Delta New Member Bonus - My Final Tally

Last August, Delta came out with a promotion for people who had never had a Skymile frequent flyer account. I wrote about the nuts and bolts of the promotion here and here. In summary, the promotion gave you points for completing various tasks ie flying, buying, getting credit card all within the first year. Since I never had a Delta account, I signed-up and it has been a fun ride.

My year ended last month and I earned 69,691 miles due to it.

Earning over 69,000 points in one year with little effort is pretty darn good.

How I Did It

First, I took a flight to Atlanta and earned 6,000 miles (1,000 actual miles + 5,000 First Flight Bonus)

+6,000 miles

Delta.com

Next, I applied and was approved for the Delta Amex Gold. The promotion I went with was 45,000 miles after spending $5,000 in 6 months. I wrote about getting the card here. The New Member Promotion gave 5,000 extra miles for being approved for the Amex Gold card. The 5,000 New Member miles did not post automatically. I had to call and fight for the points.

45,000 AMEX Sign-Up Bonus
5,000 New Member Bonus
5,011 Miles Earned for Spend
----------------------

+ 55,011 Miles

The final section of the New Member Bonus I completed was the partner section. I wrote about it here and here. I earned the rest of the miles through various partners.

Super Shuttle Trip                     550 miles - 50 miles for the trip and 500 Partner Bonus Miles
eRewards                               1000 miles - 500 miles transfer and 500 Partner Bonus Miles
Club Carlson Point Transfer      750 miles  - 250 miles transfer and 500 Partner Bonus Miles
Dining Rewards                      1790 miles - 90 from dining, 1,200 sign-up bonus and Bonus
DoubleTree Stay                    1000 miles - 500 miles per stay and 500 Partner Bonus Miles
Hilton Stay                             1000 miles - 500 miles per stay and 500 Partner Bonus Miles
Hilton Stay 2                          1000 miles - 500 miles per stay and 500 Partner Bonus Miles
SkyMiles Shopping                  510 miles -  10 miles from purchase and 500 Partner Bonus Miles
SkyMall Purchase                    520 miles -  20 miles from purchase and 500 Partner Bonus Miles
Fedex Package                        508 miles -  8 miles for cost + 500 FEDEX Bonus
----------------------

+8628

I did not get the partner bonus from FEDEX package because it did not post prior to the close of my year. I wish the terms and conditions were a little more clear about this, but its an interesting story.

As a mathematician might notice that everything above adds up to only 69,639, but my point balance is 69691. The last 52 miles were things I tried to trigger the bonus. My failed attempts included Thanks Again and Transferring 5 US Airways miles into 1 Delta Skymile. Therefore, not all partner bonus will trigger the bonus.

Conclusion

If I could have done anything better, I would have tried to take more flights. The promotion would have awarded me 2,500 miles in addition to miles flown for my next 4 roundtrip flights. Every time I needed to take a flight, I tried to book with DELTA, but it never worked out. Either the price was to high or the routing did not work.

The other regret was the FEDEX slip up. For two months, I wanted to send the package to earn the points, but I didn't. I can only blame myself on this one.

Overall, this promotion was tons of fun and very reminiscent of US Airway's Grand Slam. I am unsure if the promotion is still alive; however, the web page is still up. If it is not, Delta Points has a code for 5,000 miles for new accounts.

Thanks for a fun year Delta!

Now the next challenge, how to spend these Skymiles?

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Most Recent Credit Card Applications

Important Note: We talk about credit card sign-up bonuses on our blog because they are an important part of the “game.” Any credit card links in this post will be public application links taken from the issuer's direct website. We do not earn income from you applying from the links. Similarly, please take an extra minute or two before applying for credit cards. If you do not pay your credit card balance off every month then you should stay away from this aspect of the game. Credit cards can lead to major long-term problems if not used correctly. I encourage you to read my post on Young People and the Chains of Credit Card Debt for more details.  

This week, I broken one of the golden rules of credit card churning: thou shall only apply for credit cards once every 90 days!

Yes, I applied for credit cards within 90 days of my last churn. Unlike last time, I decided not to churn after midnight. I learned my lesson and my success was the same 2 instant approvals and 1 pending.

