Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card review: One of the best business travel rewards cards for global businesses devoted to Delta Airlines

The Delta SkyMiles Platinum Business American Express Card is a fantastic middle-ground option for frequent Delta flyers who want top-tier airline rewards and loyalty benefits. If you aren’t worried about the card’s $250 annual fee or its lack of lounge access, its rewards rate for flights and large purchases can pay off.

The Platinum Business is undoubtedly one of the best Delta SkyMiles cards, but many cardholders might want to consider other travel cards for rewards that aren’t as restrictive— even within Delta.

Quick highlights

• Rewards rate: 3X miles on Delta and hotel purchases; 1.5X miles on purchases over $5,000 (up to 50,000 additional miles per year); 1X miles on all other purchases
• Welcome offer: Limited Time Offer: Earn 90,000 bonus miles after you spend $8,000 in purchases on your new card in your first six months of card membership. Plus, earn an additional 10,000 bonus miles after you make an eligible Delta purchase with your new card within your first six months. Offer ends 10/25/23.
• Annual fee: $250
• Purchase intro APR: N/A
• Balance transfer intro APR: N/A
• Regular APR: 20.99 percent to 29.99 percent (variable)

Current welcome offer

The SkyMiles Platinum Business card has a limited time offer of 90,000 miles to new cardholders who spend $8,000 in purchases within the first six months of card membership. Based on Bankrate’s latest mile valuations, which give Delta SkyMiles a value of 1.3 cents each on average, we estimate this offer is worth around a generous $1,170 in Delta flights. The spending requirement is also relatively accessible for a business credit card. For example, searching flights from New York JFK to London LHR in September 2023, we found Business class seats ranging from $5,000 to $9,000 roundtrip.

On top of that, you can earn 10,000 bonus miles after you make an eligible Delta purchase within your first six months, worth an an extra $130. This makes the current intro bonus an excellent opportunity to rack up bonus miles toward your next flight. This welcome offer ends 10/25/23.

Rewards rate

The Delta Skymiles Business Platinum Card earns Delta SkyMiles rewards on a tiered-rewards rate structure. These travel rewards work like normal airline credit card miles, but there are a few more reward currencies to keep track of if you want to reach elite Medallion Status.

How you earn

You’ll earn 3X miles on purchases made directly with hotels and eligible Delta spending — including flights, seat upgrades, in-flight purchases and more. Like most rewards cards, you’ll earn 1X mile on all other purchases. However, your eligible large purchases over $5,000 will earn 1.5X miles, which is great for non-travel business expenses.

There are a few other ways to earn miles as well. If Delta isn’t offering the best deal, you can also earn miles for airfare with any of Delta’s airline partners. When you’re on the ground, the Delta SkyMiles Dining program is a handy way to earn frequent flyer miles on business meals. You can earn 1 mile per $2 spent — or up to 5 miles per dollar, depending on your membership level.

The most valuable way to earn extra miles is to obtain Medallion Status — granting you 7 to 11 miles per dollar on Delta purchases and additional travel benefits. To qualify, you’ll need to earn a set number of Medallion Qualification Miles (MQMs), Medallion Qualification Dollars (MQDs) and/or Medallion Qualification Segments (MQSs) outlined by Delta. However, effective 1/1/24, this card's Status Boost® for the Medallion benefit will no longer be available, and there will be a new way to earn toward Medallion Status with the card. Learn more at delta.com/skymilesprogramchanges.

How to redeem

Of course, redeeming your SkyMiles to book travel is the optimal choice. Choosing “Pay with Miles” lets you upgrade seats or book flights with Delta and partner airlines to over 1,000 destinations with no blackout dates. You can also use miles to book vacation packages, hotel rooms, rental cars and more. If you’re just shy of the required miles, you also have the option of using “Pay with Miles + Cash.”

There are a few other redemption methods, but they aren’t as useful or versatile as general-purpose travel card rewards, such as Capital One miles. For example, you can’t transfer miles to partner airlines. However, you can use Delta miles outside travel for charitable donations or gifts, magazine subscriptions, travel experiences and merchandise.

