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The big 4 domestic airlines are all currently offering increased signup bonuses for a limited time.
The cards typically aren’t great for spending. In general you’ll be better off spending on a card like the Starwood Consumer AMEX or the Starwood Business AMEX and transferring points to the airline of your choice with a transfer bonus.
However the airline cards offer a plethora of flying benefits and for a limited time they come with big signup bonuses as well.
Here’s how the offers break down:
-Delta SkyMiles Gold AMEX
-Signup bonus: 60,000 bonus miles after spending $3,000 in the first four months and a $50 statement credit after making a Delta purchase in the first four months. Sample purchases include Delta gift cards or eGift cards, food or drinks on a Delta flight, baggage fees, tickets, upgrades, change fees, club entrance fees, etc.
-Annual fee: $0 intro annual fee, then $95.
-Delta SkyMiles Platinum AMEX
-Signup bonus: 70,000 bonus miles and 10,000 Medallion Qualifying Miles after spending $4,000 in the first four months and a $100 statement credit after making a Delta purchase in the first four months. Sample purchases include Delta gift cards or eGift cards, food or drinks on a Delta flight, baggage fees, tickets, upgrades, change fees, club entrance fees, etc.
-Annual fee: $195
-Annual Delta Platinum card benefits:
-If you spend $25,000 in a calendar year you’ll receive an additional 10,000 bonus miles and 10,000 Medallion Qualifying Miles. If you spend $50,000 in a calendar year you’ll receive an additional 10,000 bonus miles and 10,000 Medallion Qualifying Miles.
-This card includes an annual Companion Certificate that is valid for a round-trip Economy Class Companion ticket with the payment of applicable taxes and fees within the 48 contiguous United States. Residents of Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico or the United States Virgin Islands (USVI) must originate from there to the 48 contiguous United States and have an address on their SkyMiles account in Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico or the USVI.
-Delta Gold/Platinum card benefits:
-A free checked bag for the primary cardholder and up to 8 companions on the same reservation. You do not need to book tickets on your card for free bags.
-Zone 1 Priority Boarding on Delta flights for the primary cardholder and up to 8 companions on the same reservation so that you won’t have to gate-check your carry-ons.
-Waives the Medallion Qualification Dollar requirement to reach Medallion status if you spend $25,000 in a calendar year. Eligible purchases will be combined across multiple Delta cards of the primary cardholder if those accounts are linked to the same SkyMiles number.
–No foreign transaction fees. 2 Delta miles per dollar on flight purchases on Delta. 20% savings in the form of a statement credit on eligible pre-purchased meals, in-flight purchases of food,alcoholic beverages and audio headsets, and movies, shows and video games accessed via Delta’s seatback in-flight entertainment system, on Delta-operated flights. $29 per person discounted SkyClub lounge access for the cardmember and up to 2 guests. AMEX protections including return protection, purchase protection, extended warranty, dispute resolution, CDW car rental insurance, and more. Free Shoprunner membership for 2nd day free shipping and returns. Free additional cardholders (up to 99 per account). Additional cardholders are each eligible for American promotions like Small Business Saturday, Twitter offers, etc.
-Read more on the card here.
Sample use of miles: NYC to Fort Lauderdale is now just 6K miles with excellent availability:
Citi AA Consumer Mastercard and Citi AA Business Mastercard
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-Signup bonus: 60,000 bonus miles after spending $3,000 within 3 months.
-Annual fee: $0 intro annual fee, then $95.
Card benefits:
-A free checked bag for the primary cardholder and up to 3 companions on the same reservation. You do not need to book tickets on your card for free bags.
-A free carry-on bag for the primary cardholder and all companions on the same reservation, even on a basic economy fare.
-Priority Boarding on so that you won’t have to gate-check your carry-ons. This works even on a basic economy fare.
-Consumer cardholders get a 10% rebate of redeemed miles, up to 10K miles/year.
-Business cardholders get a $99 domestic Companion Certificate if they spend $30K/cardmembership year.
–No foreign transaction fees. 2 AA miles per dollar on flight purchases on AA. 25% savings on inflight purchases.
