The Offer
Targeted offer via e-mail. Subject line is ‘Enjoy our best offer available: 40K bonus miles + no annual fee for the first year, then $99’
- American Express is offering some Delta Blue cardholders 40,000 miles when they upgrade to the Delta Gold card and spend $2,000 within the first two months
Card Details
- Annual fee of $99 waived first year
- Card earns at the following rates:
- 2x miles per $1 spent on restaurants (including takeout and delivery), groceries and Delta purchases
- 1x miles per $1 spent on all other purchases
- $100 Delta Flight Credit when you spend $10,000 in purchases on your Card in a calendar year
- First Checked Bag Free
- 20% Back on In-flight Purchases
- Receive Main Cabin 1 Priority Boarding on Delta flights
Our Verdict
Previous to a similar upgrade offer, but this time the annual fee is waived first year. You can learn more about AmEx upgrade offers by clicking here.
Will I get the 40k if I previously had an AMEX Delta Gold. I mean I should. They know about it and sent me this email.
I received this offer and just signed up
I got this a few weeks ago, hit the spend and got the 40K miles. Today I got another upgrade offer from Gold to Platinum for 50K miles with $3K spend, even though I just upgraded from Blue to Gold 5 weeks ago. You have to pay the annual fee but they give you a $200 statement credit so it’s a no-brainer.
Took advantage of this offer last month. $2,000 in 6 months is easy and 40k SkyMiles is not bad at all for no annual fee. Note: After the first year, they will charge a prorated annual fee until the initial account anniversary date. For example, let us say your account anniversary date is Jan. 1, and you upgrade October 1, 2021. On or after October 1, 2022, you will incur a prorated fee of approximately $25. The full $99 fee would take effect Jan. 2023
Sorry
William Charles I didn’t include the email subject line. It was: “Enjoy our best offer available: 40K bonus miles + no annual fee for the first year, then $99”
Follow up to the before comment, At that time I called and asked the AMEX and they said they don’t see the upgrade offer on their end but asked to save the details of the offer which I’m seeing on the Delta website before upgrading it incase it was not applied.
Can we downgrade back to the blue after a year has passed without penalty or concerns?
The Terms & Conditions in the email include the usual language about abuse, and they state as an example: “if you cancel or downgrade your account within 12 months after acquiring it.”
So it seems like canceling or downgrading after 12 months would still be okay.
Yes, but be sure you keep track of the date you upgraded and absolutely do not downgrade before then or they will claw back your bonus. The AF does not always coincide with exactly one year from the date you upgraded, so don’t assume when you see the AF post, you’re at 1 year.
In my terms, it said they will charge a prorated annual fee after the first year. So if your acct anniversary is Jan. 1 and you upgrade October 1, 2021… on or after October 1, 2022, you will incur a prorated fee of approximately $25 — and the full $99 fee would take effect in Jan. 2023.
Got this offer couple of months back. I already had the Delta Gold before and downgraded to Delta Blue. I didn’t get any email but when I logged in to the Delta website I saw the offer.