Tag Archives: American Express

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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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My Recent American Express Hilton Aspire Credit Card Retention Offer

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Good morning everyone.  2 months ago, I wrote Keep, Cancel or Convert? American Express Hilton Aspire Credit Card ($450 Annual Fee).  In that post, I shared that I was offered a retention offer by the American Express rep: earn 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points after spending $2,000 in 3 months. 10,000 Hilton Honors points is worth about $50 to me and I was planning on keeping the credit card anyways, so I accepted the offer.  A few minutes after the call, I received the following email from American Express.  Unfortunately, the email did not mention any of the retention offer details, but I decided to spend $2,000 on the credit card anyway.

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American Express Sends Out Checks for “Technical Error” Regarding Annual Fee Refund

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Updated at 7:30am PT on 2/10/24: This post was written in 2019 when American Express sent out checks with the help of Epiq Class Action & Claims Solutions.  If you receive a check like this in 2023 or 2024, the check may not be legitimate.  Please scroll down to the comments section for more information.  Thank you.

Good morning everyone, sorry for the lack of posts lately, I was on vacation in Tahiti and Moorea for 10 days for my pre-honeymoon and didn’t have time to write any posts.  I have several posts in the pipeline, so I will work on getting those published over the next 2 weeks.  Anyway, this morning, Doctor of Credit wrote Numerous American Express Bonus Adjustments Posting Now for Referrals and More.

Yesterday, when I picked up my held mail from the Post Office, I received a letter and check from American Express regarding a “technical error” that caused an annual fee to be charged but not refunded when I closed an American Express credit card.  I have several open and closed American Express credit cards so it wasn’t obvious which credit card this was related to.  Luckily, the letter says account ending in 01009 and I was able to look up that credit card number in my credit card spreadsheet.  I keep all open and closed credit card details in the spreadsheet, so I was able to find out that it was my closed American Express SPG Business Credit Card.

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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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