Membership Rewards to Delta Air Lines Transfers Ending
I have an updated post on what I was able to find out from Amex. This rumor was not true.
Well this isn’t the news I expected to wake up to this morning. Our friends Derrick and Rick at Travel on Point(s) tipped me off to some surprising news. I guess a member of their Facebook group saw a pop up when doing a Membership Rewards to Delta Air Lines transfer saying the option would be ending. They then dug through the terms and conditions of the Membership Rewards earning cards and found it acknowledged there. This seems to confirm the Membership Rewards to Delta Air Lines transfers ending later next month. We will try to get confirmation on what is going on from Amex though.
Details
We all tried to get the pop up to come up with a transfer to Delta but were unsuccessful in recreating that. But the terms pictured above pretty much lay it out and give some confirmation to that.
It appears Delta Air Lines will no longer be a transfer partner of the Membership Rewards family on 8/31/21. And wouldn’t you just know that the small fee they charge to transfer is back. Just in time to hit up people that want to do a final transfer or two.
This would be a weird move between Amex and Delta Air Lines since they are co-branded credit card partners. They offer 7 different Delta Skymiles earning cards. If this is accurate, why would they end the transfer partnership? I am not sure on that. My best guess would be that Delta wanted more for their miles than Amex wanted to pay. I doubt this affects their co-branded partnership long term, which has multiple years left on the deal. It does seem strange to do it with a partner that offers your most popular cards.
Final Thoughts
We had questioned if Membership Rewards was ripe for a devaluation with these massive increased offers and the no lifetime language offers being given out like candy. If accurate, this is not at all what I would have expected.
I have reached out to Amex and will update once we hear if this is about transfer partners or something else.
As a big Delta lover and a bigger fan of Skymiles than most, will I be transferring some points over if it ends? It is unlikely outside of a small amount because the value is usually less than I can get by cashing out Membership Rewards with the Schwab Platinum (which is also devaluing soon). There are times when Delta has a great flash sale etc. and you can do better so I may beef up my account to 40-50K but that is about it.
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Say it ain’t so!
My MR has solely been used for Delta.
Amex Gold, Green, and Blue Business Plus.
[…] The travel and points blogosphere is abuzz with speculation that Delta SkyMiles will no longer be an American Express Membership Rewards points tran…. […]
This is a bummer. I often see smoking skymiles deals from ANC to SEA, like 4k RT. Its nice to be able to top off my delta account w MR.
Gonna have to get a a Delta card if you want Delta SkyMiles. Maybe that’s what American Express is pushing for? Why let people earn 4x SkyMiles on grocery with the Gold when they only earn 2x with the Delta Gold?
Could be – maybe the Delta cards are more profitable for them overall.
I used to look to Air France to book Delta flights using transferred MR points (no excise fee), but the booking experience with AF is like trying to knock a stubborn bag of chips out of a vending machine, so with Delta itself leaving (if true) and Schwab devaluing, I’ll be at a loss for what to do with MRs.
I also hate Air France’s site haha. Virgin isn’t much better but I do prefer it and used that route mostly until they destroyed the chart this year.
Amex/Delta probably want to push those that value SkyMiles (which there are a lot of despite the reputation it has) to spend on the Delta branded cards. That would be fine if they made spending on their most premium card more rewarding…
I use MRs for Schwab cashouts and Delta. That’s it. It’s been a rough few weeks!
Yikes, coupled with the Schwab devaluation, this is the end of collecting MR for me since I don’t travel internationally much. Time to cancel the Schwab Platinum and Gold.
I would wait to see confirmation from Amex before doing anything. But if true, yeah it will a big blow if you prefer cashing out and Delta transfers.
Combined with the reduction in the Schwab cash out value, this is not good news.
Yes very surprising, even though it’s not the best value, it’s where I transfer almost all my MR since I don’t travel that much internationally and there are some routes I can get good value on Skymiles. Hopefully something changes and or I may be forced to cash out with Schwab!
It would be a really strange decision with how intertwined they are but Amex hasn’t been making a ton of sense lately.