So today my SO was checking her AMEX account and notice a pre-approval upgrade offer for the Surpass (150k, spendt $3k). She was surprise to see it because earlier in the year she tried to apply through the public offer and got a pop-up indicating that she had previously had this credit card. So she did not proceed. So then she tried applying for the Aspire but swa antother pop indicating she had recently opened or closed accounts. Anyway she went ahead and clicked on the upgrade link and it looks like it was approved. Got a message saying she will get her new card in 7-10 days. Her account now show Surpass related earning and card benefits.

Thing is we are not sure if the bonus points will be awarded once she meets the spend requirement. The situation is this: in November of 2010, she applied for her 1st no fee HH card, That card was upgrade to the Surpass around September of 2013 (got awarded upgrade bonus points). In April of 2016 she was approved for her 2nd no fee HH (bonus points were awarded). Then last year in October she decided to cancel her Surpass. And now today she apparently got her 2nd no fee HH upgraded to the Surpass . Knowing that she had been denied earlier in the year for previously having a Surpass, can she be certain that the pre-approval bypass the whole once in a lifetime restriction. Her last upgrade happened in Sept 2013, roughly 6 years ago. Since the time lapse between her no fee HH approvals was about 5-1/2 years, can we assume that the Surpass upgrade pre-approval was solely based on enough time lapse beween Surpass applications or upgrade offers and that she will be awarded the bonus points once the spend is met.