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: 20.49 percent to 29.49 percent variable

Current welcome offer

The intro bonus offered by the Blue Delta SkyMiles credit card only requires spending $1,000 on purchases in your first six months to earn a 10,000-mile bonus. Most cardholders can probably hit this spending requirement without having to increase their usual monthly spending.

Rewards rate

The American Express Delta SkyMiles Blue Card has a straightforward reward system. You earn 2X Delta SkyMiles for every dollar spent at restaurants worldwide (plus on U.S. takeout and delivery orders) and on eligible Delta purchases, with a 1X mile reward for every dollar spent on other eligible purchases.

How you earn

Although this American Express Delta card accepts purchases from restaurants worldwide, it doesn’t always include restaurants inside other establishments. Additional miles don’t apply to restaurants inside hotels, casinos or other event venues. This 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. This includes Delta flights and in-flight purchases such as food, audio headsets and alcoholic beverages. Only Delta Vacations packages are included as eligible Delta purchases—other all-inclusive packages are excluded.

How to redeem

Cardholders can redeem their miles through the Delta SkyMiles rewards program. You can purchase flights, Delta Vacation packages, Sky Club membership and seat upgrades, or book flights with Delta SkyMiles partners. You may redeem these rewards using the Delta app or website and ticket counters. If you don’t have enough miles to cover your reward flight, you can also 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 see how valuable your points are worth toward specific reward flights. 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 valuable benefits for many card owners. Here are a few:

Discount on in-flight purchases

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

Flexible payment options

American Express Delta has the Pay It Plan It tool that can help cardholders pay for large purchases using alternate payment plans. Large payments can be split up 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 would.

Travel perks

With the American Express Delta SkyMiles Blue Card, you can benefit from travel perks like insurance for car rental loss or damage and travel accidents. You also have access to the 24/7 Global Assist Hotline if you travel more than 100 miles away from home.

American Express Experiences

Even without an annual fee, you can still be a VIP. For Amex cardholders, you have directly to events happening around the country. 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 Blue Delta SkyMiles credit card offers no annual fee with excellent reward potential. You can also benefit from $0 foreign transaction fees. It charges a variable APR of 20.49 percent to 29.49 percent. Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer any zero-interest periods if you need to transfer your balance or plan for a large purchase.

Late fees and returned payment fees are up to $40. A cash advance is either $10 or 5% 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. It offers no annual fees, but also lacks some of the perks of other credit cards. But if you’re a frequent flyer and a loyal fan of Delta flights, this card can be hard to beat. 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 better welcome offer compared to the Delta SkyMiles Blue Amex—40,000 bonus miles if you spend $1,000 within the first three months–and provides users with 1.25 reward miles for every dollar spent (plus 5X miles one Capital One-booked hotels and rental cars). 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. On the downside, if you prefer not to use a specific travel portal, you don’t necessarily get the most out of this card.

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

The Bank of America Travel Rewards is another flat-rate travel card, rewarding unlimited 1.5 points per dollar on all purchases. This 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.

For the welcome bonus, the Delta SkyMiles Blue Amex is worth $146 while the Bank of America Travel Rewards card is worth $250 (25,000 points after spending $1000 purchases within 90 days of opening the account). While you get almost double the value of the bonus with the Bank of America card, you also have to spend double the amount to receive it. So, while this is a great option for flexibility, it’s not the best option 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 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 your everyday purchases between trips with 3X points U.S. supermarkets and 2X points U.S. gas stations and 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. With the lack of fees, you can hold onto this card for as long as you want as a travel addition comfortably. 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.