Choosing a credit card affiliated with an airline used to be a simple matter. Banks offered a product that earned frequent flier miles, and perhaps a slightly more expensive version that offered additional perks. Today, Delta and American Express have taken airline affiliated credit cards to their logical extreme, offering five different versions to consumers, and three different products for businesses. At the entry level, Delta and American Express offer their classic SkyMiles and SkyMiles Options cards to customers who want to earn some rewards while paying the least amount of annual fees.
How These Delta SkyMiles Credit Cards Work
To earn a single mile in Delta’s SkyMiles program, holders of the Delta SkyMiles Options card must spend two dollars. With the Options card, only one mile is earned per dollar spent on Delta purchases. Customers of the classic Delta SkyMiles card will normally earn one mile per dollar, with two miles per dollar being granted for spending on Delta purchases. A very small 1,000 mile sign up bonus is awarded for the Options card and an equally lackluster 5,000 miles are awarded to classic SkyMiles card applicants.
In addition to SkyMiles, customers also receive a 20% discount on in-flight food, beverage and entertainment purchases when they use their SkyMiles cards. Cardholders of both products receive an interest rate equal to the Prime Rate plus 12.99%, 14.99%, or 16.99%, depending on the applicant’s credit worthiness. The classic SkyMiles card has an annual fee of $55 while the SkyMiles Options card has none. Both products have a 2.7% foreign transaction fee that is levied against all purchases processed outside of the United States.
Advantages & Disadvantages of Lower Cost Delta SkyMiles Offers
These cards sit at the bottom of the range of SkyMiles cards offered to consumers and businesses. Although the Options card has no annual fee, cardholders will earn miles for their spending at half the rate of the classic card and all other SkyMiles cards – not to mention even the most basic cash back credit cards.
At $55, the annual fee for the classic card is lower than the $95 annual fee for their Gold card, but it earns miles at the same rate. However, as can be seen below, the Gold Delta Skymiles card offers a host of benefits that more than offset the extra $40 in annual fee costs, including five times as many bonus miles, free checked bags and priority boarding. These features essentially make the Skymiles Classic card a waste of wallet space, as the savings from checking one bag round trip are greater than the annual fee difference. See the card table below for more details.
With sign up bonuses of 1,000 miles and 5,000 miles respectively, the Options and classic cards offer a token – if not insulting – benefit that is hardly worth considering. Furthermore, these cards both lack important perks that are featured on Delta’s Gold, Platinum, and Reserve cards such as checked bag fee waivers, priority boarding, and companion certificates.
Additionally, American Express frequently waives the higher annual fees for one year with their other Delta Skymiles cards; it does not extend this offer to applicants of the classic SkyMiles card, essentially making it more expensive to use this less rewarding card than it is to use the benefit laden Gold card.
The Gold Delta SkyMiles Card is Probably the Best Option
The only applicants who should consider low end Delta Skymiles credit cards are ones who have no need for any of the additional perks offered by the Gold, Platinum, or Reserve cards. If a cardholder’s company is always willing to pay for First Class travel including all additional travel expenses, it may not be necessary to pay extra for a credit card that offers these benefits superfluously. With its negligible sign up bonus and poor rate of mileage accrual, the Delta SkyMiles Options card makes for a very poor option. The classic SkyMiles card is only slightly better, but applicants should strongly consider one of Delta’s much more worthwhile products given the huge difference in benefits available at the Gold level.
For more information, see the Delta SkyMiles card online application.