When you use “Pay with Miles + Cash”, Delta allows you to redeem in 5,000-point increments for $50 discounts. Delta considers SkyMiles to be worth 1 cent in this case, but they don’t use an award chart like other airlines — meaning your point value varies based on the flight cost, your origin and destination, flight class and time of year.

To get a better idea of your rewards’ value before choosing a card, keep in mind that Bankrate gives Delta SkyMiles a 1.3 cent-per-mile market value when booking flights — which is on the low side when compared to some of the top airline and credit card rewards programs.

The Amex Delta Platinum Business card delivers a higher number of benefits than its sibling card, the Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business American Express Card, including standout travel insurance, an annual companion certificate and Status Boost features.

Status Boost

If you're aiming for Medallion status elite rewards and benefits, you can earn 10,000 MQMs after spending $25,000 in purchases on your card in a calendar year, up to two times per year. This will get you closer to your next Medallion Status, which may come with a sizable increase in Delta benefits.

Companion certificate

You’ll receive a companion certificate for a complimentary main cabin domestic round-trip flight each year upon renewing your card.

This can be an especially valuable perk when you use it on more expensive flights. Keep in mind that you’ll still owe taxes, baggage fees and similar exclusions on the ticket cost.

Travel perks

On top of “Main Cabin 1” priority boarding, the Delta Platinum Business card offers several premium travel benefits to justify its annual fee:

• Travel protections when you pay with your card: Trip-delay insurance (up to $300 per trip, two claims per card annually, for eligible delays), baggage insurance (up to $1,250 for carry-on, $500 for checked luggage) and car rental loss and damage insurance.
• Other savings and credits: First checked bag free (up to $60), up to $100 application fee credit for Global Entry (every four years) or up to $85 for TSA Precheck (every five years), 20 percent savings on eligible in-flight purchases (as a statement credit), 15 percent savings on award travel on Delta flights (not applicable to partner-operated flights or to taxes and fees) and an exclusive $50 per-visit rate for you and up to two guests to the Delta Sky Club. (Effective 1/1/24, the Delta Sky Club benefit will no longer be available.)

The biggest kicker when considering the Amex Delta Platinum Business card is its $250 annual fee. This may seem reasonable considering its valuable rewards and tertiary benefits, but some cardholders may be opposed to a business rewards card with such a high fee.

Luckily, there are no annual employee card fees and no foreign transaction fees. Plus, there are plenty of travel discounts to help offset the cost. Its travel companion certificate alone could be enough to offset the annual fee, depending on the flight. Otherwise, you’d need to spend over $6,300 each year on Delta travel or hotel bookings to recoup your annual fee (based on Bankrate’s 1.3-cent-per-mile estimated value).

There is also no intro APR offer before the ongoing 20.99 percent to 29.99 percent variable APR, which isn’t uncommon for airline-specific business rewards cards. That could be a drawback compared to other business rewards cards offering a zero-interest period for business owners who want time to pay down new purchases.

The Delta Platinum Business card’s value cements it as the middle-of-the-road SkyMiles business option. For instance, it beats the $99 annual fee ($0 introductory annual fee for the first year) SkyMiles Gold Business card, mainly thanks to its companion certificate, trip delay insurance, Global Entry or TSA Precheck fee credit and Medallion Status-related perks. However, if you want higher-tier Delta benefits or more flexible rewards and redemption possibilities, you should consider another Delta Skymiles Card or a comparable Amex Card.

Delta SkyMiles Platinum Business Amex Card vs. Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card

If you’re more concerned about reaching Medallion Status each year, the Delta SkyMiles Reserve Business American Express card has stronger Medallion Status-earning features and excellent airport lounge access to the Delta Sky Club and Amex Centurion Lounge as well. The SkyMiles Reserve Business Card does have a higher $550 annual fee than the SkyMiles Platinum Business’s $250 annual fee, but you get access to a few more perks such as a Comfort+ or first class companion ticket, for example. However, note that effective 1/1/24, Medallion status benefit will no longer be available, and there will be a new way to earn toward Medallion Status on both cards. Learn more at delta.com/skymilesprogramchanges.

