IIRC, same AmEx card as mia refers to above (post # 19), May for me, $15,000 minimum spend. $21,000 tax payment for some unknown reason did NOT trigger bonus, 6 weeks later $18,000 tax payment DID automatically trigger. (Both charges were on the same statement, the first statement, which was 8 weeks after account opening due to AmEx screwing up my closing date requests. Both charges via the same lowest cost processor.)

(FWIW, I just noticed on the PDF statements, that the tax payment itself was categorized as “Pay In Full Portion” while the juice (vig, vigorish, convenience fee, Payment Processor Fee) was categorized as “Pay Over Time Portion”.)

BREAK

To the subject of the thread title, completely unexpected and unintentional datapoint from several years ago: Minimum spend included all purchases regardless of returns. $3,000 minimum spend card, spent ~$2,800, returned ~$700, after return posted and balance was ~$2,100 spent ~$300 (all before first statement), bonus triggered, no further spend, bonus never clawed back. (Yes, of course, like any self-respecting points monger I possibly might have perhaps maybe perchance conceivably did the exact same thing again after that... intentionally. )