Card Arrival Times

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

Just got my Delta Gold and in the last couple of weeks, I've seen a lot of back and forth on whether this card was expedited. Figured I'd share my experience as a data point. Will also throw in a bonus datapoint on the member since date as I was blacklisted back in the day. Feel free to share delivery times of other cards that arrived sooner or later than expected.

Wed 10/17/18 Was approved for the card at about 11pm. Congrats email said I would receive my card in 3-5 days. Also noticed that the email was thanking me for choosing Amex "again".

I read that it was supposed to be expedited, which the email confirms, but others said it would be the standard 7-10 days, so I decided to do some digging. Went to the application decision portal and saw this.

Hmm...🤔 All I could do was wait.

Thurs 10/18/18 In another thread, the day after approval, the question came up as to what member since date would be on it. Most people get the year applied, then once the system catches up, replacement cards would show the original member since date. I was linked to the old Amex site by another member here and told to check what it said there. Upon logging in, it showed member since 1999 (cue the artist formerly known as Prince). This was the next day after approval, but there was still speculation as to what date would be on it.

Sat 10/20/18 Saw in a thread that you can go into your account and start the process of ordering the replacement card and it would show what the shipping would be. It showed regular USPS. 😑

Thurs 10/25/18 I decided to call to make sure it even got shipped. The nice man told me my plastic was shipped Mon 10/22/18 and he used those words.

Fri 10/26/18 My card arrived, 9 days after approval. Shipped from Omaha, NE to California. Oh, and:

[Shadowfactor]

Both my fiancée and I’s Gold Delta cards were overnighted without being asked. First Amex card for both of us.

Since then I’ve opened 5 other Amex accounts and always gotten overnight shipping. Sometimes requested sometimes not. This applied to both no-AF and AF cards.

She is no longer a basic Amex card member.

[wasCB14]

Amex is pretty flexible. I once applied for a new account ($95 SPG) in the middle of travel and they expedited the card to my destination.

That said, I was an existing customer with other accounts, had all my account security info in order, and followed their instructions exactly.

*Of course, more recently when I upgraded to Luxury they took 33 days (there was no rush, but still...) to ship me a card.

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

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@Shadowfactor wrote:
Both my fiancée and I’s Gold Delta cards were overnighted without being asked. First Amex card for both of us.

Since then I’ve opened 5 other Amex accounts and always gotten overnight shipping. Sometimes requested sometimes not. This applied to both no-AF and AF cards.

She is no longer a basic Amex card member.

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Yeah, when I called in I mentioned I was hoping to have it by Saturday for an event. I thought they might offer to expedite a new one, though that was because I was used to overnighted cards back in the day from them. He didn't offer. Not that I was going to ask or accept as based on the ship date, I knew it would be here today or tomorrow before the event at latest.

Someone had mentioned that the delay may be because of the blacklist.

[Anonymous]

I was hoping to stumble across a post like this from you, since you were approved less than a month before I was. My approvals for Delta Gold and Hilton Honors were both on Thursday 11/15. I got the welcome emails for both cards that day, yesterday in the mail I got two separate letters confirming that the AU cards for my wife (one of each) were approved, and that they’d be shipped soon. Yesterday morning about 6am I got an email saying my Delta had been mailed and would arrive in 3-5 business days.

However, since the welcome email and Hilton Honors email that I got for the HH card, I haven’t heard anything. I’m kinda wondering when that’s going to ship out. I’m sure I could call in and ask, but maybe when I get the DG in the mail I’ll call to activate it and ask then...

[simplynoir]

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@wasCB14 wrote:

Amex is pretty flexible. I once applied for a new account ($95 SPG) in the middle of travel and they expedited the card to my destination.

That said, I was an existing customer with other accounts, had all my account security info in order, and followed their instructions exactly.

*Of course, more recently when I upgraded to Luxury they took 33 days (there was no rush, but still...) to ship me a card.

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Major kudos to you for not worrying where that card went. I would have called them up after two weeks tops myself.

[Anonymous]

My situation does not apply specific towards the Delta Gold card but it is still an Amex card so here it goes!

I recently applied for my first Amex card, the Amex Gold and received an email saying that I should receive the card within 2-4 days (or something like that, I believe). As I requested the rose gold version, it took them awhile to ship the card out (like 5 days) but once they shipped, I received the card in less than 24h.

The card was shipped on Monday at 6pm and I received the card on Thursday at 4pm, haha! It came expedited through UPS Next Day Saver. I also heard that Amex expedites cards for new cardholders (which was my case). Very happy with Amex so far! 

[wasCB14]

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@simplynoir wrote:

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@wasCB14 wrote:

Amex is pretty flexible. I once applied for a new account ($95 SPG) in the middle of travel and they expedited the card to my destination.

That said, I was an existing customer with other accounts, had all my account security info in order, and followed their instructions exactly.

*Of course, more recently when I upgraded to Luxury they took 33 days (there was no rush, but still...) to ship me a card.

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Major kudos to you for not worrying where that card went. I would have called them up after two weeks tops myself.

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There were a few factors that delayed such a call.

1. I was away traveling some of the time.

2. I had my current card with online access and alerts.

3. It was during the Rose Gold craze where people were collecting every combination of plastic/gold/rose and contactless/not, so I figured Amex was busy enough...and also more likely to make an error if I did contact them for another card.

4. At some point, I figured that with a long wait, some sympathetic CSR might possibly throw a few more points my way. I didn't end up asking. I should have, though, when I finally called and a CSR BSed me by saying the card went to an old address (an old address I was actually staying at when it was supposedly delivered there, and not the primary address on record for the card).

I did get, separately, an upgrade spend promo and then a targeted ongoing spend promo on the card. The BSing CSR did at least get the card to me within a few days at the correct address.

[SkyCommander]

I’ve had 6 Amex cards and none were expedited. All arrived 7-10 days after my application was submitted and instant approved. Mine were all done on the website and no options were seen to get it sent faster. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks all. As it happens, not even an hour after I made my post up above, my Delta card now shows up in my account as “pending” when I use the card replacement selection, where before there was nothing. And just now I got an email stating that my Hilton card has also shipped. Definitely no expediting going on but at least both cards are en route and I can use the email-to-arrival time of the Delta to guess about when the Hilton will show.