An interesting quirk in the new American Express sign-up rules we missed, and other updates

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• Chelseafi says:

  24 Mar24 March 08:31

  I think I’m correct in what I’m saying?… So I’ve not had a Plat or Gold for over 6 months, Can OH refer me for Bus Gold (and I get intro bonus and OH gets 18k from Plat referral). Then a couple months later OH refers me for Plat personal (I don’t get any intro bonus, OH gets 18k referral points) Can I have Bus Gold and Plat personal? My reason behind getting Plat is we want to keep one in family for our trips, and odd referrals, my OH currently has 2 referrals left this year, so OH would cancel Plat once referral points received. Thanks

  • Rob says:

    24 Mar24 March 09:12

    Business Gold works. Adding personal Plat still needs you to have gone 24 months without a personal Plat/Gold.

    • Chelseafi says:

      24 Mar24 March 10:09

      Thanks so I know I won’t get sign up bonus for personal Plat but can I hold both Bus Gold and personal Plat is the main question?

      • TGLoyalty says:

        24 Mar24 March 10:15

        Yes you could always do that.

        You can hold gold credit and Plat now too.

      • Rob says:

        24 Mar24 March 11:17

        Yes, no problem having both and no problem getting 2 bonuses as long as you get Bus Gold first and meet the personal Plat 24 month rule.

• Kevin says:

  24 Mar24 March 08:52

  I just hope all the cancellations mean I’m slightly more likely to get on the Platinum Vista chocolate workshop next weekend.

  I’m keeping my Amex collection. I’m not bored of the treats yet. I do get why it isn’t worth it for everyone.

  • Doug M says:

    24 Mar24 March 09:03

    Agree. You work out it’s value to you and keep or dump. Either it works for you or it doesn’t. Another factor obviously is no matter how poor is it compared to before the recent change, what works better for you? There are no other methods of earning hefty Avios from spend, I know there’s an HSBC product but that’s quite niche, and if you don’t want VS miles where do you go credit card wise? My primary use of Avios has been and will likely continue to be RFS, which is great value.

    • Shoestring says:

      24 Mar24 March 09:06

      [There are no other methods of earning hefty Avios from spend]

      Oh yes there are! 🙂

      • Doug M says:

        24 Mar24 March 09:23

        I was thinking in credit card terms, rather than other more indirect offers, mention of which puts you on the naughty step. But feel free to share if you know better 🙂

      • shd says:

        24 Mar24 March 11:22

        > it doesn’t make sense to pay for Avios, unless they are incredibly cheap (i.e. way, way below 1p per point)

        I’m happy to pay 2p/Avios if I’m able to regularly redeem them at 4p+/Avios. Wouldn’t you be?

      • Scott says:

        24 Mar24 March 13:28

        @shd – Fair point, for the %age of folk who can genuinely get a value in excess of the cost, but many of Harry’s ‘nudge, nudge, wink, wink’ ruses for acquiring Avios have a cost in excess of the value the majority of people (IMHO/my own experience) can achieve, and so are far from being a good alternative to the signup bonuses which Amex have removed. I appreciate everyone places a different value on Avios, but people need to ask themselves, e.g. “would I REALLY pay £x for that CW flight” when calculating a value.

• Wally1976 says:

  24 Mar24 March 09:20

  Any thoughts on the pros/cons/implications/costs of setting up a company specifically for the purposes of earning Amex bonuses??

  • Alex W says:

    24 Mar24 March 09:40

    It is a faff and there are ongoing requirements to submit confirmation statements etc.

    • Rob says:

      24 Mar24 March 09:45

      Sole traders are fine. Remember that you are always liable, not your company, so Amex takes minimal credit risk.

• Jtz says:

  24 Mar24 March 09:22

  So right now, I have spg and plat, probably going to cancel both soon as much as I would love to keep them both, (To earn double spg on spend and lounge access)
  Am I correct that I can still apply for the ba card if I want to?
  Thanks

  • Freddy says:

    24 Mar24 March 09:31

    Correct

  • Peter 64K says:

    24 Mar24 March 09:39

    You can apply for the BA card but you won’t get the sign up bonus if you have had a BA amex in the past 24 months.

