At the moment we’re seeing the two excellent welcome bonuses on two American Express small business cards:
The Business Platinum Card® from American Express
Annual Fee: $595 (Rates & Fees)
Welcome bonus: Earn 85,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $15,000 within the first three months
The Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card
Annual Fee: $250 (Rates & Fees)
Welcome Bonus: Earn 45,000 bonus miles and 5,000 Medallion® Qualification Miles (MQMs) after you spend $3,000 in purchases on your new Card in the first 3 months. Plus, earn a $100 Statement Credit after your first Delta purchase on your new Card in the first 3 months.
With that in mind, I figured I’d look at which of these offers is more compelling, across a variety of factors:
Which card offer is better?
I figured I’d compare these offers based on a few factors: the welcome bonuses, the urgency with which to apply for the cards, and the long term perks and value proposition of the cards.
Which welcome bonus is better?
The Amex Business Platinum Card is offering 85,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $15,000 within three months. I value American Express Membership rewards at 1.7/cents point, so to me, this bonus is worth $1,445 .
Redeem Amex points towards the cost of paid tickets at a great rate
Meanwhile, on the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card, you earn 45,000 bonus miles and 5,000 Medallion® Qualification Miles (MQMs) after you spend $3,000 in purchases on your new Card in the first 3 months. I value Delta SkyMiles at ~1.3 cents each, or ~$585. Add $100 on to that for the statement credit and you’re up to $685 total.
Verdict: The Amex Business Platinum Card welcome bonus is clearly better.
Which offer is easier to get approved for?
The welcome bonus on the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card is only available to those who haven’t had this exact card before. However, if you’ve had another Delta card, like the Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business American Express Card, you’d still be eligible.
The welcome bonus on the Amex Business Platinum Card is also once in a lifetime, so if you’ve had this exact card before you’re not eligible for the welcome bonus.
Verdict: The real consideration here should be which of these cards you’ve had before (if any).
Which card offers better perks/long term value proposition?
Both of these cards offer several valuable long term perks. The Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card ($250 annual fee) offers the following long term perks:
- A Delta Platinum companion certificate upon account renewal every year
- 20% savings on eligible in-flight purchases
- Priority boarding on Delta flights
- First checked bag free on Delta itineraries
- The ability to earn bonus Medallion Qualifying miles — if you spend $50,000 on the card per year you’d earn 20,000 bonus elite qualifying miles
Receive priority boarding with the Delta Amex Platinum Card
The Amex Business Platinum Card ($595 annual fee) offers the following long term perks:
- $200 annual airline fee credit
- Access to American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts
- Access to Delta SkyClubs
- Priority Pass Select membership
- Access to the American Express Centurion Lounges in Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, etc.
- A Global Entry fee credit
- Gold elite status in both Hilton HHonors, and Marriott Bonvoy
- The ability to pool all your Amex Membership Rewards points and receive a 35% refund when using the Pay with Points option on your selected carrier
Receive access to Delta SkyClubs with the Amex Platinum Card
Verdict: It all depends on what airline you usually travel with, but all things considered the Amex Business Platinum Card offers far superior perks. Between the $200 annual airline credit, lounge access, and the ability to get more value out of all your Amex points, this card has superior perks.
Bottom line
The offers on both the Amex Business Platinum Card and Amex Delta Platinum Business Card are extremely compelling.
In general, I think the Amex Business Platinum Card offer is more compelling all around for the average person. Ideally, you can spend $15,000 on the card within three months and earn 85,000 Membership Rewards points, but even if you can’t, this could still be the best option. The main benefit of the card is that it increases the value of all the Membership Rewards points you earn.
Are you planning on picking up one of these cards, and if so, which one?
The following links will direct you to the rates and fees for mentioned American Express Cards. These include: Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card (Rates & Fees), and The Business Platinum® Card from American Express (Rates & Fees).
I had a feeling the answer was going to be both of them….
Every time you write about AMEX anything!! please mention whether or not the Delta anti-pleasure patrol has stayed with the policy of no new point rewards if you’ve previously had an AMEX card EVER!
Another Biz Platinum enhancement is a 50% bonus for purchases over $5,000 (probably pretty rare for many cardholders, but that works out to 3%+ in some cases).
I do not believe included the value of 10k MQM signup bonus. That is worth about $500.
November 9, 2017 is later than January 25, no?
The 11/09/17 date was a typo that should be corrected to 11/09/16.