AmEx boosts annual fee on Delta co-brand cards

Bloomberg

American Express Co is sweetening rewards and raising the annual fee on many of its co-brand cards with Delta Air Lines Inc after the two renewed their longtime partnership this year.
Annual fees on six Delta cards will rise, AmEx said in a statement. Platinum cards for consumers and small businesses will increase to $250 from $195, while Reserve cards go up by $100 to $550. Gold cards will rise slightly from $95 to $99.
The moves bring the higher-end Delta cards closer to AmEx’s own premium offerings and may put pressure on other airline-bank alliances, such as JPMorgan Chase & Co and United Airlines Holdings Inc. Card issuers across the industry are rolling out new perks to lure consumers. AmEx is betting that high-end customers will focus on rewards instead of the steeper annual fee.
“There’s so much value being added to these products that
I don’t think we’re worrying about the fee increases,” said Eva Reda, who leads AmEx’s co-brand efforts. “It is a major relaunch of the entire Delta AmEx portfolio.”
Delta is AmEx’s largest co-brand partner, representing
8 percent of spending on the company’s cards and 20 percent of the company’s loans, and the airline has said it expects the partnership to contribute $7 billion to its revenue by 2023.