AMEX Delta Reserve - Companion Certificate

[Openwater]

So I've been reading in different websites that the companion certificate has become more and more difficult to redeem. Does anyone have any personal experience with this? I think that it is a good card to consider, even if you're not a Delta loyalist, due to a practically 50% off flight (round trip) to anywhere in the continental US. But if redeeming the certificate is that difficult, I could see how you would lose value if the cert. expired. Thoughts?

[odd_dog]

Yes I have found it hard to apply on-line......I have found the best way is call them tell them you are having issues using the cert on line and they do all the work.....always works like a charm.

[fm92555]

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@Openwater wrote:

So I've been reading in different websites that the companion certificate has become more and more difficult to redeem. Does anyone have any personal experience with this? I think that it is a good card to consider, even if you're not a Delta loyalist, due to a practically 50% off flight (round trip) to anywhere in the continental US. But if redeeming the certificate is that difficult, I could see how you would lose value if the cert. expired. Thoughts?

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I just found out you need to actually fly usibg the companion ticket by 12/31 of the year. I tried booking this last weekend for a trip in April. Online showed the certificate but would not allow me to select it. I called and they said it had to be used for flying before 12/31.

I will know for next time.

[Alephbet]

I have three Delta cards that generate certificates between my wife and I. They are not that helpful for last minute flights since the eligible fare classes may not be available and they only work for round trips. The Alaska Airlines companion fare is much more flexible by comparison. I still find them to be a great value for us personally though. Calling in is something I have not tried but would probably be very helpful and should have when I needed one last minute.

[K-in-Boston]

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@fm92555 wrote:

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I just found out you need to actually fly usibg the companion ticket by 12/31 of the year. I tried booking this last weekend for a trip in April. Online showed the certificate but would not allow me to select it. I called and they said it had to be used for flying before 12/31.

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Just to be clear, companion certificates have to be used (aka flown) by their expiration date, which is based on when they were issued.  In your case, your certificate expired on the 31st of December but "by 12/31 of the year" reads to me as "by the end of the calendar year."  I have the 30th of November and 31st of January as expiration dates; the certificates are issued shortly after the statement closes in which the renewal annual fee appears.

As for usability, nothing has changed and I am not sure what the aforementioned websites stating "the companion certificate has become more and more difficult to redeem" are referring to, unless they mean compared to the summer of 2020 when no one was flying and the allowable fare classes were available on nearly every flight.  As long as you are not waiting to book until very shortly before your flight, stock is plentiful and easy to find as long as you put a little planning into it.  What has changed as far as usability is Regional Upgrade Certificates, though, since they began allowing you to attach it at booking rather than having to call.  It's annoying seeing domestic flights that show "Upgradable with Global Certificate." 

[Openwater]

@K-in-Boston  Pretty much the gist of both articles are based on "fare classes" that the flights are classified as. And there are limited number to these class of tickets that are awarded. 

https://freequentflyerbook.com/blog/2017/5/7/my-good-delta-companion-certificate-redemption-proves-h...

https://thriftytraveler.com/guides/credit-card/delta-companion-ticket/

But it is stated that with enough time you can manage to score one as you mentioned. The second site mentions use of an ITA Matrix that helps find specific fare classes for flights. Basically a search engine for flights.

I was just wondering if anyone had experience what the article was mentioning that they have gotten more difficult to redeem.  

Piggy-backing on the same question. It covers round trip, including lay-overs? Has anyone booked with a lay-over and found it to be more challenging to book a flight. Additionally, another forum mentioned that they were able to find a flight to their destination, but found difficulty on the return flight...  Maybe all these hiccups are based on short time frames for booking. I'm just trying to get a pulse for how that works. I usually don't fly Delta being out of Miami, most flights from here have to usually stop in ATL for a layover. But regardless, I am under the impression that the AF of AMEX Delta is a better price than booking a flight.

[Alephbet]

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@Openwater wrote:

But it is stated that with enough time you can manage to score one as you mentioned. The second site mentions use of an ITA Matrix that helps find specific fare classes for flights. Basically a search engine for flights.

I was just wondering if anyone had experience what the article was mentioning that they have gotten more difficult to redeem.  

