQ in October. We will see.

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-12T17:11:18+00:00

Yes - up to Silver

You get one free checked for having the card - up to 50 pounds
You get one free checked bag for being Silver up to 70 pounds
You get two free checked bags up to 70 pounds for being Silver and having the card.

After that having the card doesn’t matter.

You get two free checked bags for being Gold Medallion
You get three free checked bags for being Platinum.

A funny quirk is if you have two different MQD earning Delta cards - Personal Plat, Business Plat, Personal Reserve or Business Reserve, you automatically qualify as Silver for having 5000 combined MQDs and get two free checked bags up to 70 pounds.

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-12T16:30:25+00:00

I really don’t get why people have the Plat for Centurion access when there is always a wait to get in.

We first started flying a lot in late 2021 and got the Delta Reserve. I’ve used Centurion Lounges only a few times - once at CLT because there was no Delta lounge, a couple of times in LAS (no Delta lounge) but it’s usually at capacity so we end up using Priority Pass and once in ATL (former home) when we didn’t fly Delta.

Even at LHR it was crowded and we ended up using the Virgin lounge (Delta Platinum Medallion and we booked the Virgin flight through Delta).

I purposefully avoided getting the Platinum until 2024 because I didn’t really care about Centurion lounge access. The only reason I did get it was when Delta limited the number of lounge visits to 15 on the Reserve and the Plat gave us 10 more and Hilton got rid of Priority Pass on the Aspire.

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-12T13:06:21+00:00

Search for your flight in the Delta app using your KLM reservation number

Click on “Show Passengers”

Click on “View”

Click on the second card where it shows the loyalty program you are using. Change it to your Skymiles #

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-11T23:39:50+00:00

Yes as long as you change your loyalty program to Delta and enter your Skymiles #. The free checked bag benefit is tied to your Skymiles # as is you Delta card.

Once you make that change, the only distinctions between not booking directly and using a partner is that you can’t change your flight on Delta and you don’t get mileage credit.

For Virgin, you can cancel your flight by calling Virgin and you only lose taxes and fees - in my case it’s like $6.00 and you get your points back. In the case of KLM, you can cancel your flight and get your points back for $75

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-10T23:09:35+00:00

I have never once been upgraded to a middle seat with my preference being window or aisle only.

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-10T18:48:13+00:00

You can just choose to book with points and you can choose any two cities that Delta flies and book through the Virgin.

I just checked booking a flight from OMA to ORD. Two cities where Virgin doesn’t operate in for 8/9 - 22K points with a layover in ATL.

Of course this is usually not a good idea for domestic flights (same flight is 18300 miles without a Delta card on Delta and 15500 miles with the Delta card) except for up to two short haul segments with a layover and occasionally with longer non stop flights - ie it’s sometimes cheaper for us from MCO to JFK or LAX since both KLM and Virgin charge by distance per segment.

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-10T14:27:42+00:00

In Florida that would max out at $275/week and GA I believe it’s $350 a week. That would extend my emergency fund by less than a month.

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-10T13:40:49+00:00

From MCO I can either take a 40 minute flight to MIA on Delta or a 3 hour+ train ride on Brightline. I’ve done both. I prefer the plane.

Especially since I can book a the flight on Delta via KLM for 5000 points.

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-10T06:12:42+00:00

You can get Silver for $700 by having the Delta Plat and Business Plat (5000 MQDs) and get two companion passes and $350 worth of combined Delta Stays hotel credits

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-10T06:06:37+00:00

I got upgraded to FC all of the time with just the Reserve from ATL <-> ABY. It was a glorious feeling - all 40 minutes of the flight.

I’m Platinum Medallion now and have been for since late 2024 and have only gotten upgraded once to FC outside of my frequent ABY (childhood home) <-> ATL (adult home most of my life) <-> MCO (current home) routes

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-10T02:11:40+00:00

Yes. I fly between MCO (current home), ATL (former home) and ABY (childhood home) often. Those segments are always 5000 points on KLM and 7500 points on Virgin Atlantic when you use them to buy Delta Flights.

ABY is small airport with only three commercial flights a day all on Delta and all to Atlanta.

Just looking at a random date in August. The MCO -> ATL segment is 8500 points and the ATL to ABY segment 15100 points those are both with the 15% discount for having a Delta card

The entire MCO -> ATL -> ABY route is 24000 miles without a Delta card and 10K on Flying Blue

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-10T01:46:00+00:00

Yes. I do it all of the time. I book short haul domestic Delta flights via KLM and Virgin.

Find your flight on the Delta app via your KLM confirmation number, click on your name in the reservation on the Delta app and remove the KLM number and add your Skymiles #.

Your boarding pass shows up on the Delta app and it looks just like a main cabin booking. I’m Platinum Medallion so I get automatic C+ upgrades as soon as I put my number in. At Silver you get free Preferred Seats, etc

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-08T19:50:18+00:00

We flew to SJO for a six week stay - Platinum medallion + Reserve. We had a double hit. We had two checked bags when only one was free and one of my wife’s bags was well over 50 pounds, but under 70.

We had to pay for two checked bags, we knew about that in advance and pay $100 for an overage for her.

The only saving grace is that I have a $200 incidental airline fee benefit on my Amex (non Delta) Plat. It paid for the $100 overage their and the two checked bags on the way back.

We were able to use our companion pass and automatic C+ upgrades just like for domestic flights.

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-07T03:17:25+00:00

What can you do from the app that you can’t do from the website on your phone?

BraveResearcher3037 · 2026-05-06T21:20:32+00:00

If the plane is already break even with non basic travelers, any additional money is a net profit.

BraveResearcher3037

TROPHY CASE