topic Re: Delta downgrade/upgrade question in Credit Cards

Delta downgrade/upgrade question

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 13:47:34 GMT

I have the Delta Gold card and it is due to renew at the end of the month. I originally got the card because my Medallion status ended and I wanted to keep the priority boarding and checked baggage benefits. Shortly after it ended, American Airlines offered me the trial Platinum status. I was able to meet the challenge and it has been renewed through next January.

With the trips I have planned for 2019, I'm going to fly American because of the perks (besides delays, tight connections... ) I'm giving myself about a 50/50 shot that my Platinum status will be renewed again next year.

Delta is the other major player at my local airport, so I don't necessarily want to be shut out should some unforeseeable travel be needed, but I also don't want to pay the annual fee if I may not use it again this year.

Question is: if I downgrade to Blue, will Amex allow me to upgrade back to Gold say next February (for example) and would I need an upgrade offer in the account to do so? At this point, I don't want to get any more inquiries until absolutely necessary (I can spare plenty though), and I don't want to close the Blue and then reapply for a new tradeline with Gold or higher tier.

The alternative is I could just keep the card and try to rack up statement credits on any deals to cover the fee, which I suppose isn't a bad thing either.

Thanks for reading this and for any advice!

Re: Delta downgrade/upgrade question

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 13:50:58 GMT

I'm not aware of a reason you cant downgrade to the blue then upgrade back to gold after another year. that sounds like a good, workable plan and is the course I'd take if I were you.

Re: Delta downgrade/upgrade question

K-in-Boston — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 14:02:11 GMT

My condolences for switching over to Oneworld.

Joking aside, as long as the card is at least a year old (which it is since you're renewing) you can move the card around between any of the four personal Delta cards: Blue, Gold, Platinum, and Reserve. If you do product change to another card, keep in mind that you will become ineligible for a welcome offer if you were to ever apply for that card again. Otherwise, there are zero problems with your plan. You don't need an upgrade offer to move up later and Amex never does an inquiry for product changes (and in almost all cases now, they don't even do so for new card applications for existing cardholders).

If you decide to do this, I would tell them that you're thinking of downgrading your card because it is not currently meeting your needs, and ask if there are any offers available for the card. They may bribe you to stay put with a statment credit or SkyMiles offer for $x spend on the card in y days. Worst case, you downgrade to Blue for now and keep the account giving you options later. And as you stated, Amex Offers can often offset the annual fee on cards.

Enjoy your Platinum status with AA, by the way!

Re: Delta downgrade/upgrade question

Shadowfactor — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 14:53:07 GMT

@K-in-Boston wrote:
My condolences for switching over to Oneworld.

Joking aside, as long as the card is at least a year old (which it is since you're renewing) you can move the card around between any of the four personal Delta cards: Blue, Gold, Platinum, and Reserve. If you do product change to another card, keep in mind that you will become ineligible for a welcome offer if you were to ever apply for that card again. Otherwise, there are zero problems with your plan. You don't need an upgrade offer to move up later and Amex never does an inquiry for product changes (and in almost all cases now, they don't even do so for new card applications for existing cardholders).

If you decide to do this, I would tell them that you're thinking of downgrading your card because it is not currently meeting your needs, and ask if there are any offers available for the card. They may bribe you to stay put with a statment credit or SkyMiles offer for $x spend on the card in y days. Worst case, you downgrade to Blue for now and keep the account giving you options later. And as you stated, Amex Offers can often offset the annual fee on cards.

Enjoy your Platinum status with AA, by the way!

Out of curiosity did you get a targeted promotion for AA platinum or did you do the pay for play challenge ?

I have a lot of flights booked on AA already in Business or Domestic first and haven’t been able to get either offer.

Re: Delta downgrade/upgrade question

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 15:13:58 GMT

@Shadowfactor wrote:
@K-in-Boston wrote:
My condolences for switching over to Oneworld.

Joking aside, as long as the card is at least a year old (which it is since you're renewing) you can move the card around between any of the four personal Delta cards: Blue, Gold, Platinum, and Reserve. If you do product change to another card, keep in mind that you will become ineligible for a welcome offer if you were to ever apply for that card again. Otherwise, there are zero problems with your plan. You don't need an upgrade offer to move up later and Amex never does an inquiry for product changes (and in almost all cases now, they don't even do so for new card applications for existing cardholders).

