All about Delta Take15Off

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If you hold a business or personal variant of the Delta SkyMiles Gold, Platinum, or Reserve credit cards, you save 15% when booking award travel using miles on Delta Flights through Delta’s Take15Off discount. This discount is a great benefit that makes your SkyMiles measurable more valuable just for holding one of Delta’s credit cards. (Terms and conditions apply.)

The best part? This benefit is super simple to use.

Here’s how to use the Delta Take15Off discount.

How to use the Delta Take15Off discount

If you are the primary cardholder of a Delta SkyMiles credit card, using the Delta Take15Off discount is as simple as booking an award ticket using your miles at Delta.com.

Once you have logged in to your SkyMiles account, the SkyMiles prices of flights will reflect your discount at every step of the booking process. You don’t need to do anything extra to apply your discount.

How to book a Delta award ticket using SkyMiles

Booking an award ticket using SkyMiles is simple. Most itineraries with Delta SkyMiles can be booked online. Your first step is to search for your travel at Delta.com.

Enter your origin and destination airports, select one-way or round-trip, and select your travel dates. You will want to tick the box by “Shop with Miles” to see travel priced in SkyMiles.

If you have some flexility, you can select “My dates are flexible.” For our example search, we’ll do this to show the complete booking process.

By default you’ll be searching for all airfares, including Basic Economy. Delta Basic Economy airfares come with a bunch of restrictions:

• No seat selection ahead of time
• No changes allowed. (Cancelation is allowed for a $99-$199 cancellation charge.)
• No medallion upgrade beneifts
• No MQM or MQD accrual.

Unless you intend to book basic economy, you might want to click on “Advanced Search” and select “Main Cabin” under “Best Fares For.”

If you searched for a round trip and selected “My dates are flexible” your screen display a matrix showing you the lowest prices available for departures up to three days before your selected departure date and three days after your selected return date. If you qualify for the Take15Off discount, the prices shown on this screen will reflect that discount.

Let’s say that we have some flexibility to return on Tuesday, April 9th, but we can depart no earlier than Thursday. We can select this option for 22,900 SkyMiles, plus $12. Click “Continue” once you’ve selected the dates you want.

If you have even more flexibility, you can click on “Price Calendar” at the top of the page. This will bring up a calendar showing you trips of your selected trip length. You can change trip length to update prices on the calendar or page through the calendar to see pricing for the entire year.

Once you’ve selected your dates from the calendar, or if you didn’t search with flexible dates, you’ll now select your outbound flight. Here’s the screen that shows you flight options. The default view generally shows you the lowest-priced non-stop option on top, but Delta offers a lot of options for filtering and sorting your search under “Sort & Filter.”

The evening flight at 8:15 works fine for us, so we’ll select that flight, starting at 22,900 SkyMiles.

If you want to see prices in terms of dollars, you can click on “$ USD” under “Show Price In:” at the top of the screen. I like to do this to check on the value I’m getting out of my SkyMiles. In this case, we’re getting almost 1.7 cents per mile. Not too shabby for SkyMiles.

Once we’ve selected our departure flight, we can select our return flight. 7:45am seems a bit early, but the 2:30pm option is good and it is offered at the same price as other options on that day. Let’s select that flight.

Finally, we’ll see the checkout screen. On this screen, we’ll enter passenger information and payment information, request upgrades and select whether we want additional trip insurance. Once we’ve entered all of our information and we’re ready to purchase our flight, we’ll click “Complete Purchase” at the bottom of the page. (Scroll down on the page to see the button.)

And, just like that, our trip is booked!

Delta award ticket tips and tricks

Change/cancel policy: Other than Basic Economy tickets, Delta awards tickets originating in the United States and Canada can be changed or canceled for free. If you cancel your eligible ticket prior to departure, you’ll get your miles back and receive the amount you paid for taxes and fees back to your credit card.

Price drops: If the price of your flight drops after you book it, you can re-book your flight and receive a refund of any applicable fare difference in miles.

Elite upgrades: Other than basic economy, Delta award tickets are eligible for elite upgrades.

MQMs and MQDs: Award travel on Delta accrues both Medallion Qualifying Miles (MQMs) and Medallion Qualifying Dollars (MQDs.)

Delta Air Lines credit cards

Here’s an overview of all of the credit cards offered by Delta Air Lines and American Express. For complete details on all of the cards, including the cards’ earning rates, see our overview of all Delta credit cards.

Delta personal credit cards

Delta SkyMiles® Blue American Express Card

Terms and conditions apply to all benefits.

Not all airlines offer a no annual fee card option, but Delta does. The Delta SkyMiles® Blue American Express Card is Delta’s airline credit card with $0 annual fee. (See Rates and Fees; terms apply) And it’s pretty basic. The only real benefit is that you get a 20% discount on in-flight purchases. The card earns 2 miles per dollar on Delta Air Lines purchases, plus 1 mile per dollar on other eligible purchases and has no foreign transaction fee. (See Rates and Fees; terms apply)

In most cases, you can do better by putting your spending on a 2% cash back credit card.

Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card

Terms and conditions apply to all benefits.

The Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card is Delta’s entry-level card. It offers a free first checked bag for you and up to 8 traveling companions on the same itinerary. The card also features 20% back on in-flight purchases and no foreign transaction fees. The Delta Gold card has a $0 introductory fee for the first year, then $99. (See Rates and Fees; terms apply)

The Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card earns 2 miles per dollar on purchases made directly with Delta, at restaurants worldwide, and at U.S. supermarkets. It earns 1 mile per dollar spent on other eligible purchases.

Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card

Terms and conditions apply to all benefits.

The Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card is the card you want if you’re pursuing Delta Air Lines Medallion status. You can earn up to 10,000 Medallion Qualifying Miles each year through status boosts when you spend $25,000 on the card in a calendar year. Additionally, the card offers a MQD waiver when you spend $25,000 on the card (or $250,000 for Diamond status.)

The card also comes with a domestic Main Cabin companion certificate and SkyClub access available for $50 per person, per visit. The Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card carries an annual fee of $250. (See Rates and Fees; terms apply)

The SkyMiles Platinum card earns 3 miles per dollar on purchases with Delta and at hotels. It also earn 2 miles per dollar for restaurant spending and 2 miles per dollar spent at U.S. supermarkets. The card earns 1 mile per dollar on other eligible purchases.

Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card

Terms and conditions apply to all benefits.

If you want access to the SkyClub when traveling on Delta, look to the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card. The card offers complimentary Delta Sky Club access to the primary cardholder when traveling on Delta, plus two one-time guest passes for companions annually. (*Effective 2/1/25, Reserve Card Members will receive 15 Visits per year to the Delta Sky Club; to earn an unlimited number of Visits each year starting on 2/1/25, the total eligible purchases on the Card must equal $75,000 or more between 1/1/24 and 12/31/24, and each calendar year thereafter.) The card carries a $550 annual fee. (See Rates and Fees; terms apply)

The Reserve offers an annual companion certificate that can be used for U.S. domestic flights in first class or main cabin.

The SkyMiles Reserve card earns 3 miles per dollar on purchases with Delta Air Lines, and 1 mile per dollar on other eligible purchases.

Delta business credit cards

Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business American Express Card

Terms and conditions apply to all benefits.

The Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business American Express Card is the business variant of Delta’s entry-level card. The card gets you a first checked bag free for Delta flights booked with you card, plus access to Delta’s Take15Off benefit. The card has a $0 introductory fee for the first year, then $99. (See Rates and Fees)

The card earns 2 miles per dollar on purchases made directly with Delta, at restaurants worldwide, and on U.S. Shipping and U.S. Advertising in select media. The card earns 1 mile per dollar spent on other purchases.

In addition to the checked bag benefit, the card offers a $100 Delta Flight Credit after you spend $10,000 in purchases in a calendar year. The card also features 20% back on in-flight purchases and has no foreign transaction fees.

Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card

Terms and conditions apply to all benefits.

If you’re a small business owner pursuing Delta Medallion status, the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card is the card you want. Through December 2023, you can earn up to 20,000 Medallion Qualifying Miles each year through status boosts, plus you can earn a Medallion Qualifying Dollar waiver with spending on the card. (Effective 1/1/24, this benefit will no longer be available, and there will be a new way to earn toward Medallion Status with the Card. Learn more at delta.com/skymilesprogramchanges.) The Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card carries an annual fee of $250. (See Rates and Fees)

The Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card earns 3 miles per dollar on purchases with Delta and at hotels. It also earn 1.5 miles per dollar on single eligible purchases of $5,000 or more, subject to a 50,000 mile cap per year. The card earns 1 mile per dollar spent on other eligible purchases.

The Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card comes loaded with benefits useful if you’re flying Delta frequently. The card offers a domestic Main Cabin round-trip companion certificate each year upon renewal, plus access to Delta SkyClubs at a per-visit rate of $50 per person. (Effective 1/1/24, this benefit will no longer be available.) The card offers a first checked bag free benefit and fee credits for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck.

Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card

Terms and conditions apply to all benefits.

Small business owners desiring SkyClub access should pick up the SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card. The card offers complimentary Delta Sky Club access to the primary cardholder when traveling on Delta, plus two one-time guest passes for companions annually. The card carries a $550 annual fee. (See Rates and Fees)

The SkyMiles Business Reserve card earns 3 miles per dollar on eligible purchases with Delta Air Lines. It is particularly rewarding for large spenders; after you spend $150,000 on your card in a calendar year, you earn 1.5 miles per dollar spent on eligible purchases for the rest of the year. The card earns 1 mile per dollar on other eligible purchases.

The SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card offers an annual companion certificate that can be used for U.S. domestic flights in first class or main cabin.

A few notes on applying for American Express credit cards

• If you have ever gotten a welcome bonus for the same American Express card before, you are usually ineligible for the bonus. Some targeted offers do not have the lifetime language in them, meaning you can get a welcome bonus if you’ve had the card before. Anecdotally, you may be able to get a welcome bonus again on a product that you have not had for seven years.
• Some American Express cards, like the personal Platinum card or the Charles Schwab Platinum card have language that prohibits you from earning a welcome bonus if you’ve ever had a card from the same card family before.
• American Express will inform you during the application process if you are ineligible to earn a welcome bonus.
• You can have a maximum of five American Express credit cards at one time. In addition, you can hold up to 10 American Express charge cards (like the Platinum, Gold, and Green cards.) These limits are known to occasionally be flexible for some cardmembers, some of the time.
• American Express offers some customers targeted offers. See our post on how to get the best welcome offers from American Express and try those methods before applying for an American Express card. You might be able to get an elevated welcome bonus.
• You can check the status of your American Express card application online through the Amex website.

Frequently asked questions

Rates and fees for Delta Air Lines credit cards

• For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Blue American Express Card, please visit this link: See Rates and Fees; terms apply
• For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card, please visit this link: See Rates and Fees; terms apply
• For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card, please visit this link: See Rates and Fees; terms apply
• For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card, please visit this link: See Rates and Fees; terms apply
• For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business American Express Card, please visit this link: See Rates and Fees
• For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card, please visit this link: See Rates and Fees
• For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card, please visit this link: See Rates and Fees

Advertiser disclosure: Cards and Points has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Cards and Points and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers. Compensation may affect how and where card products appear on the site. The site does not include all card companies or all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. Terms apply to all credit card benefits.