Delta SkyMiles and expiration

[j615]

My Amex Gold AF just hit today after 1 year. I'm not looking to keep this card and before closing the card, I'm thinking of transferring all my MR points over to my Delta SkyMiles account as I don't have another MR card. From what I read, these miles never expire with Delta. Any experience if this is true if I just let the SkyMiles sit with no activity for a extended period of time? Just want to make sure I'm not missing something.

[Remedios]

https://www.delta.com/us/en/skymiles/program-resources/program-rules

[simplynoir]

Nope, you're not missing anything. As long as you have a Skymiles account in good standing your miles will not expire with no activity needed on your end

https://www.delta.com/us/en/skymiles/overview

[j615]

Thank you. I'll move forward with transferring the MRs.

[K-in-Boston]

SkyMiles would be a nice safe place to park them, and during the frequent flash sales you can certainly get some insane value out of them.  The one caveat is that as with all domestic carriers, Amex does pass the federal excise tax for miles onto the cardholder.  Other card issuers eat this fee, but it's not unreasonable.  It's $0.0006 per MR which works out to $30 for every 50k Membership Rewards, but it's capped at $99.  So if you think of it as "I'm going to use 100k SkyMiles to book a $20,000 flight in Delta One round-trip to Japan," the $60 fee is quite reasonable.  

[Anonymous]

Thanks Noir! I was worried when I thought my skymiles would be expired. 

[Anonymous]

If your score and needs support it, you might consider getting an Amex Everyday Rewards card to store your rewards in. You'd get a decent-ish SUB and 15 months no interest. 

[Loquat]

@Anonymous I was thinking the same thing.  If the OP doesn't mind a new account I'd go with the EveryDay card as well rather than transferring all of my MR to Delta just because they need to be moved.  

[j615]

Thanks for the suggestions about the ED card, but I've decided another Amex card won't fit my needs anytime soon. I had 73K MR points which I've now transferred to Delta and paid the tax fee. I'm sure I'll find use for the SkyMiles in the future.

[Anonymous]

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@j615 wrote:

Thanks for the suggestions about the ED card, but I've decided another Amex card won't fit my needs anytime soon. I had 73K MR points which I've now transferred to Delta and paid the tax fee. I'm sure I'll find use for the SkyMiles in the future.

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I like keeping Amex cards around in case of expensive emergencies.