Tag Archives: American Express

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American Express Hilton Aspire Resort Credit Applied Toward Restaurant Purchase in 3 Days

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Good afternoon everyone, happy Friday.  From June 1 through August 31, American Express Hilton Aspire Credit Card members can now use their $250 resort credit toward restaurant purchases.  To test this out, I made a small restaurant purchase at Panera Bread (through their app) on June 1.  On June 4, the statement credit posted as HILTON RESORT CREDIT.  A 3 day turnaround time for statement credits is pretty standard for American Express.  The one downside with the $250 Hilton Resort Credit is that there is no tracker that shows how much you have spent or redeemed toward the $250 cap.

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Anatomy & Timeline of a Cancelled American Airlines Award Ticket (LGA-DFW-SNA)

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Good morning everyone.  A long time ago (February 2020), I purchased 2 American Airlines award tickets to fly from LaGuardia, New York (LGA) to Dallas, Texas (DFW) to Orange County, California (SNA).  Laura and I were going to be in NYC in early July and then fly to Orange County for Fourth of July weekend.  I picked this route because I wanted to check out the American Express Centurion Lounges at LGA and DFW.  I used 20,000 American Airlines miles per ticket (40k total), paid the taxes with my Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card, and paid for upgraded seat assignments with my American Express Gold Card and JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Visa Infinite.  Then the Coronavirus Pandemic hit and we cancelled our entire NYC trip.

This was my first time cancelling an American Airlines award ticket, so I didn’t know what to expect in terms of refunds and redeposited miles.  In this post, I will walk you through the timeline of events.  I cancelled our American Airlines award tickets on May 7 and received the following Trip Cancellation email immediately.  In the email, it said, “If you booked with AAdvantage miles, and your trip is eligible, we’ll automatically reinstate your miles within 48 hours.”  Unfortunately, 48 hours came and went, but nothing happened…

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My June 1 Checklist of Credit Card Credits (Shipping, Wireless, Restaurants, Groceries & More)

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Updated 12:50pm PT on 6/6: My $300 travel credit on the Chase Sapphire Reserve doesn’t reset until October.  See details below.

Updated 11:00am PT on 6/5: I tested the $250 Hilton Resort Credit on a restaurant purchase and the statement credit posted in 3 days.  See details below.

Updated 11:30am PT on 6/3: The $325 travel credit on the US Bank Altitude Reserve can now be used for restaurant purchases from 6/1 – 12/31.  See details below.

Good morning everyone, I hope you had a good weekend.  Today is June 1 and the start of a new month.  As the saying goes: New Month = New Credits.  I have several credit cards, but these are the 5 credit cards that have credits that I can use this month:

American Express Business Platinum Card

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2 Strategies for Buying USPS Forever Stamps Online (AMEX Business Platinum Card $20 Monthly Benefit)

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Good morning everyone.  On May 1, American Express introduced many new (temporary) benefits to the American Express Business Platinum Card, including a $20 monthly credit for shipping (which includes USPS, UPS & FedEx) that is valid from May 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020.  A few days ago, I wrote How to Purchase & Print USPS Shipping Labels Online (AMEX Business Platinum Card $20 Monthly Benefit).  I’ve also read a few other blog posts where travel bloggers said that they will buy $20 of stamps every month, even though they have no need for stamps.  I thought it would be a good idea to share 2 strategies for buying stamps online.  Just a heads up, the USPS charges a small $1.30 shipping charge for buying stamps online, but if you would rather avoid the $1.30 fee, you can visit your local post office.

Strategy 1: Buy Stamps Throughout the Year for the Holidays

You might be surprised to know that there are 40 different versions of Forever Stamps currently available for sale on the USPS website, with new stamp designs added throughout the year.  If you are someone who sends Christmas / Hanukkah / holiday greeting cards, there are several options available and you can purchase the necessary stamps monthly throughout the year.  If you live in Alabama or Maine, there are also specific stamps featuring your state.

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New AMEX Business Platinum Shipping & Wireless Phone Service Credits Post Fast

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Good morning everyone.  A few days ago, American Express unveiled several new benefits for several of their personal and business cards.  Doctor of Credit has all the details regarding the card benefits, but for today’s post, I am going to talk about the monthly $20 Shipping and $20 Wireless Phone Service credits for the American Express Business Platinum Card.

These benefits were announced and went live on May 1, so I waited no time testing out the credits.  On May 1, I wrote How to Purchase & Print USPS Shipping Labels Online (AMEX Business Platinum Card $20 Monthly Benefit).  I purchased a $10.90 shipping label through the USPS website to ship an item I sold on Amazon.  Later that day, I made a one time $20 payment to my AT&T wireless phone bill.  Both purchases posted on May 1 and the subsequent statement credits posted on May 4.  That is a really fast turnaround time for the statement credits to post.

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