Delta Amex Gold Review

Tl;dr: With a $100 hotel credit offsetting most of the annual fee, Delta’s low-fee card is now worthwhile for even casual Delta flyers.

I started flying Delta much more last year, and I have come to appreciate their reliability, customer service, and excellent mobile app when I’m paying to fly. And they frequently offer excellent sales on mileage redemptions around the world. To get the most of my Delta experience, I picked up their Gold Amex card last year, using its 15% discount on award flights to fly to Italy last year for just 44k miles, and checking my bags for free (saving a ton) when I fly. 

Since I picked up the card, Delta has made some big changes, most notably raising the annual fee from $99 to $150, and adding a $100 credit each year toward hotel stays booked with Delta. Those changes took a solid card and made it much better: because the first year’s fee is waived, you could hold this card for three years and break even without even flying Delta or taking advantage of the card’s other perks. If you check a few bags or save on a big award trip, you would come out well ahead.

What’s so great about it?  

The card has both the typical benefits common to almost all airline cards at this fee tier, along with some benefits that are unique to Delta.

Standard Benefits

Like most airline credit cards at this tier, holding the Delta Amex Gold will get you priority-ish boarding, a free checked bag when you travel, and a discount on in-flight purchases. 

I generally don’t see the appeal of spending more time on an airplane than necessary, but the boarding benefit can be handy if you want to make sure your carry-on isn’t gate checked, and the Main Cabin 1 boarding zone you get with the card is good enough to ensure that, at least if you can fight through the crowds. 

Checked bag fees can be expensive and are only getting more so, so if you would have otherwise paid to check bags on Delta, this card can easily pay for itself. I do not pay for bags, but I do find it convenient to have the option to check bags when I travel, and it’s particularly nice as a skier to have a way to bring my skis for free rather than renting. Although checking your bags is always something of a risk, Delta is excellent about baggage handling in my experience. You can track your bags in the app, you will get tracking notifications (one when it is put on the plane, one with the carousel location, and another when it is arriving at the carousel), and Delta will even give you miles if the bag doesn’t arrive quickly to the baggage claim. With a few Air Tags in my bag for added peace of mind, I get a lot of use out of this benefit. What’s more, baggage is free for up to eight traveling companions, meaning potentially enormous savings for bigger families or parties.

Low-key delicious.

As for the discount on in-flight purchases, I think this is an underrated benefit. Delta has a fresh chicken salad sandwich and two snack boxes available for purchase on longer flights for $12 and $10, respectively, or $9.60 and $8 with the discount. These are quite good in my opinion, and I actually think these are much better value than what you can get on the ground in most airports (if you can’t eat for free at a lounge, anyway). 

Unique benefits

The main draw of this card is the TakeOff15 benefit: a 15% mileage discount on award flights (operated by Delta; it doesn’t apply to awards on partner airlines). This benefit alone can pay for the $150 annual fee. For example, when I booked our tickets to Italy, I was able to use roughly 14,000 fewer Delta miles because I had the card. Those miles are easily worth $150. If you book at least one Skymiles award ticket per year, you may come close to breaking even on the annual fee from this benefit alone. If you fly more often (I think I booked three award flights in 2023), the card–or one of the other Delta cards offering the same benefit–becomes a must-have. 

Even if you never fly Delta, though, you can nearly offset the annual fee via its $100 hotel credit. Stays must be booked via Delta’s Expedia-based portal, but the prices are comparable to most big-name online booking sites. I have already used this benefit, and I am a big fan. Delta tends to offer an MQD promotion in the spring, meaning if you time your bookings right you can also earn 100 free MQD’s toward elite status. The 2 Skymiles earned per dollar spend on most bookings pales next to some other options, but is respectable. And I was surprised to find that I was able to use my IHG and Marriott elite status benefits at hotels booked via Delta, something you usually lose when booking through third parties (I did not earn hotel points or stay credits, however). 

