Originally Posted by gnomey

I clearly remembered that the terms the retention officer read out to me said that you accept this offer under the provision that you will keep the account open blah blah

Ethical or not ethical, I think, the more important question to ask yourself is, how much do you value your relationship with Amex. And, are you prepared to accept the worst if Amex decides to do something abt it?

Let's say if they are not happy you cancel the card after accepting retention offer, and decide not only to claw back the retention bonus, but also start auditing your past activity, notice any MS (if you do so), or mess around with your existing MR balances in some way.

Perhaps do it once, you can get away, but do it several times, I think the likehood that human eyes will land on your account may not be nil.

I know that if I have boatload of MR, and still plan to accrue MR in future, then I would not want risk such retribution, just to save $XXX or earn an extra XX,000 MR