In 1996, the same year Delta Air Lines transported the Olympic flame from Athens to Los Angeles, the Olympic Games were held in its hometown of Atlanta. Also that same year, the carrier launched a partnership with American Express that would change the company’s trajectory: a co-branded credit card allowing Amex users to redeem Delta SkyMiles.
Nearly three decades later, the credit card—along with a raft of other perks—accounted for $8 billion, or about 10%, of Delta’s revenue in 2025. According to Delta CEO Ed Bastian, the co-branded credit card’s spending nears 1% of U.S. GDP annually—a figure that reflects the sheer volume of transactions flowing through the partnership across millions of cardholders.