Piggy-backing on the same question. It covers round trip, including lay-overs? Has anyone booked with a lay-over and found it to be more challenging to book a flight. Additionally, another forum mentioned that they were able to find a flight to their destination, but found difficulty on the return flight...  Maybe all these hiccups are based on short time frames for booking. I'm just trying to get a pulse for how that works. I usually don't fly Delta being out of Miami, most flights from here have to usually stop in ATL for a layover. But regardless, I am under the impression that the AF of AMEX Delta is a better price than booking a flight.

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I skimmed through both articles you linked. Since you normally have only one certificate per year, I'm not sure if it's more difficult or not lately. Don't overthink it too much. I used to look at the certificates and say I would only use them if the flight value was greater than the cost of the annual fee and I really wanted to get much more value than the annual fee. Ideally, that would be the case but sometimes I need to take a flight that isn't quite worth more than $550 (for Reserve) or $250 (for Platinum) but it's definitely worth using it and not having the certificate expire even if I get slightly less value. The value of the Delta credit card is that it also gives you free checked baggage and, for the Reserve, Delta SkyClub lounge access. It's much easier for me to justify using the Delta Platinum's certificate since I rarely book First Class except for on very short (i.e. SFO-LAX) which equates to relatively inexpensive fares.

Normal routing layovers are not an issue. You have to do round trip tickets but it doesn't matter if you fly through ATL and MSP in one direction and JFK and SLC in the other from my experience. You can't do multi city routing obviously. It is, of course, easiest to use the certificate for a trip you plan in advance and then not worry about maybe having received a little better value if you had used the certificate on another route.

The first article talks about using points instead but that example is from 2017 and not very relevant now. Using the Chase Sapphire Reserve and getting 1.5X value on your Chase Ultimate Rewards points in Chase's travel portal or using the 35% rebate when booking through AMEX Travel with the AMEX Business Platinum with Delta as your selected airline (for economy tickets) can be a better value and objectively cost less but it depends on your travel plans and then you have to have enough points to book the flight and so forth. My experience has been that tickets booked with third parties are harder to work with later if you need to reschedule where booking with the companion certificate is relatively simple to reschedule with a call.

One point I noticed in one of the articles that might not actually be technically true is that you have to pay for the other ticket and taxes and fees with a Delta AMEX card. I have been able to pay using my AMEX Schwab Platinum (5X MR vs 3X Delta SkyMiles) without an issue in the past and I assume any other AMEX card would work as well. This could have changed recently. This did change for Alaska Airlines last year or possibly late 2022 and you do have to use your Alaska Airlines card when using the companion fare for them.

[Openwater]

@Alephbet 

I think you hit the nail on the head for me. I'm considering going for the Reserve, you made a valid arguement with the club access and checked bag, plus the companion... I think that can easly justify the AF by flying comfort + or even first class. I have never been lucky enought to fly first, but DW and I try to take a domestic trip every year. With that in mind I beleive there is value to the AF of the reserve.

[digitek]

I've had Delta Amex for a few years now. I've found it best to schedule the trip as soon as you get the certificate. Closer you get to the date of travel the less options are available. It can be really annoying to look for flights with companion pass and the dates aren't available and you end up changing your trip to accommodate the dates you can use the companion pass.

[K-in-Boston]

Yeah, the articles have issues.  From the 2017 article, "In other words, Delta and American Express have contrived to "cap" the cost of offering free companion tickets by allowing their redemption only on flights that are far enough in the future, and empty enough, that they're unlikely to cost very much."  As opposed to other cards that offer a companion certificate but only in the highest fare classes?  (i.e. It doesn't usually make a lot of sense to use a certificate to buy a single Y ticket* for $1500 to get one free if you can just buy two X fares for $350 each, which would still be less than half the cost total of buy one get one free.)

The "2023" article is yet another common example of TPG updating their referral links (even to a card for a competing airline in one instance LOL), changing the publishing date, and reposting an old article as new.  You can verify this by scrolling down to the comments from 5 years ago.  Yes, now that we are in 2019 it may not be quite as easy to redeem as it was just a few years ago in 2016 before the certificate rules were changed, but maybe next year something crazy might happen worldwide that causes people to fly less and makes availability wide open?  

Long story short, the availability of the fare classes (which are plentiful; you only start seeing higher fare classes as the lowest available when the planes are filling up) per flight has not changed.  Availability will seem less when comparing the present to 2020-2022, when passenger volume and load factor were significantly lower.

*I say "doesn't usually" because with some frequent flyer elite statuses or mileage upgrades, it can make sense to buy a full fare Y ticket and be upgraded to business class for a fraction of what the actual business class ticket would have cost.