Sample use of miles: NYC to Cleveland for 7.5K miles:
Chase United Explorer Visa
You can view credit card offers by clicking on the “Other Credit Cards” tab on top of the DansDeals banner to view links for card offers. You can click on the link that says “View all card offers by issuing bank” and scroll down to view all card offers from the bank of your choice. Here’s How To View Credit Card Offers On This Site.
-Signup bonus: 50,000 bonus miles after spending $3,000 within 3 months plus 5,000 bonus miles for adding a free additional user and making a purchase within 3 months. Targeted members may get 70,000+5,000 bonus miles.
-Annual fee: $95.
Card benefits:
-A free checked bag for the primary cardholder and a companion on the same reservation.
-A free carry-on bag for the primary cardholder and all companions on the same reservation, even on a basic economy fare.
-Priority Boarding on so that you won’t have to gate-check your carry-ons. This works even on a basic economy fare.
-2 annual United Club passes
-Cardholders have access to book greatly expanded saver coach award availability. That means that a cardholder can fly to Israel on a peak date for 42.5K miles instead of 85K miles for a non-cardholder for example.
-Cardholders have access to book standard award availability as long as there is a seat in coach, business, or first class for sale. That means that if there’s 1 lie-flat business seat left for sale from NYC to LAX you’ll pay over 100K miles with American or Delta, but a United cardholder will pay just 50K miles for the last seat on the plane as United only has 1 standard level award compared to multiple levels for American and Delta.
-10K bonus miles for spending $25K/calendar year.
-Waives the Premier Qualifying Dollar requirement to reach Premier status if you spend $25,000 in a calendar year.
-Allows elite members to get upgraded on award tickets.
-Your miles will never expire as long as you are a United cardholder, even if you don’t have any activity.
-The United card offers primary rental car CDW insurance in every country.
–No foreign transaction fees. 2 United miles per dollar on flight purchases on United. Exclusive access to auctions that allow you to use your miles for once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
Sample use of miles: NYC to Tel Aviv for 42.5K miles:
Chase Southwest Plus, Chase Southwest Premier, and Chase Southwest Premier Business cards
You can view credit card offers by clicking on the “Other Credit Cards” tab on top of the DansDeals banner to view links for card offers. You can click on the link that says “View all card offers by issuing bank” and scroll down to view all card offers from the bank of your choice. Here’s How To View Credit Card Offers On This Site.
-Signup bonus: 60,000 bonus miles after spending $2,000 within 3 months for the consumer cards or $3,000 in 3 months for the business card.
-Annual fee: $69 for the Plus card and $99 for the Premier cards.
Card benefits:
-The Plus card offers 3,000 points every card anniversary.
-The Premier cards offer 6,000 points every card anniversary.
-Southwest points are worth anywhere from 1.5-2.4 cents each towards airfare. Cardholders can also redeem points at a value of 1 cent each for gift cards for places like Alamo, Amazon, Avis, Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, Bloomingdales, Brooks Brothers, Budget, Carnival Cruises, Express, Fairmont, Gap, Hertz, Kohl’s, Lowe’s, Macy’s, National, Nike, Saks, Sea World, Shutterfly, Staples, Starbucks, Target, The Children’s Place, Toys R Us, TJMaxx, Walmart, Zappos and more. 60K points are worth $600 of free gift cards.
-Southwest has no blackout dates or capacity controls. They will refund your points if the price of your award ticket falls. they don’t charge any fees to cancel or change your flight. They allow 2 free checked bags per passenger.
-You can get a free companion pass if you earn 110,000 points in a year from select sources, including earnings from credit card signups and credit card spending! If you earn 110,000 Southwest points in 2017 the pass will be good until 12/31/18. The pass allows you to bring a companion with you for free whenever you fly Southwest, even if you are flying on a free ticket! There is no limit to the number of free companion flights that you can take.
-Earn 2 points per dollar for travel booked on Southwest.com.
Sample use of miles: San Francisco to Las Vegas for 990 miles:
While JetBlue isn’t close to the size of the Big 4 airlines and has never offered anything larger than a 30K signup bonus, The JetBlue Plus Card is also a wonderful card for its benefits, including a free checked bag for you and 3 companions, a 10% uncapped rebate on all point redemptions, 5,000 points every card anniversary, $100 credit for booking a vacation, points that never expire, and the ability to earn Mosaic elite status by spending $50K/calendar year which gets 15K bonus points, 2 free checked bags, free flight cancellations, free flight changes, free even more speed checkin and security access, free alcoholic beverages onboard, and much more.
