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.
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.
@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.
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!