So what's wrong with this?

[hookedonears]

Several months ago, I received a Delta Airlines American Express credit card application in the mail offering 50,000 FF miles, $50 statement credit and one free checked bag and they would delay charging the $95 dollar annual fee until the following year. All we had to do was spend a $1000 to get the goods. We spent the thousand, I got the 50,000 FF miles, and got the $50 statement credit, and 2 weeks ago I cancelled the card.

Last week my wife got the same offer. We're going to do the exact thing again. It typically takes about 37,500 Delta FF miles to receive a free ticket. So now, my wife and I will both have enough FF miles to get a free ticket. Our daughter, however currently only has 19,500 FF miles. I have a few extra miles, so I will donate 18,000 miles to her at $10 per 1000 miles, or $180, plus a $30 fee. So basically, if you include the 2 $50 statement credits, the 3 of us are going to be able to fly for a net cost of $110 for doing relatively nothing at all.

We are going to keep her card until after we buy our tickets, so we will get our free checked bag, and then cancel the card as well. We normally only take one checked bag when the three of us travel anyway. I noticed that Delta.com has basically the same offer, though they are only offering 30,000 FF miles.

 

[DLgal]

If you don't care about your credit score, have at it.

 

[hookedonears]

Credit score is fine, if you consider in the 8's fine.

 

[Eastern]

When you open and close accounts it dings your score a bit.

 

[peg110]

When you open and close accounts it dings your score a bit.

I think it only dings it in as much as a "Credit Inquiry" would ding it. When opening it (initially) you get the ding for the Credit Inquiry and then the "Average Age of Credit", but I am not so sure how the "Age" impact applies if you close the account after it's only a couple months old. (It may no longer be included in the "Age" calculation). Otherwise the other impacts are the overall Available credit (since it's new, it probably increases this which is good) and the Utilization (which if you pay it off quickly, is also not an issue). So overall if you have a strong credit profile, this would be a non-issue.

 

[ateam79828592]

My husband and I have done similar things. A couple things to note from our experience: 1) you only get free bags for traveling party if they were booked on the same confirmation. If we booked them all separately using miles from each delta account, it didn't give free bags to the non-cc people. If they are all booked together, it works great. 2) their "pay with miles" option lets you pay for part of the ticket with miles. I think it is about $100 per 10k miles and goes up in 5k / $50 increments. We have found this to be a better value for miles than actually doing a full ticket. You can only do this options with the delta CC.

 

[elgerber]

Did you physically get a coupon or something for the free checked bag? That is a normal benefit of the card that works for up to 9 people on one reservation, that you can use over and over. However, you generally have to be a current AMEX cardholder to get the benefit.

 

[tinka-belle]

No coupon for the bag fees. The card is attached to your Delta FF#, when booking always use your FF# and the free bags are included automatically for all persons booked on your reservation. It's worked for me at bag drop at the Disney resorts too, they can see no fee on the Delta record when they pull it up.

Yes, have to be a current cardholder when you take the flight, not just purchase the tickets with your card and then cancel it. Benefits apply only to active cardholders, and can be used repeatedly within the areas specified.