michael_v

My partner (who is not a travel junkie) got today in the mail a targeted Amex premier rewards gold offer for 50,000 MR after spending $1,000 in the first 3 months. However, when going to the website to apply and after inputting the invitation number, a Amex Platinum 100,000 MR after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months appears. You can pick either offer on that screen. I did not see any bonus ID on the paperwork.

Which offer should an occasional traveler choose?

On a side note, I never receive any offers like this with a very good credit history and his credit history is full of unpaid debt to the IRS and an especially messy Amex charges dispute long time ago (because of this I seriously doubt he gets approved for this card, but that's another story). I have no idea how Amex works.

mia

Are either of the annual fees waived for the first year?

LordByran

A friend of mine also received a similar offer with no credit history at all, let alone AMEX. Apparently the online application is not greyed out, so it appeared possible to change the name to someone else. According to agent, these are specifically targeted. The fee was waived for the Gold, if I recall correctly.

michael_v

The annual fee is waived on the Gold, but not the Platinum, like usual. And yes, there is a way to fill in the "name on the card" field, but no way to specify name of the applicant or address. Therefore, no way for someone else to apply.

redtop43

I wonder if there is anyone who knows, or knows someone who knows, how they actually select targets for these promos. Not someone who can speculate, but someone who's been on the inside.

cc2k

I got the same offer in mail. Trying to decide whether I should go for the Platinum or the Gold card.

The platinum will cost me $450 for the first year, but comes with an additional 50k points. Is it worth it? I will be traveling overseas in December and returning in January, but I have already booked that flight. I will be travelling a couple of times over the next year in addition to the December trip.

So my question is: Is it worth spending $450 for the extra 50k miles and up to $400 in airline reimbursement? With the new restrictions, I'm not sure I'll be able to spend $200+200 in reimbursable expenses.

mickeydfly13

I just got it, too. Have to read it as I am not too familiar with this program. Are these points deemed more valuable than UA miles? With such a steep annual fee, I would think so. I just have a Amex Citibank AA card--not so hot.

mia

Welcome to Flyertalk.

A card's annual fee is related to the benefits provided, not to the value of the rewards. Your AA card is issued and administered by Citibank, American Express merely processes the transactions in the same way that MasterCard or VISA does for other cards.

Membership Rewards points can be transferred to 16 frequent flyer programs, listed here:

http://www.membershiprewards.com/cat...readcrumb=true

redtop43

Based solely on the 50K points, I would say yes, 50K points are worth more than $450. Remember you also get lounge access and reimbursement of GOES/NEXUS fee.

The possible downside of plat is no category bonuses. PRG gives 3X on airfare and 2x on gas and groceries. Upside of plat is no foreign transaction fee, which can potentially save you a bundle. (But there are also no-fee Capital One cards with no forex fee.)

cc2k

Thanks! What kind of airline rewards can I expect from 50k points? Can that get me two domestic round trip tickets via points transfer to a participating airline?

onefasteuro

I personally have both the PRG and platinum (main spending on PRG, platinum for benefits as we travel quite a bit)

Too bad you missed the BA transfer sale, but for us in SFL, transferring to BA is pretty awesome. allows a lot of flexibility to going to the carribeans and up the east coast for example.

I also used 37.5k miles to fly 3 of our family members to hawaii from LAX (found a cheap FLL->LAX on virgin)

That would be one example.

Lately I redeemed 70k points (which turned into 105k on BA with the promo) to fly my wife and daughter to France in J (one way) high fees, but still cheaper than buying the tickets, was a last minute booking needed with no avail on AA.

Digable

Received a mail offer for 50K Gold AMEX and when I entered the code up popped a 100K Plat offer as well, so I jumped on that. Can I get the Gold as well or will that result in n automatic rejection?

Thanks!

mia

Digable's question has been merged into the existing thread about this offer. The RSVP code may be void after the first application, have you tried entering it again?

rjdoc1974

Can you post a link to that existing thread?

DavidAL

So for some reason my MIL received the targeted offer today in the mail to my house. She doesn't really care about my CC miles/points obsession. Question is, since the address matches where the RSVP was mailed, can I apply for it with my name and get the bonus? When I click through, it leaves it blank on the app page for me to fill out my name/SSN/etc. Thoughts or experiences doing this?