Costs & Pricing

Metric	Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business American Express Card	Spark 1% Classic
Annual fee	$0 intro year 1, then $150 (first year of Card Membership only)	$0 (ongoing; no intro-year structure)
Employee card fee	$0 (CMA: Annual Fee for Additional Cards: None)	$0 (free employee cards; no per-card fee published)
Purchase APR	19.49%–28.49% variable (Prime + 12.74% to Prime + 21.74%); placement by creditworthiness at account opening. APRs accurate as of 09/02/2026. No 0% intro.	28.99% variable on the product page and pre-approval rates block (Sept. 3, 2026). Not published as a range; no Prime + margin table on the Classic page. Review sites still show 29.49%–30.74% — treat as stale vs issuer page.
Intro APR (purchases)	Not offered	Not offered
Foreign transaction fee	$0	$0
Late payment fee	Up to $39 (will not exceed Minimum Payment Due)	Not on the official Classic page. Bankrate (Dec 19, 2025): up to $39. Do not apply Cap One charge-card 2.99%-of-unpaid-minimum language to Classic.

Rewards & Value

Metric	Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business American Express Card	Spark 1% Classic
Base earn rate	1 SkyMile per $1 eligible purchases	Unlimited 1% cash back on every purchase. Marketing: no limits or category restrictions; no minimums. Rewards will not expire for the life of the account.
Welcome bonus	Conflict across official pages. Delta business-cards page: limited-time 90,000 bonus miles after $6,000 eligible purchases in the first 6 months — offer ends November 4, 2026. Amex product page (same period): evergreen-style 60,000 after $4,000 in the first 6 months with no end date. Treat 90k/$6k through 11/4/2026 as the live limited-time public offer; 60k/$4k as the fallback. Apply-flow T&Cs win.	None. Live public offer as of September 3, 2026: no cash bonus, no spend threshold. Historical typical offer: also none.
Redemption value	Pay with Miles = 1.0¢ ($50 off per 5,000 miles on delta.com). Award travel is dynamic; TakeOff 15 improves award pricing ~15% on Delta-operated flights only (not partner-operated, not taxes/fees). Do not assume transfer-partner value — this card does not transfer.	Cash at face value on statement credit or check (1¢ per 1% dollar). Official FAQ: redeem for any amount / no minimums. Gift-card rates may vary. Do not assume portal 5% unless the user actually books hotels/cars in Capital One Business Travel. Do not assume World Elite travel credits or transferable miles.
Transfer partners	None. Currency is Delta SkyMiles, not Membership Rewards. No transfer-out to other airlines. Miles do not expire under Delta’s published policy; Delta may still deactivate an account and remove miles.	None on this cash-back product. Official FAQ: cash rewards earned through spending on Spark Classic are not taxable (issuer still says consult a tax expert).

Credit & Eligibility

Metric	Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business American Express Card	Spark 1% Classic
Personal guarantee	Required in substance. CMA: Basic Card Member and Company remain jointly and severally liable for all charges. Quote the live application before publishing a legal excerpt.	Not quoted on the Classic product page. Commonly reported as required; official Classic sentence missing. Secondary sources (NerdWallet, Ramp, WalletHub) treat Cap One small-business cards, including Classic, as PG required.
Credit check	Know if you're approved with no impact on your personal credit score until acceptance. Business credit may be impacted on submit. Accepting the card may impact personal credit. Treated as a hard pull on accept in industry practice; Amex does not print “hard pull” on the marketing page.	Pre-approval advertised as no impact to personal score. Submitted application treated by reviewers as a hard pull on personal credit (commonly all three bureaus). Official: application may be declined if you have a freeze with credit bureaus.
Employee cards	$0 additional-card fee. Spend controls / alerts marketed; Account Manager role can add cards, pay, review transactions. Hard cap on number not disclosed on this product page — do not invent 99 unless the application states it.	Free; add with name, DOB, phone; option to issue plastic or not; custom spend and cash limits, reset mid-cycle. Number allowed not disclosed. Primary account / guarantor remains responsible (Classic page does not spell joint and several).
Product type	Revolving small-business credit card (published purchase APR, ADB interest, minimum-payment rule). Not a charge card. Not a corporate / net-terms spend platform.	Revolving business credit card (balance may be carried; interest applies). Not a charge card. Contrast siblings: Spark Cash Plus and Venture X Business are pay-in-full / NPSL charge cards.

Pros & Cons

Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business American Express Card

Pros

• $0 year-1 fee then $150 — lowest annual fee in the Delta business lineup
• 1st checked bag free worldwide + 2nd bag free domestic (2026 add) can offset the AF in a few team trips
• 2X on uncapped restaurants plus capped U.S. shipping and U.S. digital/TV/radio ads
• $0 foreign-transaction fee and $0 employee cards (employee spend feeds the $10k flight-credit threshold)
• TakeOff 15 reduces Delta-metal award cost 15%

Cons

• Ongoing $150 AF with credits that are conditional, portal-locked, or enrollment-gated after renewal
• Miles are Delta-only — no Membership Rewards transfers
• No lounge, no GE/PreCheck credit, thinner insurance than Platinum/Reserve Business
• No 0% intro APR; carrying a balance is expensive (19.49%–28.49% as of 09/02/2026)
• Personal guarantee / joint and several liability; advertising 2X is MCC-narrow (media providers, not any marketing vendor)

Spark 1% Classic

Pros

• $0 annual fee with no year-2 surprise
• Explicitly underwritten for fair personal credit — rare in the Spark/Ink/Amex Business set
• Unlimited 1% + 5% Capital One Business Travel hotels/cars; rewards do not expire while the account is open
• $0 foreign-transaction fee on a fair-credit product
• Free employee cards with spend limits, virtual numbers, QBO/Excel export, year-end summaries, and $0 fraud-liability language covering employee cards

Cons

• 28.99% variable purchase APR and no intro 0% — carrying a balance is expensive
• No welcome bonus
• 1% base lags Spark Cash Select (1.5%) and Spark Cash (2%)
• Balance transfers not available
• Likely reports full activity to personal credit — utilization risk

Verdict

Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business American Express Card

This is the low-fee Delta business cobrand — not personal Delta Gold (supermarkets 2X), not Platinum/Reserve Business, and not Amex Business Gold (MR). Confirm the live apply-flow welcome (90k/$6k through 11/4/2026 on Delta vs 60k/$4k still on Amex’s product URL). Skip it if you will not fly Delta, want transferable points, need 0% float, or refuse a PG.

Spark 1% Classic

Spark Classic is a credit-access card, not a rewards engine and not a 0% working-capital tool. Do not confuse it with Spark Cash Select (1.5%, $750 bonus, 9-month 0%) or Spark Cash Plus (2% NPSL charge card). Do not copy Venture X or World Elite Spark insurance onto this SKU until Classic’s own Guide to Benefits is confirmed. If you can qualify for Select or Ink Unlimited, those are better earners. If you cannot, Classic is a reasonable builder — only if you pay in full.