• jtz says:

  24 Mar24 March 09:32

  @Liz 1000KF on Avis rental of 2 days

  • Liz says:

    24 Mar24 March 15:12

    I don’t want to put any KF miles in to my KF account at the moment as they have the strict 3 yr expiry policy and I am not planning on using them in the next 3 years. I was saving Marriott pts through SPG Amex churning once a year, Heathrow Rewards and doing some MR transfers to Marriott to build them up over the next few years till we are ready to go to Oz again in a few yrs time. Was trying to build both our Marriott accounts up to 120k each to give us 50k KF miles each then top up with Hrwatheow Rewards and MR pts when I was ready to book. Now won’t be able to get up to 120k Marriott points because we won’t be able to churn the SPG Card so readily. Need to come up with another plan.

    • Mikeact says:

      24 Mar24 March 19:32

      Perhaps I read it wrong, but I thought yesterday you were looking for a few miles to top up ? I don’t know how many you have but if they are going to waste look at their partners closer to home…Lufthansa..Egyptair..Swiss..Brussels..Turkish..LOT..and even Virgin Atlantic. You might be able to use them up with a trip closer to home, despite their recent devaluation.

      • Mikeact says:

        24 Mar24 March 20:50

        If you see this, I meant to add that their Star Alliance partner rewards also increase on April 16th. Economy is no change…..25k around Europe, but Business is up accross the board. Unlike Singapore themselves you will undoubtedly incur fuel surcharges, some more, considerably, than others.

        • Rob says:

          24 Mar24 March 20:53

          Yes, covering this tomorrow.

      • Liz says:

        24 Mar24 March 22:12

        We have 90k and 44k Marriott pts. I was aiming to get to 120k in each account so I could convert to 50k each KF miles then top up with MR pts and Heathrow Reward pts nearer the time when I needed them. Just storing them in Marriott accounts free of charge till I need them. That was my strategy for the next couple of years. Now I can’t see us reaching 120k each Marriott pts so will need to abandon that plan and probably just convert to Avios or Virgin in the future. I have plenty of Avios and Virgin miles for the next couple of years so will wait and see what happens. SIN-BNE is 62K KF miles now for one way redemption in Business.

• Shoestring says:

  24 Mar24 March 09:37

  Plenty of people will be cancelling Plat & waiting 2 years – –> also means cancelling the associated Priority Pass.

  You might want to reconsider the Travel Plus Pack from Barclays – £16.50 a month, minimum 6 months, on their free current a/c – 6 free lounge passes & other free benefits include a good-looking Travel Insurance policy & RAC breakdown cover. You could have his ‘n hers current a/cs, 6 months each then rinse & repeat for 12 Dragonpass entries pa, no limit on who gets to use them or how many at a time, you could use all 6 in 1 go if you felt like it.

• Munch says:

  24 Mar24 March 10:45

  Does the business card have opportunities for further referrals as the personal card – example 5 x 18000 points for 5 referrals?

  • Rob says:

    24 Mar24 March 11:14

    Yes

• Julian says:

  24 Mar24 March 11:45

  Rob,

  I feel sure that Amex are reading your articles on the remaining loopholes in their rules for new card signup bonuses with interest and that the team meeting on how to address these problems will be taking place in the course of the next few days……………….

  • Peter 64K says:

    24 Mar24 March 12:54

    Just like the churning loophole that only lasted a few days, no weeks, no months, actually years?
    It might happen, but unlikely I feel. Amex are known to have left badly worded t&c’s in contracts for years which are to their detriment, even when openly mentioned on this site.

  • the_real_a says:

    24 Mar24 March 12:56

    AMEX middle/higher managers were always incentivised by “new card openings” in their bonus going back 20 years. (i mean who needs 4 AMEX cards?) I’m fascinated to know what the new targets are, as that might help us understand where the value for us will be in the short term.

    • Freddy says:

      24 Mar24 March 13:18

      Clearly pushing towards business amex, with the different terms on bonus and concidently also running adverts this week on business amex cards. Higher interchange fees would explain it surely

      • the_real_a says:

        24 Mar24 March 13:27

        AMEX own branded personal cards are also exempt from the interchange cap… so there is margin for value there too.

      • Freddy says:

        24 Mar24 March 15:51

        The co-branded companies wouldn’t be too impressed if their cards had a 2 year period whilst the amex branded ones had 6 month period. Had to make a division somewhere

      • Memesweeper says:

        24 Mar24 March 17:05

        @freddy — I think you might be onto something there. And in 24 months all the co-brand cards will be renegotiated or closed so things will no doubt change again…

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