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American Express backtracks on changes to Preferred Rewards Gold referral bonuses

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Yesterday we wrote about apparent changes to the referral bonus on American Express Preferred Rewards Gold and Gold Business charge cards.

Instead of receiving 22,000 Membership Rewards points on hitting the spend target, the rules had been changed to say that you had to wait five months to receive your bonus.

As soon as our story appeared, American Express changed their website.

The Preferred Rewards Gold referral rules (click here) now say, as they used to:

“Please note, bonus points will appear in two instalments of 2,000 and 20,000 and can take up to four weeks to be awarded to your Account.”

The Gold Business charge card has NOT changed back click here to see.  It still says:

“Please note, bonus points will appear in two instalments of 2,000 and 20,000. You will receive 2,000 points when you reach £1,000 spend – these points will appear on your fifth statement.”

It isn’t clear what is happening here.  Did someone at Amex make a mistake, or was a change rolled out early by mistake?  Only time will tell.


best travel rewards credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – October 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

American Express Business Platinum

Up to 80,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

Get up to 40,000 points as a sign-up offer and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

10,000 points bonus – plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback when you spend at least £2,000 per month.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

Get 1% cashback when you spend at least £2,000 per month* Read our full review

Comments (91)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Andrew-a says:

    O/T but bits so hopefully ok.
    I have 3 nights booked in the IC Hong Kong in the summer in a Deluxe Harbour View Room,1 paid and 2 x reward nights. By the time I upgraded the standard room to a view and 2 nights club access I am still paying almost £600. I was thinking about changing to the Shangri-la Kowloon, club level harbour view which would probably be around £900 and keep the free nights for another time.
    Would anyone who has stayed in these at club level recommend the Shangri-la over the IC ?
    Thanks in advance

    • The Original Nick says:

      I’ve stayed at the IC quite a few times. At the moment there’s a lot of building work going on so I would be tempted to go for the Shangri-la even though I’ve not stayed there. I have eaten in the restaurant there using a voucher which was possible to get via a simple competition a few years ago that Rob brought to our attention here on HFP’s. The food was amazing.

    • luckyjim says:

      The widely-adopted convention is that ‘Off Topic’ is always okay if you start your post ‘OT’. It doesn’t have to be a ‘Bits’ article and you don’t have to be apologetic about asking a questions which may be useful to others.

      I’ve stayed at the IC once and was not too impressed with the food or service. If you plan to eat out it doesn’t matter but for me it was just a stopover so I didn’t have much time. I don’t know anything about the Shangri La but I would say you would recoup the extra £300 at some point in the future if you hold on to your points.

      • Lady London says:

        Personally I think it would be best if people keep their “OT’s” to the “Bits” articles wherever possible. Otherwise it just clogs up the comments and draws attention away from the main topic.

  • dave says:

    O/T looking for free/cheapest parking option for LHR t5
    Anywhere you can leave car for free and hop on free local bus
    would be from thursday to monday
    cheers

  • The_real_a says:

    This is one flight that i would seek out a stopover in the usual places. Flying in biz or first is survival but i cannot think enjoyable. In Y it must shorten your lifespan considerably. Would anyone here do this flight?

    • Czechoslovakia says:

      I’ve done 12hrs in AF PE, with em. Exit / bulkhead seat. Whilst pleasant enough seat, 12 hours really is enough of plane air in any 24 hour period! Would agree, stopover necessary in any class.

      • Geoff says:

        Not sure it is necessary if the seating and service is as good as Qatar. Just returned from NZ on the Doha-Auckland route and found it very pleasant both ways. For me the seat on the 777 was more comfortable than the spangly new 787 from Oslo (although partner disagreed, and the toys are better on the 787) and slept for over 8 hours on the 17:30 flight back. Service was excellent throughout and, for us, a stopover would have been an unnecessary chafe. Can’t imagine doing it down the back though.

        Having thought we had been clever doing the ‘ex-EU’ thing, it was a bit galling to see the flash sale for less money from MAN while we were out there!

        • Alex W says:

          +1. We did the same route and preferred the Qatar 777 to the 787.

        • Alex W says:

          +1. We did the same route and preferred the Qatar 777 to the 787.

        • Lumma says:

          I think there’s a lot of love for the old 777 business class on Qatar, despite most reviews online criticising it. I agree that I preferred it over the A350 seats.

          I suppose the problem with it is the lack of aisle access from the window seats and needing to step over someone or be stepped over yourself if you have a stranger as a seatmate

  • Dave says:

    booked LON to MEL in ThaiAir Y forfamily of 4 this summer. 2.5hour stop in BKK to change planes.
    bring on the pain

    • Anna says:

      Prior to getting into the points game we travelled MAN – LHR – BKK – SYD – WLG in economy with a 4 year old. Amazingly, looking back it actually wasn’t that bad and I think that must have been because the longest legs were overnight and we slept quite a bit. But there’s no way on earth I’d do that now, I am utterly ruined lol!

    • Lady London says:

      At least you can get massages and spa in Bangkok. Although 2.5 hours might not be enough if you get even a slight delay incoming to BKK.

  • Jason says:

    The plaza lounge at Heathrow is easily the best lounge at T5

    Still ridiculously quite and free with your platinum card

  • signol says:

    Youtuber “Inflight Video” is on the inaugural southbound. He’s coming back via AKL and DOH. All in Y.

  • AndyR says:

    Well done mate. I did the same thing but for LAX so now on the A380 in F!

  • Rob says:

    No problem, I use it myself!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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