American Express Platinum vs. Delta SkyMiles Platinum: Which is Better in 2025?
Delta is one of the best airlines to fly within and from the USA due to its high standards and extremely broad range of destinations, including domestically from cities like Boston, Los Angeles, Denver, and Austin, and internationally to places like London. Having Delta status and utilizing miles for Delta flights therefore holds significant benefits for both frequent travelers and occasional flyers, such as priority check-in and boarding, baggage discounts or Allowances, and seat/cabin upgrades.
Without a doubt, the best way to get benefits and use miles to buy flights on Delta is with a travel credit card. Delta has four co-branded credit cards with American Express; plus, you can transfer your American Express credit card miles straight to Delta. Therefore, two of the most popular credit cards for earning and using Delta SkyMiles are the American Express Platinum and the Delta SkyMiles Platinum, with both cards offering unique advantages for their holders.
Recommended Article: How to Book Delta Flights with Chase Points
Many people are confused about the differences between these credit cards and which one offers better benefits for Delta flights. It’s understandable to have difficulty choosing since both cards are from American Express, have "platinum" in their names, and look alike.
These two cards are also positioned similarly by AmEx and Delta as cards with a slew of great benefits but with massive annual fees ($600+). Both cards are near the top of their respective card ecosystems, with the AmEx Platinum sitting at the top of the AmEx line (besides the Black card) and the Delta SkyMiles Platinum between the cheaper Delta SkyMiles Gold and the more expensive Delta SkyMiles Reserve. Compared to the AmEx Gold card and the SkyMiles Gold (AmEx re-used the card names for Delta cards), the Platinum cards have much higher fees, but also come with significantly more benefits.
Recommended Article: The Complete American Express Card Tier List
Although these two credit cards look alike and have similar names, they are very different in how you can use them and the benefits they offer. Therefore, we have put together a complete guide to help you decide which card is a better fit for your wallet.
AmEx Platinum vs. Delta SkyMiles Platinum in 2025: A Guide
Let’s start by going over the basics of both of these two credit cards individually:
American Express Platinum
The American Express Platinum is AmEx’s premium travel card. While it has one of the highest annual fees of any card on the market (coming in at a whopping $695), it provides cardholders with a myriad of benefits and rewards, including lounge access, executive status for rental cards, and more.
Let’s discuss the set-up of the American Express Platinum:
Annual fee: $695
Sign-on bonus: ~80,000 Membership Reward points after you spend $8,000 on purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months (though this sometimes goes as high as 150,000 MR points)
Reward earning: 5x points on all flights booked either through the American Express travel portal or directly with the airline, & 5x points on hotels booked through the Amex portal
Other benefits: Hertz President’s Circle status, Global Lounge Collection access, $200 hotel incidentals statement credit, $240 digital entertainment credit (Disney+, ESPN+, etc.), $155 Walmart+ credit, $200 Uber credit ($15 monthly), $200 airline fee credit, $300 Equinox credit, $189 CLEAR credit
The AmEx Platinum is designed for two main purposes: using credits and booking travel. Unlike other common travel cards (e.g., the American Express Gold, the Chase Sapphire Preferred), which generate rewards on everyday spend, the Platinum gives essentially no spending rewards for anything non-travel.
The elevated sign-up bonus for the American Express Platinum credit card
But when it comes to maximizing rewards on travel, the American Express Platinum is one of the best cards on the market, giving 5x points on all flights, plus 5x points on hotels booked through the AmEx travel portal. If flights represent a significant portion of your spending, you'll be hard-pressed to find another card that yields a bigger return on your spending.
However, the value proposition of the Platinum depends on the degree to which you can consistently integrate its numerous credits and benefits into your lifestyle. Although realizing the full theoretical value of the credits (easily $1000+) is unlikely for most cardholders, those who can consistently take advantage of enough credits and benefits to offset the $695 annual fee will come away with a great deal.
If you add up all the credits/spending benefits you will use and it comes out to substantially less than the annual fee, this likely is not the credit card for you.
Pro-Tip: The key to evaluating a card like the AmEx Platinum lies in honestly assessing which credits you can consistently use in your current lifestyle. If you see a credit and think, “Maybe I could find a way to use that,” do not factor it into your math.
Recommended Article: American Express Platinum vs. Capital One Venture X
American Express Points can take you to incredible locations like Alila Kothaifaru Maldives
One of the major benefits of the American Express Platinum compared to the SkyMiles Platinum is that the points you earn are far more flexible. To start, every American Express Membership Rewards point you earn can be converted to Delta SkyMiles at just under a 1:1 ratio. While this means that every reward point you earn can be used on Delta flights, it can also be used on a much wider variety of airlines; while this is not as important for Delta frequent fliers, it is a huge benefit for those not locked into the Delta ecosystem.
