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Delta’s Credit Cards Just Added a New Award Travel Benefit

Isn’t it nice when credit cards add new perks without taking anything away? Well, that happened again this past week as Delta introduced the new “TakeOff 15” feature to its line-up of American Express co-branded cards (save the no-annual-fee SkyMiles Blue card). Even better, this benefit comes without any increase to the annual fees of these cards.

So what is TakeOff 15? Now, when Delta SkyMiles cardholders — either Gold, Platinum, or Reserve, including the business versions — redeem their miles for award flights on Delta, they’ll automatically save 15%. But, as cool as this money-saving benefit is, there are a few minor catches to note. First, this offer is only valid for Delta flights and not those operated by partner airlines. Secondly, the discount doesn’t apply to any taxes or fees that may be due.

Speaking of these fees, however, anecdotes suggest that you don’t actually have to charge your SkyMiles credit card to take advantage of the deal, meaning you could swap it for something like the American Express Platinum card when it’s time to pay. Finally, Delta does say that the TakeOff 15 benefit is only available to primary cardholders and not authorized users.

To celebrate this new feature’s debut, some fresh welcome bonus offers for the slate of eligible cards have also rolled out. For the personal cards, they shake out like this:

• Delta SkyMiles Gold American Express: Earn 70,000 miles after spending $2,000 in purchases in the first six months
• Delta SkyMiles Platinum American Express: Earn 90,000 miles after spending $4,000 in purchases in the first six months
• Delta SkyMiles Reserve American Express: Earn 90,000 miles after spending $6,000 in purchases in the first six months

While I do think that the TakeOff 15 perk is pretty neat, I don’t think it’ll convince me to get any of the Delta cards at this time (though, remember the time I was tempted by their airplane metal card?). That’s partially because, outside of the intro bonuses, I don’t think I’d get much use out of them. On top of that, while I still may not know a ton about award travel, I have been made aware that booking Delta flights via Delta themselves is often not the best approach. Thus, I won’t be acting on this offer. Nevertheless, for those who do often redeem their SkyMiles for Delta flights and especially those who already have one of these cards, this new feature could be a big win.

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