Tag Archives: American Express Membership Rewards Points

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My Disappointing Experience with AMEX Business Platinum 35% Membership Rewards Point Rebate

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Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  2 months ago, I wrote First Class Flights Cheaper than Economy with AMEX Business Platinum 35% Membership Rewards Points Rebate.  In that post, I showed how I booked an Alaska Airlines first class flight using American Express Membership Rewards Points to trigger the 35% Membership Rewards Points rebate.  That flight was booked on May 30 for travel in mid October and cost 19,666 Membership Rewards Points.  According to the benefit terms, the rebate should appear in 6-10 weeks.  Based on the May 30 booking date, the 10 week mark was August 8.  I kept checking my Membership Rewards account ever few days in August, but no Membership Rewards Points ever posted.  On Friday, I decided to call the American Express Membership Rewards department to investigate the issue.  What ensued was not a very pleasant experience with the rep.

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American Express Membership Rewards Points Post Fast for AMEX Card Referrals

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Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great Fourth of July Weekend.  I spent the week in Orange County, CA and the weekend in Boulder, CO at a wedding.  While I was down in Orange County visiting my family, I went out to dinner with my grandparents.  My grandpa used his Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card to pay for dinner (3x on restaurant purchases).  My grandpa has been an American Express customer for 30+ years and is a mini travel hacker, so after dinner, I told him that he should get the American Express Gold Card because it offers 4x on restaurants and grocery stores (2 of his most frequent expenses).

Later that week, I was over at his house and he asked me to help him get the new American Express Gold Card.  He asked me to send him a link for the card, so I logged into my American Express online account, copied my referral link, and emailed it to him.  According to the referral page, you can earn 10,000 Membership Rewards Points for each referral, up to a maximum of 55,000 Membership Rewards Points per year.  The referral points should post within 8-12 weeks, but in my experience, the referral points posted within 3 days.  I sent my grandpa the referral link on July 2 and he applied and was approved for the card on the same day.

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First Class Flights Cheaper than Economy with AMEX Business Platinum 35% Membership Rewards Points Rebate

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  A few weeks ago, I was looking at flights from San Francisco (SFO) to Orange County (SNA).  I found this 7:15pm Alaska Airlines flight that was $155 for Saver (Basic) Economy and $209 for First Class.  The flight is only 1.5 hours long and normally I do not fly First Class, but I remembered that the American Express Business Platinum Charge Card offers a 35% rebate when paying with American Express Membership Rewards Points on First Class flights.  Based on my calculations ($209 x 65% = $135.85), the First Class flight should be cheaper than the economy flight after the 35% rebate.  In this post, I will show you the steps to book the First Class flight using American Express Membership Rewards Points.

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More Membership Rewards Program Changes (AMEX Gold 4x Restaurants Worldwide & Loyalty Accounts of Authorized Users)

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Good evening everyone.  I was checking my American Express Blue Business Plus Credit Card statement and spotted some important changes to the American Express Membership Rewards program terms.  Doctor of Credit already wrote about the most exciting program change (American Express Gold Card Will Now Earn 4x at Restaurants Worldwide – Not Limited to USA), but I thought I would cover the other, less exciting, but still important changes.  There are 4 pages of changes and details, so I will go through each page of the changes.  Here are the main points from the first page:

  • Effective immediately, you will not be able to add authorized users and have your authorized users have their own Membership Rewards account (separate from the primary Membership Rewards account).
  • Starting on Thursday (June 6, 2019), the American Express Gold Card will now earn 4x at restaurants worldwide (instead of just restaurants in the United States).  All other card bonus categories and caps remain the same.
  • The Blue for Students Card will no longer earn Membership Rewards Points (I can’t even find any info on this card).  You should convert this credit card to an AMEX EveryDay Credit Card.
  • Effective September 1, 2019, you will need to pay your bill by the payment due date, otherwise you may forfeit any Membership Rewards Points earned that period.
  • Effective September 1, 2019, your authorized user will need to wait at least 90 days before you can link their airline/hotel loyalty account to the primary Membership Rewards account.  I believe this is American Express’s attempt to crack down on members selling their Membership Rewards Points by adding a buyer as an authorized user, then adding their airline/hotel loyalty account to the primary Membership Rewards account and then transferring Membership Rewards Points out of the primary account.
  • Effective September 28, 2019, authorized users that have their own Membership Rewards account will have until October 31, 2019, to redeem their accumulate Membership Rewards Points.  In addition, after September 28, 2019, all purchases made by authorized users will have their points post to the primary Membership Rewards account.

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AMEX Phone Rep Offered 10K Membership Rewards Points for Enrolling in Pay Over Time Benefit (Targeted)

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Updated 7:40pm on 6/4/19: I received a letter from American Express with details of the Pay Over Time benefit.  I added the letter to the bottom of this post.

Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  Every few days/weeks, Doctor of Credit updates his [Targeted] 10,000 Membership Rewards Points For Enrolling In Pay Over Time post with new links to try to get enrolled.  The benefit is designed to make American Express charge cards act more like credit cards where you can pay your balance over time.  The benefit is bad since you would pay interest on your balance, but the reason people want to enroll in the benefit is because American Express will give you 10,000 Membership Rewards Points just for enrolling in the benefit, regardless if you use it or not.  Every time Doctor of Credit updates the post with a new link to try, I check to see if I am eligible, but I am usually shown this error message.  But that all changed last week…

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