@Anonymous wrote:Yes, it was an Upgrade because the points I had on the Gold card carried over to the Platinum. Yes, it was the DELTA PLATINUM, not the Everyday or Everyday Preferred cards. Not needing both cards (Delta Gold and Delta Platinum, which would essentially be competing with each other on the monthly transaction boost), I later cancelled the Gold, ...
Okay, you did NOT upgrade your Delta Gold SkyMiles Card to a Delta Platinum SkyMiles Card. That is a very clear distinction that needs to be made. You opened a new credit card and closed another one. Getting a new cardmember bonus on an upgrade is unheard of with Amex, and you have clarified that this is not the case. Your SkyMiles are not stored with American Express, they are stored with Delta. No matter what your status on your credit cards is, you will always keep your points, and by providing the same SkyMiles account number, they will always pool to the same SkyMiles account. Again, there is no transaction boost other than the new one for purchases over $5000 on the Business Platinum SkyMiles card and the 1.5 SkyMiles per dollar after the first $150,000 of spending on the Business Delta Reserve card.
@Anonymous wrote:The 1.5 miles is on all purchases as long as I use the card 30 times in a billing month, regardless of monthly or annual spend. I am unclear if the 1.5 is carried over to the purchases that pay 3x (Delta travel, US Supermarkets and worldwide restaurants) or not but I will find out soon enough. I also have the Everyday card but the benefits of the Delta Platinum are so superior that I have now relegated that to my sock drawer. I must admit, Amex did a very poor job of advertising this on their web site, but Delta did a great job of advertising it on theirs.
Neither Delta nor American Express show anything about bonuses for using any of their cards a specific number of times per month. Here is the Delta page:
https://www.delta.com/us/en/skymiles/airline-credit-cards/american-express-personal-cards
Before continuing to use the card, I would strongly suggest that you familiarize yourself with the actual earnings of the various cards to prevent disappointment on the actual earnings you receive.
Thanks. Does Amex look more kindly on downgrading to a no-AF card than they do on closing a card, or is it basically the same? I could downgrade Gold to Blue in September, if that would be better. Although, I don't foresee getting any Amex cards with big SUBs after the Delta Platinum, so it may not matter that much in my case.
I'm currently working on the Platinum (charge card) SUB, so I plan to hold off getting the Delta Platinum until late March. As long as I get the Delta Platinum by April 1, it should get the current SUB, right? Thanks again!
The Delta Platinum now gets 3 miles on Delta and hotels, 2 miles on dining and groceries.
but I doubt that is the earn structure as it sounds like the EDP is being discussed.
Too many cards! 
Lol! The best earn rates for airline miles isn't by using their cards. Since the change of spending 30k for 15k MQM and not getting also 15k miles, I'm reasessing putting that kind of spend on my reserve.
Personal Cards: Amex Plat | Amex Delta Res | CSR | Citi AA Exec Business Cards: Ink+ | Amex BGR
@KJinNC wrote:Thanks. Does Amex look more kindly on downgrading to a no-AF card than they do on closing a card, or is it basically the same? I could downgrade Gold to Blue in September, if that would be better. Although, I don't foresee getting any Amex cards with big SUBs after the Delta Platinum, so it may not matter that much in my case.
I'm currently working on the Platinum (charge card) SUB, so I plan to hold off getting the Delta Platinum until late March. As long as I get the Delta Platinum by April 1, it should get the current SUB, right? Thanks again!
Like @Anonymous said, it's probably best to downgrade it. And yes, that is the expiration of the current offers. This refresh changed up the pattern that they had been using for quite a while now (big public offer, big referral offer, mediocre offer across all channels, repeat, repeat, repeat) as after the big referral offers just ended they launched the revamped cards with both big referral offers and big public offers. No educated idea what Amex will do next, but most likely the public offers will be significantly reduced after the 1st of April.
@redpat wrote:Lol! The best earn rates for airline miles isn't by using their cards. Since the change of spending 30k for 15k MQM and not getting also 15k miles, I'm reasessing putting that kind of spend on my reserve.
I agree, and unless someone either a.) doesn't have any other cards that earn better for travel purchases, b.) is going for status or increased status, or c.) is able to get value from SkyMiles outside of the norm, there's no reason to ever spend on these cards. With the change from Mileage Boost to Status Boost (loss of bonus miles when hitting spending targets, but two additional targets added at $75k/$100k for Platinum and $90k/$120k for Reserve), I really had to run the numbers myself since effectively 1.5 miles per dollar for non-category spend was easier to justify than 1 mile per dollar.
In the end, I have chosen to continue using Delta Reserve for $30k of non-category spend this year. I would typically be buying Comfort+ or First seats anyway (I'm tall), so the fare differences from being able to just buy Main Cabin and immediately go in and select a C+ seat as a PM makes a significant monetary difference and easily overcomes the difference in base credit card earnings. The slightly increased mileage earnings from higher status also adds up.
@wasCB14 wrote:I could potentially qualify for Delta Gold status if I focused on cobrand spend...but flying between LAX/SFO/JFK I'd probably have a slim chance of an upgrade...too many Platinums and Diamonds.
I figure it makes more sense to get a lot of MRs, add 30% via a transfer bonus, and book premium awards via VS.
Flying between those three cities, yes they're Medallion heavy, but as a Gold you still have free access to preferred seats like exit rows. As a Gold, I technically had a 100% upgrade rate to at least Comfort+ last year, but there were 2 or 3 flights where I declined the Comfort+ "upgrade" to a middle seat. Of the other 30 or so flights, they were pretty evenly split between me being upgraded to First, upgraded to Comfort+, or either originally purchasing or upgrading myself to First. I didn't make Platinum Medallion until December (November statement closed on the 1st rather than the 2nd for the first time ever, and thanks to an Amex Offer credit of $3 or so I had $29,999 TYD spending LOL), so almost all of that upgrade activity was as a Gold Medallion and more than 2/3 of the flights were on Medallion-heavy Delta hub to Delta hub flights.
But I agree that booking First/Delta One awards via Virgin is a great way to go if you don't want to gamble the upgrade, since riding in F isn't as likely depending on the times and routes of the flights.