Another nice benefit of this card is that you can earn a $200 Delta flight credit after spending $10,000 on the card. Most people will be better off using other cards rather than putting $10,000 on this card with its mediocre earning rates. That said, if you put $10,000 of spending on non-bonus purchases on the card, you would earn the $200 credit plus 10,000 miles, which pencils out to roughly 3¢ per dollar spent, a very healthy return for baseline spending, especially if you are a Delta loyalist.

What are the drawbacks?

The main downside of the card is the annual fee: $150 after being waived in the first year. Whether it is worth that will depend on how much baggage you check, how many award flights you book with Delta, and your ability to take full advantage of the hotel credit. Note that Delta does have a no-fee Amex card, so it is possible to avoid the annual fee down the road if you decide you won’t get your money’s worth. 

The card also lacks trip cancellation or delay insurance (at least I can’t find any mention of it anywhere on the website), making it a poor choice to book flights with. Note, though, that you will still get your benefits even if you pay for your flight with another card that does have these protections.

The card also offers the poor earning rates typical of airline cards–no matter what you’re buying, you could almost certainly earn more–maybe a lot more–points or miles with another card. 

Delta frequent flyers might be better served with other cards in the Delta/Amex lineup, as the Gold card has no status-boosting benefits in Delta’s revamped frequent flyer program.

How’s the sign-up bonus?

The sign-up bonuses on this card have historically been very dynamic. The “standard” offer is 40,000 miles after spending $2,000 on the card within six months. But you shouldn’t sign up for the card without an offer of at least 60,000. The highest offers I have seen were 80,000 miles or 60,000 miles plus a $200 discount during checkout when booking a flight.

Bonus offers change regularly, often in a matter of days. They are also often different across different channels: if you check the Delta website, the Amex website, check the offer while booking a ticket, receive an offer via email or in the mail, or check for offers on the Delta app, you might see multiple different offers. With the card’s early 2024 70k point launch offer, however, I would expect to see lower offers for a while after that promotion expires on March 27th, 2024.

Even lower offers will take you a long way, though. 44,000 points got me a refundable main cabin ticket to Italy, which I booked after previously canceling a 44k-mile ticket to New Zealand and a 50k-mile ticket from LA to Tokyo. If you’re willing to wait for sales and deals, with this card it’s usually possible to fly to Europe in basic economy for under 35k miles with the card, in full economy under 50k, and to Asia under 75k.

Is it lazy?

This is a relatively low-maintenance card. You get most of the benefits for having it, you don’t actually have to use it. In fact, you should almost never actually use it, spending just enough to keep your account active. But with the card in the sock drawer most of the time, you’ll have to make sure you use the hotel credit at some point during the year—and early enough that you’re not rushing to find a use for it at the end of the year.

You may to take it with you when you fly to ensure you get your in-flight discount. But with Delta generally accepting digital wallets in the air, you might not ever need to actually carry the card.

If you want to earn the $200 Delta flight credit, to do so efficiently you’ll need to spend as close to $10,000 as possible without going too far over and also spend only on non-bonus purchases. That may be more work than it’s worth.

Bottom Line

The card’s mileage discount makes it a must-have for those who have a lot of Skymiles or who like to redeem their Amex miles with Delta. Its travel benefits may make it worth having for many Delta frequent flyers. And with the large bonuses, hotel credit, and the fee waived for the first year, it is a great card to pick up and use to book an international flight even if you don’t plan to hold it long-term.

Key Card Details

Annual fee
$150 (waived first year)

Credits/offsets
$100 statement credit on prepaid hotels booked via Delta
$200 Delta flight credit after spending $10,000 in a year

Earning rates
2 miles/$ on Delta, dining, and groceries
1 mile/$ on everything else

Protections
No foreign transaction fees
Lost luggage insurance
Purchase protection
Extended warranty
Car rental insurance

Perks
15% off award rates
Main Cabin 1 boarding
20% off in-flight dining
Free checked bag for cardholder and up to 8 companions