Which airline cards do you have and what are your favorite benefits?
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27 Comments On "Limited Time Increased Signup Bonus Offers From The Big 4 Domestic Airlines, Which Benefits Do You Take Advantage Of?"
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Applied for all 4 Deltas 2 weeks ago for me and the wife. Two weeks later we each are approved for Plat and Biz Plat……..now gotta harass Recon for the Gold and Biz Gold
Can I sign up for the Delta gold card and get the bonus if I currently have the gold card active?
*Opened it about 8-10 months ago for the 30k
Barclay has an American Airline card bonus of 50,000 miles. One spend and $95 fee not waived.
Sunday I signed up for the Citi and Barclay AA cards and make a cool 110k miles. Dunno what I’m going to do with them. Sorry I missed giving you a referral.
Hey Dan, are the Citi cards once per lifetime? i have had the consumer card 3 years ago. Thanks!
To get the united free checked bag, do you need to book it on united website? Or you just need to pay with the card and you can book, say on Priceline?
@Mendy:
You have a Delta Gold consumer open and you want to open another of the same card?
@Mikey:
Add Citi AA Business for another 60K.
@batcha:
Nope, 24 months.
@Emgee:
As long as you pay with it.
@dan
Do you mention chase 5/24? I glanced quickly and didn’t see
do you have to spend a certain amout of money to get the companion pass for the delta platinum card?
and does companion pass mean that anytime i fly my wife can come for free besdies taxes??
Will I damage my credit rating if I cancel cards before the end of the year?
And if I’m looking for airmiles on multiple airlines to redeem on international flights, which cards do you recommend getting now considering the different bonuses.
@Dan: yes
Dan , im sorry but i think delta/AA are useless at this juncture , the mileage devaluation is so bad that no matter what you have if you cant book something decent then all the miles in the world wont help
i have 300k ba miles but if i cant book domestic flights because of availability and high fuel charges then i have very little usage . same goes for delta – i recently was looking at flights Mia-Jnb for November and delta wanted 500k for business !! that’s unheard of
@Dan. Regarding the Chase United Explorer Visa, could it be used for
other Star Alliance partners? Thanks
Will AA give me the 60k if I am already a card holder ?
I have a AA Citi bronze open for over 10 years, am I eligible?
(The language is “OPENED OR CLOSED within 24 months..”)
@AriBari: Yes you are. I had the bronze and got the bonus.
@mia flyer: Skymiles are only worthwhile for coach class.
Dan: are Chase United and SW cards under the 5/24 rule?
@mia flyer:
I fly NYC-LAX quite often and I prefer using AA over united miles (got plenty of both). AA usually doesn’t have available for 12.5k , but I need to sit in economy plus and that is not included in the United even when u spend 25k one way. AA gives those seats for 20k.
@Sam: credit score hase no relation to amount of time account is open. But after ten years it stops contributing to average age of acounts, which you shouldn’t worry about now.
Your second question depends on your 5/25.
@Sam: credit score hase no relation to amount of time account is open. But after ten years it stops contributing to average age of acounts, which you shouldn’t worry about now.
Your second question depends on your 5/24.
@Moish: yes, if your a card holder more than 24 months
@JJJ: yeh
@jake: you get a one time use, round trip companion pass at the card anniversary, meaning after you pay the 2nd annual fee
@Moish: I’ve currently only got the Chase sapphire reserved. But I can see I should be getting more cards. I mainly will be looking to redeem the flights on international premium cabins
Thank you
So, if you got less than 5 consumer cards in the last 24, then first hit chase, like the ink preferred and the sapphire preffered, United. After that, you can get a bunch of amex cards.
You should try to do a little research as to how you’ll redeem, but stockpiling chase UR or Amex MR will most likely give you the most flexibility in redeeming for intl travel.
Hey, @dan
I’m looking to open my first credit card. I’m interested in the delta American Express cards. Do you think it’s ok to open an American Express card as your first one or is it better to first go for a chase/citi card first
@Barak: Go for it. Worse that can happen is you don’t get approved. If you get approved, I would move on to chase after a few months. If you don’t get approved, you might need to get a Discover card to start building your credit.