When it comes to getting a new travel credit card, timing is everything. Apply at the right moment, and you could walk away with a hefty stash of points or miles just for meeting the card’s minimum spending requirement.
For some banks and cards, it’s simple: Wait for a big limited-time welcome offer, then apply when the bonus is at its peak. Easy.
But if you’re eyeing an American Express Delta SkyMiles card, things get a little murkier. The offer you see often depends on where you’re looking – oftentimes, there are two or more different welcome offers available at the same time.
Take the *delta skymiles gold*, for example. Apply through a site like ours – or directly with Amex – and you can currently bonus_miles_full But if a friend refers you, you could unlock an offer for 80,000 bonus miles with the same $2,000 spending requirement in the first six months of card membership.
That’s an additional 30,000 SkyMiles – more than enough for a roundtrip flight to Europe during one of Delta’s frequent flash sales. Better yet, your friend earns bonus miles for referring you. It’s a true win-win.
And referral links aren’t the only secret to scoring a better bonus.
You might find alternative (and often better) offers when booking a flight with Delta. These checkout-time promotions sometimes include a statement credit for Delta purchases and bonus miles – deals that can easily beat what’s publicly available through Amex or even a personal referral. Just remember, these offers can change at any time, and you might not always find them.
With so many versions of welcome offers floating around, it pays to shop around before you apply. Here’s where to look – and how to make sure you’re getting the best possible deal.
Apply Directly With Amex (… or a Site Like Ours)
A few times per year, Amex rolls out limited-time welcome offers on its suite of Delta SkyMiles credit cards. This is not one of those times.
Right now, if you apply directly through Amex – or a site like ours – you’ll be able to earn up to 70,000 SkyMiles, depending on the card you choose. Delta’s portfolio of business credit cards offer slightly larger bonuses, but none of them are particularly exciting right now, either.
Here is what’s currently at stake:
None of those are particularly bad offers … but they’re far from the best we’ve ever seen.
If you’re in the market for more SkyMiles – or the added benefits you get with these cards: A free checked bag, Delta’s TakeOff15 benefit for discounted award tickets, an annual companion pass, or even Delta Sky Club® access – I wouldn’t necessarily steer you away from applying now. But I would recommend poking around a bit to see if you can get a better welcome offer elsewhere first…
A quick note: All information about Delta SkyMiles credit cards from here on out has been collected independently by Thrifty Traveler and has not been reviewed by the issuer.
Use a Personal Referral Link
Got a friend with a Delta SkyMiles Card? Of course, you do!
Just two years ago, Delta executives boasted that nearly 1% of U.S. GDP gets spent on a SkyMiles credit card. That’s a truly staggering number – and even if it’s not quite true, Delta SkyMiles cards have found a home in millions of travelers’ wallets. Odds are, someone in your life has one and can easily refer you. And when they do, you may very well see a bigger welcome offer than what’s publicly available.
So while the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card (for full disclosure, this is a personal referral link) is only offering a 50,000-SkyMile welcome offer publicly, you might be able to get an 80,000-SkyMile offer here for the same $2,000 spending requirement in the first six months.
The same goes for the mid-tier Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card (for full disclosure, this is a personal referral link). Right now, the public offer is for a modest 60,000 SkyMiles, but by applying through a friend’s referral, you can get a bonus of 90,000 SkyMiles by making the same $3,000 in purchases within the first six months.
If you’re on the hunt for the biggest bonus and top-tier perks like Sky Club® access and an annual companion ticket, look no further than the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card (for full disclosure, this is a personal referral link). No matter where you apply, you’ll get the biggest welcome offer with this card.
But if you apply through a friend’s referral, it could mean an extra 30,000 SkyMiles for you. While Delta and American Express are currently offering a 70,000-SkyMile bonus after spending $5,000 in the first six months publicly. You can currently find a “Special Welcome Offer” for 100,000 SkyMiles with the same spending requirement through friend referrals.
Just know that you might not see these bigger bonuses every time. Amex has made clear that the offer may not be available if you leave the page and return later. Some users will see the standard bonus offer no matter where they look.
If you don’t pull a bigger bonus with one of these referral links on your first try, it’s worth switching to an incognito browser, pulling it up on a mobile device or different IP address (like at a friend’s house or coffee shop), or even trying a different browser altogether. The bigger bonuses through referrals are out there, but you might have to work for it.
Related reading: Which Delta SkyMiles Credit Card is Right For You?
Apply While Purchasing a Delta Flight
Not interested in more SkyMiles? No problem! Delta often offers – let’s just call them different bonuses – when booking a flight.
For example, I searched for roundtrip flights from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Orlando (MCO) for a family vacation next winter. When I went through the booking process, I was presented with an offer to earn a $500 statement credit and 40,000 bonus miles after spending $2,000 in the first six months by applying for the SkyMiles Gold Card then and there.
The terms of the offer stated that the $500 statement credit would be issued after a Delta purchase is charged to the card within your first six months of account opening. Critically, you don’t need to actually book the flight to apply for this offer. So long as you spend $500 or more with Delta in the first six months, you’ll get the credit, and if you spend $2,000 in the first six months (on anything), you’ll earn the 40,000 SkyMiles.
For someone looking to book a Delta flight in the not-too-distant future, this could be a more valuable offer than getting 80,000 SkyMiles through a referral … and it’s certainly more valuable than the public 50,000-mile bonus.
But once again, it’s not the only offer available on Delta’s website. Searching for different flights, I instead saw an offer for a statement credit “starting at $200” and 40,000 bonus miles with the same terms.
You’ll also see the standard 50,000 50,000-SkyMile bonus advertised right on Delta’s homepage.
That’s three different offers for the same exact card within a few different clicks of each other. I’ll say it again: It pays to know where to look.
Bottom Line
Getting the biggest welcome offer possible is pretty straightforward with most cards. Apply when the bank is offering a big limited-time bonus and rest easy knowing you got the best possible deal. But not with the Delta Air Lines cards…
Depending on where you look, you’ll see two (or more!) different offers for the same exact card at any given time. By applying through a friend’s personal referral link or even when booking Delta flights, you can get more SkyMiles (or a statement credit) to fuel your future travels. Happy hunting!
