Tag Archives: American Express

$200 Airline Reimbursement for AMEX Platinum Members

AMEX Plat Card

$200 Airline Reimbursement for AMEX Platinum Members

It’s January 1, so it’s time to set up your $200 airline reimbursement.  If you have an American Express Platinum (Personal, Business, or Mercedes Benz version), you qualify for a $200 airline reimbursement each calendar year (Jan 1 – Dec 31).  You can also purchase airline gift cards with your Platinum card and get that purchase reimbursed as well.  I will show you how to do that.

Go here and log into your American Express account.

AMEX Airline

Read the entire post to learn more here.

My Travel Predictions (Both Good and Bad) for 2014

2014 New Years

My Travel Predictions (Both Good and Bad) for 2014

Happy holidays everyone!  As 2014 quickly approaches, I wanted to share my predictions for 2014, regarding airlines, hotels, and credit card rewards.  Feel free to agree, disagree, or share your own comments below.

Airlines:

  • British Airways – I think the 4,500 and 7,500 (maybe even 10,000) Avios award prices will go away or the entire award chart will be revamped.  The current prices are just too good.
  • Alaska Airlines and Delta Airlines – since there has been a lot of fighting over routes to/from SEA and SLC, I think Alaska will no longer allow you to earn or redeem miles with Delta.
  • American Airlines and US Airways – after the merger, we will see some new “enhancements” (aka devaluations) to the new award chart.  Maybe off-peak awards will be changed or removed.
  • Southwest Airlines and AirTran – hopefully the merger goes through smoothly and quickly.  I look forward to using Southwest Rapid Reward Points for flights to Hawaii, Mexico City, and other tropical destinations south of the border.  I also think the 50,000 Southwest Rapid Reward sign up bonus will no longer count for companion pass status, it is just too easy to get Companion Pass.
  • Hawaiian Airlines – merge with another airline, maybe JetBlue or Alaska Airlines.
  • Lufthansa  – revamp their award chart after everyone signs up for their credit card.
  • Virgin Atlantic – miles will be transferable 1:1 with Virgin America and Virgin Australia.

Hotels:

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Cashing Out Membership Reward Points for British Airways Avios

MR Logo

Cashing Out Membership Reward Points for British Airways Avios

Last February, my mother and father both signed up for the American Express Premier Reward Gold (PRG) credit card since it had a sweet sign up bonus: 50,000 Membership Reward Points after spending $1,000 in 3 months, with no annual fee the first year.

The Membership Reward Points posted after 2 months and then sat in their account.  And sat.  And sat some more.  Until yesterday.

Since neither of them have any plans to use the Membership Reward Points, I decided to cash out their Membership Reward balance and take advantage of the 20% transfer bonus to British Airways Avios (link) before the December 31, 2013 deadline.

MR BA Avios

The Membership Reward Points were immediately deducted from my parents’ accounts and credit to their British Airways accounts.

  • Mother: 22,000 Membership Reward Points x 1.20 = 26,400 British Airways Avios
  • Father: 51,000 Membership Reward Points x 1.20 = 61,200 British Airways Avios

BA Balances

Good thing for me, we all belong to the same British Airways Household account.

BA Household

Anyone have an ideas on what to do with 1 Membership Reward Point?

Dad MR

Since both of their Premier Reward Gold credit cards will have an annual fee coming up in February, the 20% transfer bonus was as good as any.  I would have transferred the points to my SPG account, but 3 Membership Reward Points = 1 SPG Point is too hard to stomach.  If you annual fee is coming due in the next few months, you may want to look into transferring some/all of your Membership Reward Points to British Airways, especially if you have a Household account.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.  Happy holidays!

Final Payout from Great Bridge Group (Check your PayPal Account) and AMEX Statement Credits

GBG Logo

Final Payout from Great Bridge Group (Check your PayPal Account) and AMEX Statement Credits

Good evening everyone!  Great Bridge Group honored their word and payed out their final payout today (December 12, 2013).  Here is a copy of my PayPal receipt (please keep in mind that I had earned $5 referral bonuses for every person who joined, that is why my payout is so large):

GBG Payout

If you did receive an email last weekend from Great Bridge Group (see this post), hopefully you did or will receive your final payout soon.

Here are my statement credits from the Neiman Marcus American Express promo ($50 back on $200) and my Toys R Us American Express promo ($5 back on $25).

BCP Offers Statementr Credit

HH Surpass Statement Credit

If you are curious, I bought 3x $200 Neiman Marcus egift cards for $200 (received $50 statement credit) and sold them online to cardpool for $160 (plus shopping portal bonuses).  For Toys R Us, I bought 3x $25 Subway gift cards for myself.  Happy holidays to everyone!

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.

Don’t be too Greedy with American Express Sync Offers… No Double Dipping

Shopping Cart Money

Don’t be too Greedy with American Express Sync Offers… No Double Dipping

I know, I know, it is too late for this warning, but don’t be too greedy.  Like many of you, I enrolled 4 of my American Express credit cards in the $25 statement credit for $75+ Amazon purchases a few days ago.  After making 4 $75 egift card purchases on Amazon, I received my 4 $25 statement credits after 1-2 days.  Everything worked perfectly.  Thank you American Express.

Last night when I was looking at “My Offers” for my American Express credit cards, I saw that some of my credit cards showed the Amazon offer as redeemed:

Amazon Redeemed

While some of my credit cards showed the offer as available:

Amazon Available

Even though I had earned the $25 statement credit:

Amazon SPG Double Dip

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