Checking if Player 2 has held a card in prev 24 months?

[ThriceForgiven]

Hi,

Summary version: Looking to take advantage of the public 80k Platinum sign-up bonus by referring Player 2. Having reviewed eligibility criteria, I’m unclear whether P2 has held an AMEX Rewards Card in the last 24 months. Couple of questions:

1) Is there any way to check with AMEX if P2 has in fact held a card, before applying/getting a credit check? I don’t want to mistakenly reset the 24 month counter.
2) P2 has a Platinum Supplementary card from my account – would this preclude her? Would I also need to cancel her card before she gets her own Platinum?

Long version: I’ve held the Amex Platinum for 6+ years now, and the combination of a devalued dining benefit (4 x £100 split over the year) + slightly worse insurance + a terrible retention offer has now finally pushed me over the edge to cancel. Before doing so I want to get the 18k referral and then cancel, and we’ll incur one year of costs for P2’s 80k MR before cancelling that too.

On a side note, I probably would’ve cancelled sooner, but my MRs were being held hostage and I didn’t feel like converting them. However, and I would love it Rob if you could chime in here as I know you’ve dabbled in this, I recently discovered I can transfer my MRs to my US fee-free Amex MR cards, at an official exchange rate. Final question for Rob (or anyone who knows this):

3) Are there any materially better transfer partners for UK Amex MRs vs. US Amex MRs? I’m wondering if I should convert some before transferring them to the US, but it looks like most are better abroad (more routine bonus transfers, etc). I know Rob you were a fan of Jumeirah using the ICC card before they gutted the loyalty scheme.

Thanks all!

[InsiderFly]

If P2 still has an Amex account she can ask on the chat in the app when she cancelled her last card(s). They will give an exact date.

Supplementary cards don’t preclude people from the sign up bonus.

Re the dining credit, although it’s spread across the year in two halves, it has improved from £300 to £400 of credit per year so I’ve seen that change as an improvement.

Re the transferring points to a US card, you know you can also downgrade your platinum to the free Amex rewards credit card and keep your MR points as they are until you’re ready to use them. US card isn’t necessary, but you may have other reasons for it?

[ThriceForgiven]

InsiderFly wrote:

If P2 still has an Amex account she can ask on the chat in the app when she cancelled her last card(s). They will give an exact date.

Supplementary cards don’t preclude people from the sign up bonus.

Re the dining credit, although it’s spread across the year in two halves, it has improved from £300 to £400 of credit per year so I’ve seen that change as an improvement.

Re the transferring points to a US card, you know you can also downgrade your platinum to the free Amex rewards credit card and keep your MR points as they are until you’re ready to use them. US card isn’t necessary, but you may have other reasons for it?

Thanks for the post.

Are you sure you can downgrade a UK platinum to a free Amex Rewards credit card? I’ve always been told no by Amex (only offered Gold/Green). EDIT: I realised halfway through this response an additional piece of context I should’ve shared: I have an Amex Platinum Charge card – could this be the reason why?

On a side note, I agree that it went up from £300 to £400, but the split means it’s now harder to use the international credits (would involve two trips) and veering into the ‘forced effort’ area. The international list has also been shortened compared to a year or two ago.