Delta SkyMiles® Blue American Express Card review: One step away from premium travel

The Delta SkyMiles Blue American Express Card is one of the best American Express credit cards for loyal Delta customers. With good reward opportunities and an attractive welcome offer, it is hard to believe that this travel card has no annual fee.

Quick highlights

• Rewards rate: Earn 2X miles for every dollar spent at restaurants worldwide (plus takeout and delivery in the U.S.) and Delta purchases and 1X miles for every dollar spent on other eligible purchases
• Welcome offer: 10,000 bonus miles upon spending $1,000 or more in purchases on your new card within the first six months
• Annual fee: $0
• Purchase intro APR: N/A
• Balance transfer intro APR: N/A
• Regular APR: 20.99 percent to 29.99 percent variable

Current welcome offer

You’ll need to spend  $1,000 on purchases in your first six months to earn a 10,000-mile bonus on the Delta SkyMiles Blue card. According to Bankrate’s latest points and miles valuations, the value of this bonus comes out to roughly $130. Many cardholders can hit this spending requirement without making drastic changes to their usual monthly spending.

Rewards rate

The American Express Delta SkyMiles Blue Card has a straightforward rewards program. You earn 2X Delta SkyMiles at restaurants worldwide (including U.S. takeout and delivery) and on eligible Delta purchases, and 1X mile on other eligible purchases.

How you earn

Although this American Express Delta card rewards purchases from restaurants worldwide, it doesn’t always include restaurants inside other establishments. Additional miles may not apply to restaurants inside hotels, casinos or other event venues. This same principle also applies to purchases at convenience stores, bars, nightclubs, supermarkets and similar establishments.

You can also earn 2X miles from Delta purchases and eligible transactions at Delta.com. These purchases include Delta flights and in-flight purchases like food, audio headsets and alcoholic beverages. Delta only includes Delta Vacations packages as eligible Delta purchases — the airline excludes other all-inclusive packages.

How to redeem

You can redeem miles through the Delta SkyMiles rewards program for Delta flights, Delta Vacation packages, Sky Club memberships, seat upgrades or flights with Delta SkyMiles partners. You may redeem these rewards using the Delta app, website or ticket counters. If you don’t have enough miles to cover your reward flight, you can use cash to cover the difference. What’s more, if you select “Pay with Miles,” you now get $50 off your flight’s cost for every 5,000 miles you use.

Other redemption options include transferring, gifting and donating miles.

Delta SkyMiles don’t have a set value or award chart. Instead, Delta uses a dynamic pricing scale that factors in the time of year, distance and airline(s) involved to determine how many miles Delta requires to book a flight. Bankrate estimates these miles are worth around 1.3 cents each on average.

For a travel credit card that doesn’t charge an annual fee, the benefits are decent and can provide value for many card owners. Here are a few:

Discount on in-flight purchases

The Delta SkyMiles Blue credit card provides a 20 percent discount on in-flight purchases. Such purchases include food, beverages and audio headsets.

Flexible payment options

The Pay It Plan It tool can help cardholders pay for large purchases using alternate payment plans. Cardholders can split large payments into as many as 10 payments with a fixed monthly fee over a period of time. Your plans won’t charge interest, but you should calculate whether the fixed payment fee will cost more than the potential interest.

Travel perks

You can benefit from travel perks like insurance for car rental loss or damage and travel accidents. You can also access the 24/7 Global Assist Hotline if you travel more than 100 miles from home.

American Express Experiences

Even without an annual fee, you can still be a VIP. Amex cardholders get exclusive access to ticket pre-sales and Card Member-only events, including top concerts, sporting events, Broadway shows and much more.

Among the Delta Air Lines credit cards, the Delta SkyMiles Blue credit card offers no annual fee with excellent rewards potential. You’ll also benefit from no foreign transaction fees, which is standard for a good travel card. The ongoing variable APR is 20.99 percent to 29.99 percent. Unfortunately, the Delta SkyMiles Blue doesn’t have any intro APR offers.

Late fees and returned payment fees are up to $40. A cash advance is either $10 or 5 percent of the amount you want advanced, whichever is greater.

If you’re an infrequent flyer or don’t exclusively fly Delta, the Delta SkyMiles Blue American Express credit card may not be for you. Although it has no annual fee, it  lacks key perks available on other top travel cards. But this card can be hard to beat if you’re a frequent flyer and a loyal fan of Delta flights. That said, there are other airline credit cards worth considering.

Delta SkyMiles Blue American Express vs. Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card

The Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card has a slightly more valuable welcome offer compared to the Delta SkyMiles Blue Amex. You can earn 20,000 bonus miles if you spend $500 within the first three months with the Capital One VentureOne, about $200 in travel value. According to Bankrate’s valuations (featured above under welcome offer), you may be able to double that if you transfer your miles to the right partner. The VentureOne also rewards users with 1.25 miles for every dollar spent (plus 5 Miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel). For people who could benefit from a flat-rate card and plan on taking advantage of Capital One’s travel portal, the VentureOne card’s rewards can be lucrative. 

Delta SkyMiles Blue American Express vs. Bank of America Travel Rewards Credit Card

The Bank of America Travel Rewards card is a flat-rate travel card that offers unlimited 1.5 points per dollar on all purchases. This rewards structure can be great for travelers who want as many options as possible when planning a vacation. However, the points are worth much less. Points are worth 0.6 cents with Bank of America versus an average of 1.3 cents with Delta SkyMiles, according to Bankrate’s values.

While the Bank of America card’s welcome offer is worth twice as much, you also have to spend twice as much to receive it. This card is a great option for flexibility, but it’s not the best choice for overall value.

Best cards to pair with the Delta SkyMiles Blue American Express Card

Since the Delta SkyMiles Blue card only earns rewards on restaurant and Delta purchases, the best card combinations will reward you for other travel expenses and your biggest spending categories while you’re home.

This factor makes almost any rewards credit card a solid partner. You can keep it simple and cover all your bases with a flat-rate cash back card, or you can transfer points from another American Express card to Delta. The Amex® EveryDay Preferred Credit Card would be a great choice to earn points on everyday purchases between trips because it earns 3X points at U.S. supermarkets and 2X points at U.S. gas stations and on rental cars.

The Delta SkyMiles Blue American Express credit card is worth considering if you’re loyal to Delta but don’t travel enough to take advantage of the perks on a more premium Delta SkyMiles card. Since the card skips the annual fee, you can comfortably keep this card long-term without too much strain on your wallet. However, if you regularly fly different airlines or want a travel card that covers more areas, you may want to look at different options.

The information about the Amex EveryDay Preferred Credit Card has been collected independently by Bankrate.com. The card details have not been reviewed or approved by the card issuer.