Along with the refresh of the Delta American Express credit cards (and an increase in the annual fees) came a new Delta Stays credit, basically a hotel credit if you book through the Delta portal. The portal is just basically Expedia. Each card has a different annual credit as follows:

Reserve Cards: Up to $200 back (personal) or $250 back (business) in annual statement credits
Platinum Cards: Up to $150 back (personal) or $200 back (business) in annual statement credits
Gold Cards: Up to $100 back (personal) or $150 back (business) in annual statement credits

I had a credit to use on a Business Reserve card ($250) and Personal Gold card ($100). I managed to use them fairly easily.

For the $250 credit, I booked my mom into the Hamilton Hotel, a Hilton Curio Collection property in Alpharetta, Georgia. She was coming to visit for three nights and had enjoyed that hotel last time she was here. For the prior visit, I had just booked using Hilton points but she had stayed for five nights so it made sense as you get the fifth night free with Hilton booking with points. She also got a nice suite upgrade and was able to use food and beverage credits from my Hilton Diamond status at the property.

This time, the rate was about $250 per night including tax or 70,000 Hilton points, which is a poor use of points and kind of expensive for the area in early March. However, I remembered the Delta Stays credit. The Delta portal had the same rate as the Hilton website and after the $250 discount was applied, it worked out to about $167 per night, comparable to a nearby Courtyard or SpringHill Suites and a much nicer hotel in a better location.

As it turned out, they allowed me to add my Hilton Diamond number at check-in even though they acknowledged it was a third party booking. My mom was able to use my food and beverage credits although as I suspected, I did not actually earn any Hilton points for the stay. She had an enjoyable stay and we got a good use out of the Delta Stays credit for this year which really adds to the value of the Delta Reserve Business card making its $650 annual fee feel like $400 before I even use the other benefits.

For the $100 credit, I had booked a one night stay in Hue, Vietnam for next month at a boutique hotel using Chase Ultimate Rewards points. The hotel was $176 and I had used about 11,000 Chase points at 1.5cpp. I realized that I might be able to use the Delta Stays credit instead and get $100 off. As it turned out, the hotel was in the Delta Stays portal at the exact same $176 price point. It was easy to cancel the prior booking and rebook through Delta to pay $76 for a really nice hotel on the Perfume River in Hue. I will have a full review of our South East Asia trip next month.

The Delta Stays credit is easy to use and can provide some real value. It also increases the value of the Delta Amex cards by offsetting the increased annual fees.

If you have questions about this post, let me know in the comments or send me an email at emptynestermiles@gmail.com. If you are thinking about opening a new credit card, please use one of my links.