Delta SkyMiles Platinum
The Delta SkyMiles Platinum card is the third card in the AmEx-Delta co-branded credit card line-up. Out of the four Delta credit cards, the SkyMiles Platinum is one of Delta’s most desirable cards as it provides cardholders with both Delta benefits, travel spending rewards, and progress towards Delta status.
Let’s review the card basics of the SkyMiles Platinum:
Annual Fee: $350
Sign-on Bonus: 60,000 SkyMiles after spending $3,000 on the card in 6 months
Spending Rewards: 3x Miles on Delta purchases (including flights) and hotels; 2x Miles on dining and groceries, 1x Miles on everything else
Benefits: Start with $2,500 MQDs and earn $1 MQD for every $20 spent, free checked bag, annual domestic main-cabin companion certificate, 15% off SkyMiles purchases, $150 Delta Stays credit, $120 rideshare credit
The SkyMiles Platinum costs $345 less than the American Express Platinum; however, the SkyMiles Platinum’s credits are exclusively focused on Delta-related benefits: all spending rewards are given in SkyMiles, free checked bag (on Delta), companion certificate (on Delta), etc.
The SkyMilesPlatinum card can help you earn Delta SkyMiles and work towards Delta status
For those eyeing elite status solely through card spending, the SkyMiles Platinum might leave you a bit underwhelmed, offering only about half the MQDs needed for Delta Silver status. Unless you're a regular flier, this card alone will not catapult you to significant status tiers. To progress through spending alone, you have to prioritize spending on this credit card, with each $20 yielding just 1 MQD. Reaching even just Silver status requires a $50,000 annual spend, while Gold status requires a staggering $150,000—a substantial outlay for modest status gains.
Overall, Delta has created the SkyMiles Platinum to their most traditional travel card. With a companion flight certificate, large credits, and bonus miles on both Delta flights, hotels, and food, the SkyMiles Platinum is designed to reward Delta frequent fliers with added benefits across the whole travel experience. However, with the weak ratio of MQDs earned to dollars spent, this is not an amazing credit card for earning Delta status; for this, we would recommend looking at the SkyMiles Reserve card.
Which Card is Right For You?
If you often fly Delta and want to earn more points/SkyMiles that you can redeem for flights, the American Express Platinum and the Delta SkyMiles Platinum are excellent choices. These two cards do not work synergistically in the slightest—with the way these two credit cards are designed, it does not make sense for most people to hold both of these cards at any one point.
Therefore, if you are considering both, you will have to make an important choice. While it will come down to individual people’s preferences, our general guidance is the following:
For individuals who frequently fly on Delta (multiple times per year), want added benefits on Delta flights, but don’t want to pay a large annual fee: the Delta SkyMiles Platinum is the better option. With the SkyMiles Platinum, you’ll get a free checked bag on every flight, a discount on all reward flights, priority boarding, a round-trip companion certificate, a fast route to earning status, and a bonus of 60,000 SkyMiles. However, if you fit into this category and don’t mind paying a slightly higher annual fee for a Delta credit card, the Delta SkyMiles Reserve also offers bonuses towards status, but with much better point earning and additional benefits.
For essentially everyone else: the American Express Platinum card is the better card. The AmEx Platinum offers greater spending rewards on flights, broader (non-Delta) benefits, and still lets you transfer your points to Delta SkyMiles at roughly a 1:1 ratio. While Delta is one of our favorite airlines, earning SkyMiles is always going to be less valuable than earning AmEx Membership Rewards points, as they are notably less flexible—every AmEx point earned can be turned into a Delta SkyMile, but every SkyMile earned will always be a SkyMile. Frankly, this is a downside of every airline-specific card compared to a more general points card (such as is the case with the United Explorer card vs. the Chase Sapphire Preferred). While you will have to put the work in to make sure you use enough credits to make holding the Platinum worth it, this card can provide more value overall for many people.
We hope this article helped aid your decision! If you’re interested in other credit card comparisons, we have guides on the Chase Sapphire Preferred vs. the AmEx Gold, the Capital One Venture X vs. the BILT Rewards card, and the Chase Sapphire Preferred vs. the United Explorer card. As well, for general credit card guides, we have written articles on the best Chase Ink Business cards and reviews of the World of Hyatt credit card and the BILT Rewards credit card.
