No more "Always Double Miles"

[Anonymous]

Amex has severely curtailed the "Always Double Miles" benefit on their Delta SkyMiles cards.

https://www143.americanexpress.com/cards/home.do#CARDS/113/1/0/3

All grocery, gas, drugstore, home improvement and hardware store, and US Postal Service purchases, as well as payments on wireless phone services, now earn one mile per dollar like all other purchases.  Only direct purchases from Delta Airlines wil continue to earn double SkyMiles.

Apparently, any accounts opened after Nov. 3, 2007 will continue to earn double miles in the "Always Double Miles" categories until the first anniversary of the card account.

As many know, I have been a big, big fan of this card for a very long time, and I have generally thought that product changing from a Delta SkyMiles card is a bad idea.  However, considering Delta's continual devaluation of the SkyMiles program and Amex's elimination of the "Always Double Miles" benefit, I cannot continue to root for this card.  IMO, this card is just not worth $95 a year anymore.

As luck would have it, my statement just cut, so I have a $0 balance at the moment.  Tonight I will be calling Amex to see if I can product change to Blue Sky.  If the answer is no, I will be closing my account.

[Anonymous]

Wow. I would def. close the card if I couldn't do a product change as well. What a bummer!

[Anonymous]

I'm in the same boat.  Cheddar, pls post back with a followup after you talk to AMEX.

[Anonymous]

Wow... mine will be reaching its first anniversary in 3 weeks. The only thing I've been using it for since PC-ing my Blue to Blue Cash is to pay my Verizon bill. I'm not much of a frequent flier, so there's no way it's going to be worth $95 a year to me - I'd be giving AmEx $95 a year for WHAT, exactly?

Hmm. I have precisely 3 weeks to figure out what I want to do about it. I don't want to lose the (small) history on it, but I don't want to pay them that hefty fee for nothing, either. Ugh - whatever, if I'm going to do anything other than just put up with the newly unimproved card benefits, I'm going to have to face the unpleasantness that is talking to an AmEx rep these days - feels like AA is looming at every turn!

[Anonymous]

Maybe this is AmEx's 'genius' way of making the Delta Platinum seem like it's noticeably better than the Gold.

Except... wait, am I imagining things, or is there precious little mention of double miles on anything other than Delta flights on the bumph about the Platinum, too?

[Anonymous]

Yep, it looks like they've removed all mention of Always Double Miles on the Gold Delta SkyMiles, the Platinum Delta SkyMiles, and the Delta Reserve cards.

I'm not calling them just yet, though, because the benefit descriptions are currently "unable to display."  I'm holding off on the slim hope that they have reconsidered this horrible decision.

[Anonymous]

From Amex's Q3 2008 earnings conference call:

"As it relates to spending behaviors, I think for many years we've been focused on shifting more and more spend to the everyday categories.  We think that has been part of what's enabled us to continue to take market share in the U.S. and in certain markets internationally.  You know, we're going to continue to push into those areas because we think it's beneficial to the long-term health of the franchise."

This is an odd way of encouraging "everyday spending" on Amex cards, isn't it?

[Anonymous]

Ugh, still can't decide what to do on this. I don't want to pay an AF to earn one mile per dollar on a card I rarely use (even with the always double miles, the AF seemed a bit steep now just about all my spending goes on the other card, but now I can only get those double miles on my very, very infrequent Delta flights... hmm), but am also very reluctant to actually have to call and speak to AmEx customer service as, well, y'know - drawing attention to yourself with AmEx seems a bad idea right now! I can't even decide which card I'd want to switch to, but I guess "any card without an AF" would do the trick. Although I'd probably switch to a Green if I thought they'd let me, but  until reading about those 'upgrade from a credit card to Platinum!' offers, I'd never heard of them doing such a thing (although they should, given that they would clearly rather people had charge cards than credit cards!)

Have you made that call yet, Cheddar?  

[Anonymous]

No, I haven't made the call just yet.  I'm still waiting for the descriptions on the website to get their act together, just so I'm certain they haven't changed their minds again before I call.

[Anonymous]

Update:  I called and requested a product change to Blue Sky.  Done in five minutes.  I'm supposed to receive my new card 7-10 days after my next statement date.

So long, Delta.  It was fun while it lasted.