Special BA American Express offer – 9000 Avios with free card, 25000 Avios with Premium Plus

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• sandgrounder says:

  10 Jul10 July 07:04

  OT- I may have missed it, but have you a post planned on the current signup bonus for the EUR/USD Amex Platinum? 60k MR on your first spend (subject to the normal 6 month MR-enrolled card rule) seems pretty generous.

  • Gavin says:

    10 Jul10 July 08:56

    Can you add a link to the Amex page for this offer please

    • darrenf says:

      10 Jul10 July 08:59

      https://www.americanexpress.com/icc/eurodollar/personal-platinum.html

  • Simmo says:

    10 Jul10 July 09:41

    This looks pretty decent!
    – Shame I’ve got the Gold card, looks like you cant get the sign up if you have had another rewards card int he last 6 months.

    Ideal for somebody who only has the BA card which is Avios not Member Rewards.

    • Rob says:

      10 Jul10 July 10:00

      This is not the case. The IDC card has a separate MR scheme and having a UK MR account doesn’t matter.

      HOWEVER … this card is a pain to get. You need to provide bank references. You need to pay the bill by a transfer in Euros or Dollars – you can’t pay with a UK debit card or a cheque.

      This offer has been running for a few months but I have kept putting off writing about it because people who apply are opening a can of worms.

      Note also that it is NOT 1:1 into Avios. It is 3:2. The 60k only gets you 40,000 points.

      • Pol says:

        10 Jul10 July 12:52

        Do you definitely get the bonus even if you have a uk platinum card? Can you keep both cards. My husband works in Amsterdam so has a Dutch bank account therefore spending and paying in euros would probably be advantageous for us rather than a pain.

        • Rob says:

          10 Jul10 July 13:28

          I cannot give a 100 per cent guarantee but it is very highly likely.

        • Alan says:

          10 Jul10 July 15:57

          Agreed. When I signed up the bonus was a reduced fee and my MRs were as compensation, but it’s a totally separate MR account so I can’t see there being much of a problem.

      • Graham says:

        10 Jul10 July 23:05

        Rob, do you know anything about the hotel transfer partners? Specifically, Club Carlson is it also 1:3.
        Also, can you get a pro rata refund on the membership fee if you cancel in <12 months as in the UK?
        Thanks!

        • Graham says:

          10 Jul10 July 23:07

          Ack never mind, I see its 2:3. 🙁

        • Rob says:

          11 Jul11 July 12:17

          All the exchange rates are in a post I wrote last year on this – https://headforpoints.com/2013/07/16/50-bonus-on-your-entire-amex-membership-rewards-balance-when-you-get-an-amex-idc-card/

          Not sure about the refund but I was under the impression this is a global rule because of accounting rules in the US.

      • RIccati says:

        11 Jul11 July 02:06

        The 60,000 Membership Rewards bonus points will be awarded to your account once you have been approved and you have used the Card to make a purchase within the first year of Cardmembership. All introductory offers are subject to change, can be withdrawn at any time and are not available if you currently hold or have held any other Membership Rewards enrolled American Express Cards in the last six months.

        • Rob says:

          11 Jul11 July 12:14

          The first rule with Amex is not to believe what they say but judge them by what they do! For example it has been shown many many times that if you have a non UK MR account with Amex you will definitely get the bonus if you open a Gold or Plat UK charge card. This should be no different.

        • RIccati says:

          11 Jul11 July 12:32

          Thank you, Raffles.

          The experience has been as follows: if it is a genuine US-based MR account, Brighton will not have access/be unable to see it. Likewise, US AMEX CS have no access to UK-issued card accounts.

          However, this ICC account is managed in Brighton and the card is UK-issued. As your story with banker’s reference suggests this specialised team will be able to see which other UK cards you have or have had. MR team staff is likely to be shared, i.e., same people.

          ‘the last six months’ rule sounds like UK-specific rule and they will be able to point at it.

        • Rob says:

          11 Jul11 July 13:15

          All true. This is why I haven’t pushed this. My gut feeling is that you WOULD get the bonus points but – given the card fee and the hoops you must jump through both to apply and pay the bill – anyone who does so will do it entirely at their own risk.

          Both myself and Alan in the comments applied at a time when their was a refer a friend bonus on. We got a small (5000 points) bonus but there was no specific rule at the time about having any other MR account so the fact we got one does not prove anything.

  • Rob says:

    10 Jul10 July 10:02

    See my other comment – I have kept putting it off because it is very complex and I’m concerned people might apply without thinking through everything!

    • Alan says:

      10 Jul10 July 12:26

      Good advice, Rob – it took literally months for my application to get processed and required lots of authorised signatures on photocopies, bank letters, etc. – a massive PITA (although I at least got some MR out of them for the issues!). As you’ve covered before though, the other positives are the decent travel insurance (like pre-devaulation UK Plat) and the 1:1 transfer rate to SQ – however there are significant costs involved in paying USD bills from the UK so after using it the first couple of months to activate my MR account I’ve not used it since and just keep it for the benefits (including my parents as they still have the higher age cut-off on insurance).

• Mycity says:

  10 Jul10 July 07:28

  Hi I’ve got the Premium plus card, could ui still apply for the standard card?

  Thanks

  • Brian says:

    10 Jul10 July 08:59

    You can apply, but you won’t get a sign-up bonus, I believe.

    • Ralph says:

      10 Jul10 July 09:27

      Having the BAPP dues not preclude you from applying for other cards such as the AmEx Gold or Plat cards and receiving the bonus provided that you have not held those cards for at least six months.

  • Rob says:

    10 Jul10 July 10:01

    No, you can’t have both cards.

• Ralph says:

  10 Jul10 July 09:29

  Oops, didn’t read the ops question properly, sorry

• Matthew says:

  10 Jul10 July 09:30

  Do you get the Premium Plus Amex bonus if you already have a British Airways Amex free card?

  • Rob says:

    10 Jul10 July 09:58

    You can’t get the Premium Plus Amex full stop. You are only allowed one of the two BA cards.

    • Matthew says:

      10 Jul10 July 10:45

      Thanks guys. If I close my free card, then wait 6 months, can I get sign up bonus for free card again? Or perhaps for the Premium plus?

      • Rob says:

        10 Jul10 July 13:30

        Yes, under the current rules

    • Rob says:

      10 Jul10 July 13:31

      You can upgrade but you cannot have a free BA Amex alongside the paid version.

• DC says:

  10 Jul10 July 11:14

  Whilst better than the standard offer if this is for a partner then you are still better using a refer a friend option and picking up 9,000 + 19,0000 avios instead of 0 + 25,0000.

• Rob says:

  10 Jul10 July 13:27

  Unlikely. The Dollar card is off-limit to US residents for example.

• Rob says:

  10 Jul10 July 19:50

  It won’t work automatically because of the way Amex has coded it. It might work if you retro-claim as those are processed manually. Nothing to lose, though, as you say.

• duncan says:

  10 Jul10 July 21:06

  I had the email offering the 25,000 points. I will easily spend £3000 in the next 90 days, however i haven’t go a clue if 25,000 miles is a good deal. What would I get with it?

  • Rob says:

    10 Jul10 July 21:14

    Don’t apply unless you fully know what you are getting into. Read the Avios Redemption University articles for a primer -click link under Head for Points By Category at the bottom of the right hand margin.

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