Tag Archives: American Express

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Downgrading US Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature & American Express to FlexPerks Select+ and Cash 365 Credit Cards

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far.  A few months ago, my $49 annual fee posted on my US Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature Credit Card.  Since I had spent down the majority of my FlexPoints, I decided to convert my US Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature Credit Card into a US Bank FlexPerks Select+ American Express Credit Card.  This credit card has no annual fee and earns 1 FlexPoint for every dollar spent with no bonus categories.  This is by no means a good credit card, but it will keep your FlexPoints alive and you can continue to redeem 20,000 FlexPoints for an airline ticket worth up to $400.

US Bank FlexPerks Select Plus American Express Credit Card Landing Page

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ICYMI: Travel News Roundup for Saturday, May 6, 2017

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Here’s all the news that caught my eye this week – let me know if you learn something new!

Airlines + Miles

The TSA is reportedly piloting a new requirement in Kansas City (MCI): forcing passengers to remove any paper products from their luggage. Yet another reason to get Global Entry if you don’t have it already. [Schneier on Security]

American Airlines has a new promotion where you can earn up to 10,000 points for transactions with their shopping partners. [Mommy Points]

American Airlines also announced that they plan to cram so many seats into their new 737 MAX planes that some rows will lose two additional inches of legroom. [CNN Money]

Hawaiian Airlines unveiled a brand and livery refresh. It looks pretty slick! [The Design Air]

JetBlue and Icelandair announced a frequent flier partnership. [USA Today] Continue reading →

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Are your AMEX Offer Statement Credits Posting Slower than Usual?

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(Hat tip to Miles per Day post and Tom’s comments in that post)

Good morning everyone, happy Star Wars Days (“May the Force be with you” = May the Fourth = May 4th) – that was painful to explain.  Anyway, I was reading Miles per Day and there were a few comments on that blog post AMEX Offer statement credits posting very slowly that stuck out to me.  Commenter Tom said the following:

Are your AMEX offer credits even posting lately? Within the past 2 or 3 weeks, I’ve used about 12 offers or so and only 2 of the credits actually posted (the boxed offer, but the same offer also DIDN’T post on 2 of my other cards)…. I’m starting to get a bit worried…

Later, Tom said:

No, I only received the email on the 2 credits that actually did post, the others received nothing (although I’m 100% certain that I met the terms and conditions of the offer). There are also quite a few datapoints coming in on the AMEX offers thread on Flyertalk, but I’m shocked that none of the bloggers have picked up on this issue yet, something is definitely going on with AMEX…. ordinarily I would just dismiss it and wait a while, but considering all of the other recent negative changes, especially the recently announced delay with the Biz Plat 50% rebate, I’m really starting to worry about AMEX offers… I hope they don’t make us wait 90 days until after the offer ends…

I have noticed the same with my AMEX Offers – the statement credits seem to be posting erratically and slower than usual.  As part of my manufactured spending routine, I buy and sell gift cards and a big portion of the gifts cards that I buy are with AMEX Offers.  I keep pretty detailed records of when I buy the gift cards, when they arrive (via email or mail), and when the AMEX Offer statement credits post to my American Express cards.  Here are my AMEX Offer statement credit findings from mid January through early May:

AMEX Old Blue Cash (OBC); Blue Cash Everyday (BCE); Everyday (ED GT); Everyday authorized user card from my dad (ED ST); Business Platinum (Plat); Business Platinum employee card for me (Plat GT); SPG Business (SPG B); SPG Business employee card for me (SPG GT)

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AMEX Offer Best Practices for Adding Offers to Multiple Cards & My Offer Tracking Spreadsheet

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday.  I am heading down to San Diego this weekend, but before I go, I wanted to talk about AMEX Offers and how I handle them.  For starters, I have 4 personal American Express credit cards in one account and 4 business American Express credit/charge cards in another account.  For the business cards, I have a primary business card and an employee card (both the business and employee cards are in my name).  All in all, I can add AMEX Offers to 8 cards: Old Blue Cash, Blue Cash Everyday, AMEX Everyday, AMEX Everyday (Dad’s card – I am an authorized user), Platinum Business, Green Business (no annual fee employee card for Platinum Business), SPG Business, and SPG Business (employee card).

AMEX Offers are great, but they become even better if you can leverage/multiply that great deal across all your American Express cards.  In this post, I will show you how I add the same AMEX Offer to multiple American Express cards and how I track all the AMEX Offers in my AMEX Offer Tracking Spreadsheet (download link included below).  If you follow this guide, you will be an AMEX Offer expert in no time.

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Booking my First 5x Membership Reward Points Flight on AMEXTravel.com Using American Express Business Platinum Charge Card

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Good morning everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend.  I spent the weekend up in Rohnert Park (in Sonoma Wine Country) with my girlfriend. I started this post a few weeks ago after I booked my first flight using my American Express Business Platinum Charge Card on amextravel.com to earn 5x Membership Reward Points on paid flights.  I was waiting for my credit card statement to close and for the bonus points to post to my Membership Rewards account, but I forgot that there is a 1 month delay between when points are earned and when points post to my Membership Rewards account. Instead of waiting another month for the bonus points to post, I decided to publish this post now.

If you are not working on the $300 travel credit from the Chase Sapphire Reserve or $250 travel credit from the Citi Prestige, earning 5x Membership Reward Points on paid flights beats earning 3x Ultimate Reward Points with the Chase Sapphire Reserve, 3x Citi Thank You Points with a Citi Prestige / Premier, and 2x Arrival Points with the Barclays Arrival+.

Anyway, I received a Google Flights alert for a flight I was tracking from New York to Iceland.  The price had fallen and I wanted to book the flight before the prices rebounded.

Google Flights JFK-KEF Icelandair

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