This past week we applied and were approved for an amazing 100,000 targeted offer for the Amex Platinum Card. We received the card within days. It seems they put the card on rush delivery and I’m thankful for a few reasons. The card comes with a bunch of cool benefits and we are not sure which benefit we like most.
The signup bonus for 100,000 Membership Rewards points after spending only $3,000 is amazing. I have already started spending these points in my mind. Plus, I understand we can over spend our Membership Rewards balance by up to 60,000 points that we don’t even have. So I’m thinking we can already take advantage of the current 50% British Airways transfer bonus.
The lounge benefit to access AA, US, and Delta lounges is great. Since I no longer receive free Delta lounge access due to losing Delta Diamond status, the Platinum Amex club lounge benefit is awesome.
Only one Weekly Flyer (The Mrs) was targeted for the offer, so the ability to add an additional user (Mr Weekly Flyer) to the card for only $175 is a great deal. Additional users do not qualify for the signup bonus. But each additional card user, up to seven, will receive access to the $200 statement credit. Update: the agent I spoke with yesterday said that each additional card member would receive the $200 statement credit. But this was explained incorrectly. Only one $200 statement credit wil be provided per account, regardless of how many cards are added to te account.
The $200 statement credit for airline fees is something we are really excited about. We called American Express and learned that ‘any’ airline expense that is not a booked ticket will count for the $200 statement credit.
We are coming up with some interesting potential uses for the $200 credit. But we’d like to hear from you first.
What would be your best use for the $200 statement credit?
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The Weekly Flyer writes about travel from a business traveler perspective. He travels the world every week accumulating points and miles along the way.
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I always purchase four $50 American Airline gift cards. The credit appears on my account within a few days.
I did SW AIR ones (2x$100) in the past but have been told you can no longer do that so YMMV. – Rene
you only get the $200 credit once per account and not per card
Hi Sruly – Thanks. The agent I spoke with yeaterday stated that benefit wrong. I called to clarify and only one statement credit is issued per account. Thanks again. Post is updated to reflect this benefit.
True, one $200 credit per card, but the credit follows the calendar year and renews Jan 1st. So your first “membership year” you can get $400 credit! Offsets the $450 fee quite nicely.
AA EXP status does not come with a free Admirals Club membership.
Another note on the $200 airline fee credit: it does NOT apply to *any* airline charge that isn’t a ticket. When Amex first introduced this benefit, they described it as covering “incidental airline fees” and apparently meant for things like baggage fees, onboard food purchases, change fees, etc. People were successful in getting additional charges reimbursed, including gift cards, award ticket fees and taxes, etc. Recently the T&Cs have been updated to specifically exclude those latter two. However, what Amex says in T&Cs and what the agents agree to are often two different things.
The rep you originally spoke to seems to be quite misinformed.
Last year I got a couple off RCC passes and 2 United gift cards. Next time I have the card I’ll be getting United GCs $50 x 4. Unless you know of specific baggage fees or something of that nature that you will be incurring in the near future I don’t think you can go wrong with airline gift cards.
Do additional cardholders get individual (not accompanying main cardholder) airline lounge access with their cards?
Hi Joe,
I was told that all benefits apply to additional card holders accept the signup bonus, including the lounge access. I got clarification from a second agent that the $200 credit only gets applied to the account holder.
Bought 200$ in United gift cards. And yes, you can buy one 200$ GC and it gets reimbursed. Handy since United only allows one GC per transaction. Takes about 3 days for the credit to kick in.
As of now, the $200 credit is on a calendar year – so if you need to cancel before the next annual fee comes due, you can still end up with $400 of Gift Cards (some have been known to cancel the card on the anniversary, then sign up for the Mecedez Benz Platinum card for $495).
Also, some of the FHR deals are quite good for high-end hotels.
bought 1-$200 SW gift card and applied to a $199 one way trip from SFO>HOU!