Additionally, Reserve Business cardholders can earn 1.5X miles on any spending beyond $150,000 per calendar year, compared to the Platinum Business' 1.5X rewards rate on purchases over $5,000, up to 50,000 miles. That gives a faster boost but limited earnings overall for those who are big business spenders.

Although you can have airport lounge access, higher MQM earnings and better flight upgrades with the Reserve Business Card, there is no difference in travel and protection perks and you would have to miss out on the 3X rewards rate on hotels you would get with the Platinum Business Card. In general, the Platinum version is a better choice for business travelers who frequently use Delta and hotel bookings for work and would like some extra incentives to use the card for big purchases, especially if it helps them reach elite status faster.

However, if you're willing to pay a higher annual fee to get lounge access, then the Reserve version will make more sense for you. That also holds true for people who buy upgraded Delta tickets often and who continuously spend hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to earn the 1.5X accelerated rewards rate after spending $150,000.

Delta SkyMiles Platinum Business Amex Card vs. The Business Platinum Card® from American Express

For those not loyal to a Delta co-branded card, an alternate business travel card such as the Business Platinum® Card from American Express might offer better rewards value, flexibility and non-travel bonus categories based on your business’ spending. American Express Travel offers 5 Membership Rewards® points per dollar for flights and prepaid hotels, 1.5 points per dollar for purchases of $5,000 or more in select business categories and 1 point for every dollar spent on other eligible purchases. Included in these business categories are construction material, hardware, electronic goods, software and cloud system purchases (up to $2 million worth of these purchases per calendar year; 1 point thereafter). You can transfer your Amex Membership Rewards points to Delta and other airline and hotel loyalty programs, extending your flight options beyond those of the SkyMiles Platinum Business Card. 

Even though the card comes with an annual fee of $695, you'll get benefits like access to Priority Pass memberships and airport lounges via the Global Lounge Collection, which includes access to Delta Sky Clubs when you fly with Delta. As an added benefit, you'll also receive a fee credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck membership, as well as Gold elite status with hotel programs such as Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors. 

Although the annual fee isn't cheap, the benefits and annual credits more than make up for it, making it a good option for frequent business travelers. It could prove to be a better choice than the Skymiles Platinum Business Card if you can justify the fee.

Best cards to pair with this card

American Express business cards or personal cards are the best cards to pair with the Delta SkyMiles Platinum Business card, thanks to the partnership between the issuer and Delta Air Lines. You can transfer Amex Membership Rewards to Delta SkyMiles at a 1:1 ratio and you can find special deals on Delta flights through the American Express travel portal.

If you want to earn rewards on a majority of your purchases and pool those rewards together in the same SkyMiles account, any American Express card that includes rewards categories not included on the SkyMiles Platinum Business card will be a good choice. The American Express Business Gold Card provides great bonus category coverage for business expenses outside travel (like eligible U.S. gas stations, U.S. shipping and U.S. tech purchases), as well as airfare through the Amex travel portal if you need to fly outside the SkyTeam alliance partners.

The Delta SkyMiles Platinum Business American Express Card offers the best value to dedicated Delta flyers, especially business owners who can make the most of the hotel purchase rewards and the myriad travel benefits. But if your business operations don’t lean on Delta airline benefits, other business travel cards — even other American Express cards — may provide more flexible rewards and bonus categories.

For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles Platinum Business, please click here.

Effective 1/1/24, the Delta Sky Club benefit will no longer be available.

Effective 1/1/24, the Medallion Qualification Miles benefit will no longer be available, and there will be a new way to earn toward Medallion status with the card. Learn more at delta.com/skymilesprogramchanges.