The reason why I decided to apply for credit cards prior to my 90 days was simple: need. As I previously mentioned, I am planning on going to Alaska with Cash Back Boy, in July. We still have not booked our tickets and prices have gone up, and up and up. Then I had an idea: the Bank of America Alaska Credit card.

Strangely, the benefit that I want out of this credit card is not the points, but rather the companion ticket. Once approved, the card offers it owner a $99 ($117 with taxes) companion pass. This will reduce the cost of the airline tickets to Alaska dramatically for the two of us. Here is the public link to apply.

Of course, this is the application that I got a Pending Decision. Crossing my fingers as I need this the most.

The second card I applied for is the Chase Priority Club Visa.

I decided to get this because I will be cancelling a few Chase cards in the next month or so. Also, I received an email with an 80,000 offer, which is better the typically 60,000 offer. One can find the normal 60,000 offer here. If you Google, one can find a link to an offer for 80,000 points.

Result: Instant Approval

The final credit card I applied for was the American Express Delta Gold. I decided to do the 45,000 mile offer; instead, of the normal 30,000 mile offer. This will help me clear another section of the my Delta GrandSlam. I have previously written here about American Express Delta Gold section of the GrandSlam and how to get this 45,000 mile offer.

Warning: To get the 45,000 mile offer, one will need to go to a third party site. I had to refresh the
              application page two or three times before the third page appeared.

Result: Instant Approval.

Getting 2 instant approvals out of three is excellent. I just wish one of them was the Alaska Airways card. I am crossing my fingers and toes that I get approval for that card. Otherwise, Cash Back Boy is going to have to apply for his first points card.

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 Have a question for us? E-mail us at chris@doitforthepoints.com or jd@doitforthepoints.com

Delta New Member Bonus (Delta GrandSlam) Still Live

In September, I wrote about a new member bonus being offered by Delta. If you have never had an account or opened an account within the past 30 days. I learned that the promotion is still available.

The gist of the promotion is that you can earn up to 40,000 SkyMiles by doing various things with Delta.To sign up for the bonus, go to this website and enter your SkyMiles account number.

I have written about the Delta GrandSlam, here, here, here and here.

After signing up, you have 12 months to complete the various part of the promotions and earn points. This promotion is an easy way to earn points by doing things that you are already doing.

Happy Points Earning!!!

Grand Slam Update // 2012 Q4 CC Applications

After finally getting my body back on the Eastern time zone, I wanted to write a few things about my points related things:

Delta Grand Slam Update

I have completed 8 partner rewards out of the 10 possible. The last three reward credits were from my Hilton Mattress runs, at the end of December.

The interesting part about this is that all three of the stays triggered the 500 mile bonus. It was my understanding that you only received the bonus for the first reward with a particular partner. At first, I thought Delta was treating Doubletree and Hilton has two separate partners, but the third Hilton partner award was at a Hilton. This may be a flaw in the computer system or how the program is set-up. The reason I write this to give a heads-up to anyone participating the Grandslam with me!


2012 Last Credit Card Applications

This may be a non-story for many, but I feel the need to share anyway. I decided not to get any more credit cards in 2012 and skip my credit card applications. The last time I applied for credit cards was late July, so December would have been the earliest for me to apply safely. 

However, there were not three cards the excited me. I need to apply for at least 3 credit cards, at one time, to justify the inquiry on my credit. I looked at the credit card offer out there and I could not find three that I needed. Yes, I said need. I am strategic in which credit cards to get. Should I get the Frontier credit card? No, I have no need for the Frontier points, so why get the card. 

Over my time in this game, I have seen two thoughts to earn points: those who get every point out there and those who are strategic. I fall into the strategic category. The points I earn must get to one step closer to completing my goals. Is the first category (point hording) bad? No,just make sure you use the points: expire points = many tears.

Back to the point of this part of this post. I did not see credit cards the excited me, so I passed this churn. No real loss, but possible bigger gain: longer time since my last credit inquires. Time can only make my credit stronger. January might be a churn month. I am looking at the following cards:

  1) US Bank Club Carlson
  2) Delta AMEX (only if I get a 40,000 point offer - result in 45,000 due to the Delta GrandSlam)
  3) Chase Priority Club

What happens between now and the churn, only a crystal ball will tell. What I do know is Q1 of 2013 will result in new cards entering my wallet.