If you decide to do this, I would tell them that you're thinking of downgrading your card because it is not currently meeting your needs, and ask if there are any offers available for the card. They may bribe you to stay put with a statment credit or SkyMiles offer for $x spend on the card in y days. Worst case, you downgrade to Blue for now and keep the account giving you options later. And as you stated, Amex Offers can often offset the annual fee on cards.

Enjoy your Platinum status with AA, by the way!
+1

Out of curiosity did you get a targeted promotion for AA platinum or did you do the pay for play challenge ?

I have a lot of flights booked on AA already in Business or Domestic first and haven’t been able to get either offer.

I got a targeted promotion. It worked really well because of business travel I had in the spring. My company likes the most um...economical flights (i.e. never heard of a connection they didn't like) ...so I was able to meet the segment and trip requirement very easily.

Re: Delta downgrade/upgrade question

Shadowfactor — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 15:28:49 GMT

That’s how my company is. They base the rates off American Airlines Main Cabin. I’ve actually been flying to ORD to start my flight as I can fly business for the cost of main cabin if I position to ORD.

My home airport isn’t small but it’s not exactly a focus city for anyone. WN definitely has the biggest presence but I despise WN. I think that’s part of the reason I don’t get any of these targeted promotions.

Re: Delta downgrade/upgrade question

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 16:13:22 GMT

@K-in-Boston wrote:
My condolences for switching over to Oneworld.

Joking aside, as long as the card is at least a year old (which it is since you're renewing) you can move the card around between any of the four personal Delta cards: Blue, Gold, Platinum, and Reserve. If you do product change to another card, keep in mind that you will become ineligible for a welcome offer if you were to ever apply for that card again. Otherwise, there are zero problems with your plan. You don't need an upgrade offer to move up later and Amex never does an inquiry for product changes (and in almost all cases now, they don't even do so for new card applications for existing cardholders).

If you decide to do this, I would tell them that you're thinking of downgrading your card because it is not currently meeting your needs, and ask if there are any offers available for the card. They may bribe you to stay put with a statment credit or SkyMiles offer for $x spend on the card in y days. Worst case, you downgrade to Blue for now and keep the account giving you options later. And as you stated, Amex Offers can often offset the annual fee on cards.

Enjoy your Platinum status with AA, by the way!

I spoke with a very helpful representative and explained my situation. He promptly offered to process my downgrade today. This is the one card I rarely use, and the only spend was for the SUB. Oh well, I'd rather put the spend on my Hilton card, which still has the Aspire upgrade offer tantalizing me. Now I'm trying to discern if I should move the max limit allowed from the Delta card to the Hilton. I'm eligible for CLI consideration on my account at the end of February.

The Platinum status was very useful flying back stateside from London and for a couple personal trips before the holidays.

Thanks again for everyone's advice!

Re: Delta downgrade/upgrade question

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 17:33:35 GMT

@K-in-Boston wrote:
My condolences for switching over to Oneworld.

If you do product change to another card, keep in mind that you will become ineligible for a welcome offer if you were to ever apply for that card again. Otherwise, there are zero problems with your plan.

Touching on this for a minute, with the recent popups claiming ineligibility on SUBS for some people. It may not even matter anymore.

Though it may be worth apping for the card first to see if you can get the SUB, and if not just PC it.

As for One World, it works out better than Delta has for me.

Re: Delta downgrade/upgrade question

K-in-Boston — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 17:49:06 GMT

Welcome Offer eligibility is certainly case-by-case. In just the past 15 months, I've had:

Delta Platinum 70k + 10k MQM + $100
Delta Reserve 70k + 10k MQM
Delta Platinum Business 50k + 10k MQM
Delta Platinum 10k retention

In the same time period, DW has had:

Delta Gold 60k + $50
Delta Reserve 70k + 10k MQM
Delta Platinum upgrade 15k

All but the first listed card for each of us has been since October.

Re: Delta downgrade/upgrade question

NRB525 — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 20:47:03 GMT

Delta Blue SUB language has always excluded any cardholders of Delta Gold, Delta Platinum and Delta Reserve. The SUB on Blue is really SAD, not worth the HP. Downgrade makes the most sense, keep the account active.

For Delta Platinum and Delta Reserve, unless you get a really nice upgrade offer, those should be new apps, not upgrades, to get the SUB.

