In recent years, many credit cards have started offering statement credits when you book a hotel through their travel portal. Initially, these credits were provided by banks that had their own travel portals, such as Chase and Citi. However, the travel portal business is quite profitable, and now it seems like everyone wants to be involved.
This has led to airlines entering the hotel booking industry. But it goes beyond airlines simply providing a link to book a hotel associated with your flight. Instead, they offer an independent travel booking portal where you can use airline points to pay for hotels or earn extra points in the airline’s frequent flyer program when booking a hotel.
Among the airlines that have expanded into hotel booking is Delta Air Lines, with Delta Stays. Powered by Expedia, it offers hotels and vacation rentals where you can earn Delta SkyMiles or use miles for lodging. More importantly, those who have a Delta AMEX co-brand credit card get a statement credit when booking with Delta Stays.
My Experience with Delta Stays
Since I have a Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business American Express Card, I get a yearly $150 statement credit for bookings with Delta Stays. This is a very valuable benefit since the card’s annual fee is $150. If you can use the hotel credit, it pays for the card.
In 2024, I booked a multi-night Hilton stay through Delta Stays, and the credit worked exactly as expected. For 2025, I tried a different strategy after one of our readers suggested a better way to maximize the value: I booked just one night through Delta Stays to trigger the credit, then reserved the remaining nights directly with Hilton to earn full points and elite benefits.
This worked perfectly, though there is one caveat — make sure you book the exact same room class for both reservations. Otherwise, you may end up needing to change rooms mid-stay.
For the single night I booked through Delta Stays, the rate was $213. After the $150 statement credit, my out-of-pocket cost was only $63.
Which Cards Offer a Delta Stays Credit?
Delta Stays credits aren’t limited to just one card — they’re available across the Delta SkyMiles® American Express portfolio. The amount depends on which version you hold:
- Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card – up to $250 each year
- Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card – up to $200 each year
- Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card – up to $200 each year
- Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card – up to $150 each year
- Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business American Express Card – up to $150 each year
- Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card – up to $100 each year
Note: These credits apply when booking prepaid stays through Delta Stays and paying with your eligible Delta AMEX.
The Downside of Booking with Delta Stays
Since hotel chains consider travel portals as OTAs, booking through these websites means missing out on stay credits and loyalty benefits. However, since this stay was at a limited-service property, we didn’t miss out on a free breakfast by booking through a third party. Additionally, we already have Hilton Gold status from other credit cards, so we didn’t need the night credits.
It’s worth $150 to book through Delta Stays when staying at a limited-service hotel. I’d feel differently if we were staying at a resort hotel where status benefits matter more.
Would I Use Delta Stays Again?
Booking hotels through Delta Stays earns 2 SkyMiles per dollar. Since SkyMiles are worth around 1 cent each, that’s about a 2% rebate on hotels booked through the Delta portal. I can earn up to 10X points with other travel portals, so Delta Stays isn’t competitive with other websites.
However, I’ll continue to use it once a year to use the credit with my Delta co-brand AMEX card.
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4 comments
Is the Amex credit for Delta stays per calendar year?
Yes. It’s per calendar year. And the credit is based on when you pay, so a stay booked for the following year but paid for in the current year will count to this year’s credit.
I reserved a nice room with a view and took advantage of an Amex $75 credit promotion. About 8 months after booking, I noticed the rate went down about 25%. I obviously wanted to keep the Amex $75 promotion so canceling and rebooking wasn’t an option since the promotion expiration date passed. So, I tried to change my room type and then planned to change it back to the nice room type I originally had. That way they’d just adjust my cost and refund me the difference. A simple procedure when booking direct with a hotel. But Delta stays is a third party operator which I never would have used had it not been for the Amex promotion. When I tried to change my room back to the original room type, I got a message to call. Ok, not a problem except I was overseas at the time. They have NO chat feature.No way to email for help. I was not about to pay long distance and probably be on hold just to call them. So, because of their un-customer friendly system, I couldn’t make the change. I got stuck with the room I didn’t want because there was no way to get a hold of them and on top of that, they wouldn’t even allow me to cancel the reservation without calling which I could not do from where I was. Bottom line, I will try to NEVER use Delta Stays again if I can help it.
I think the lesson learned would be to only use Delta Stays for simple bookings. Stacking discounts or trying to make changes may lead to complications.