fassy

Hi all,

I guess I'm a little it confused and hope you can help me regarding the T&C of the Swedish AMEX card's 2-4-1 perk.

As I'm not Swedish and my Swedish is not good enough to be sure I get all the fine print right.

This year I got my second 2-4-1 voucher after last year already on the 12th on July. Last year it was end of October since I spread the spend also on other cards like the Hilton Visa.

Last years award end of October was pretty good since I could arrange for a good I class award to NRT end of September which fits perfectly in my vacation schedule.

This years award in July clearly sucks as I won't be able to get a decent vacation until mid September next year to redeem the voucher, so I might need to spend it on a quick trip to New York for a week in early Q2 2015 or so instead of the planned vacation end of Q3 2015.

So I was wondering what the policy is:
Do you get a 2-4-1 voucher after hitting 150.000 SEK and it resets the counter back to 0 allowing to earn another voucher after the next 150.000 or is it once a year starting to count 1st of January until you reach 150k?

I do not really see the logic in the second way as it would punish people to use the AMEX any time they have a spend if the want to have a redemption at a certain time the year later.

Thanks
fassy

mha

Unfortunately, it is only once a year, and the counter resets on Jan 1st.

And yes, that does "punish" people who use the card the whole time without planning. Which is why a lot of people aim to hit like 148-149k spend and then just put the card away until they're ready and want the voucher. It's silly.

chrisljo

At least starting this year the Norwegian vouchers will expire end of year after it's been earned. So no more punishing high spend. Not sure if the Swedish might have been changed without notice.

My solution last year was to email customer service in middle of March and get them to stop the voucher, then emailed them again in November to get it. Not sure if Swedish customer service are as helpfull.

fassy

The letter states the voucher is only valid for a year after awarding. I will try to send a mail to customer service and ask if they can do anything about it like extending the validity.

livious

Correct that the Swedish 2-4-1 is 1 year from the date issued. We learned last year that you have to spend carefully as you near the 150,000SEK if you have a certain period that you want to spend it. It will be interesting if you can get AMEX to extend the validity. Please report back.

As for the other response, is it really true that you can only earn 1 per year? If so, that is nuts. Granted 300,000SEK spend for a single person is not easy, but surely they would only encourage us to spend more.

fassy

Just send them a mail, will report back what they say.

I read the T&C again and it says you will earn only one a year even though I I should achieve 300k+ this year. I totally understand that they won't issue a second voucher as it really could costs a lot of money for them. Imagine you use it for a I award to Japan like I did, it cost them 140.000 points. Not quite cheap... but they could at least make it more convenient for their customers to use the voucher while keep spending as they still make a decent amount of money out of the business given that AMEX is buy far the most expensive payment provider out there.

FlyingMoose

It is peanuts if it involves business spend. I only have the Swedish AMEX for the 2-4-1 and just put some corporate expenses on it when I want the voucher. It's idle the rest of the year, AMEX never complained.

livious

Agree that business spend makes things easier. Our new jobs allow us to use our AMEX for work expenses, so my wife and I will both hit 150k by July. Looks like we need to find a worthy second card to take up the rest of the years spend.

fassy

Got a reply from the customer services (in less than 12hrs, pretty good reaction time)

So, it seems they see their policy doesn't make too much sense. Anyway, as long as they don't change this policy I will spread my spend over the AMEX and the HHoners Visa.

FlyingMoose

Statoil has a cashback creditcard which is interesting.

nacho

Options:

Eurobonus master card;
OKQ8 CC or Shell Mastercard - both gives 1% cash back with no annual fee.

Personally I value the 1% cash back more than EB points.

livious

Thanks for the suggestions. I am starting to look into other cards and it seems like there are several gas station linked cards that could work. I prefer the EB points, but only if there is a 2-4-1 involved. Otherwise the cash back option is better.

fassy

Call me crazy but by some strange logic I value Hotel Points and Airline Miles over Cashback. Probably since they force you to accumulate for a long time while I wouldn't save 50$ a month cashback on a separate account to wait for the amount being high enough for some luxury travel.

Also sometimes the miles and hotel points can have significant value if used wisely. 1% Cashback will always stay 1% cash back.

chrisljo

A typical Norwegian should have no problem getting at least 1,3 cents per point out off EuroBonus. Domestic, long haul or even last minute North Europe all give good value.

So for many, 20 points > 1% cashback.

nacho

How much EB pts worth to someone depends on their travel pattern. We prefer the $ because it's paid out as $ and we don't credit our flights with SK (that's why my 3 kids and myself are TK G), so it doesn't make sense to try too hard to get the extra points. Points are more restrictive and subject to devaluation. EB pts are definitely one of the better ones since they don't charge YQ at the moment, but there's no guarantee that they will do it again.