Re: Delta downgrade/upgrade question

Anonymous — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 03:02:30 GMT

@K-in-Boston wrote:

Welcome Offer eligibility is certainly case-by-case. In just the past 15 months, I've had:

Delta Platinum 70k + 10k MQM + $100
Delta Reserve 70k + 10k MQM
Delta Platinum Business 50k + 10k MQM
Delta Platinum 10k retention

In the same time period, DW has had:

Delta Gold 60k + $50
Delta Reserve 70k + 10k MQM
Delta Platinum upgrade 15k

All but the first listed card for each of us has been since October.

When upgrading from the gold to platinum, did you get the companion ticket upon paying the annual fee? To me it seems the best card in the lineup is the platinum. If you are able to use the companion ticket on a flight that is over $195, then the card pays for itself on that benefit alone.

Re: Delta downgrade/upgrade question

simplynoir — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 02:59:17 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
When upgrading from the gold to platinum, did you get the companion certificate upon paying the annual fee? To me it seems the best card in the lineup is the platinum. If you are able to use the companion certificate on a flight that is over $195, then the card pays for itself on that benefit alone.

Paging @K-in-Boston to be sure but my understanding is that doing an upgrade of a Delta card - Gold -> Platinum in your case - resets the clock on the companion certificate meaning you have to wait til the next AF i.e. one card member year before being awarded the companion certificate. That might get mixed up with regards to prorating your old AF and said card member year but that's how I see it.

Re: Delta downgrade/upgrade question

Anonymous — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 03:14:53 GMT

@simplynoir wrote:

Paging @K-in-Boston to be sure but my understanding is that doing an upgrade of a Delta card - Gold -> Platinum in your case - resets the clock on the companion certificate meaning you have to wait til the next AF i.e. one card member year before being awarded the companion certificate. That might get mixed up with regards to prorating your old AF and said card member year but that's how I see it.

That’s what I am expecting to happen, which is fine. It just seems crazy for me not to upgrade to the platinum to have the companion ticket offset the fee.

Re: Delta downgrade/upgrade question

K-in-Boston — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 03:50:20 GMT

For us, the Reserve (or 2 in our case) pays for itself even more since it’s not just Main Cabin but now that Delta began to allow upgrading with points maybe those will be more useful. You don’t get the companion certificates on an upgrade. As with a new application, they’re awarded upon renewal.

Our original plan was to just upgrade my Platinum and her Gold to Reserve and take whatever the upgrade bonus was. With the record-high 70k and 10k MQMs that changed to new applications. Then the cancellation plans changed with retention and upgrade offers.

Re: Delta downgrade/upgrade question

NRB525 — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 05:06:26 GMT

@simplynoir wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
When upgrading from the gold to platinum, did you get the companion certificate upon paying the annual fee? To me it seems the best card in the lineup is the platinum. If you are able to use the companion certificate on a flight that is over $195, then the card pays for itself on that benefit alone.
Paging @K-in-Boston to be sure but my understanding is that doing an upgrade of a Delta card - Gold -> Platinum in your case - resets the clock on the companion certificate meaning you have to wait til the next AF i.e. one card member year before being awarded the companion certificate. That might get mixed up with regards to prorating your old AF and said card member year but that's how I see it.

I would rephrase it, because the card anniversary date stays the same on an AMEX PC, and my experience with AMEX Upgrade offers is that the benefits roll in quickly.

What this means is, if you have a Delta Gold, and the anniversary is coming up in February, if you get a nice upgrade offer and move to Delta Platinum in January, I would expect you get the Companion Pass with that February anniversary. It is even possible that if you've had the Delta Gold past the latest anniversary, and upgrade to Platinum a few months after that anniversary, you may find a companion pass added to your Delta account soon after the upgrade dust settles.

When I upgraded my Hilton Ascend to Aspire, they put the Weekend Night certificate in my Hilton account, even though I have not completed a full year with the Aspire AF.

When I upgraded my SPG to Lux, I did not get the 50,000 point night, but did get the 35,000 point night from the legacy SPG card features change.

Re: Delta downgrade/upgrade question

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 09:36:02 GMT

2 days ago when I chatted up AMEX for retention offers, I was not given any. This morning I log into my account and I have an upgrade offer to the Platinum Delta SkyMiles credit card! I'll pass. Now that all my cards have upgrade offers, I'm not concerned about future product changes.

Also, my online account was updated that afternoon to reflect my downgrade to Blue. In comparison, I initiated a product change with BOA on 19 December 2018 and that didn't show in my online account until 8 January 2019. It wouldn't surprise me if the Blue card arrives in the mail before the BOA card does!