Mar 14, 2014, 10:48 am
Last edit by: beltway
It is essential to read the terms of the specific offer, but in general:
This offer is also not available to applicants who have or have had this product.
If we identify you as currently having an American Express® Card account, you may not be eligible for this welcome bonus offer.
Points will be credited to your Membership Rewards account within 6 - 8 weeks after the spend requirement has been reached.
This offer is also not available to applicants who have or have had this product.
- You can only earn one new account bonus for each personal card issued by American Express in the USA. We do not know precisely how far back American Express looks to see if you have previously held the same card, but there is anecdotal evidence that the Customer Service database looks back only seven years. This means that if you cancelled a card in 2007 or earlier, and have not held it since, you will probably qualify for a new account bonus in 2015.
- Holding a related card does not disqualify earning a new account bonus. Examples: Green, Gold, and Platinum are each separate products. Delta Gold, Platinum and Reserve are each separate products. The Hilton credit card is a different product than Hilton Surpass.
- Holding a Supplementary Card (authorized user) on someone else's account does not disqualify you from earning a new acount bonus if you open the same card type in your own name.
This rule does not apply to business cards.As of mid-February 2016, Amex appears to be adding the same restriction to its business card products.- If you receive a targeted offer, online or through the USPS, for a card which you have previously held you may, or may not, actually receive the bonus. Be certain to save a copy of the offer, and to read and save every screen which appears during the application process.
- Upgrade offers are different from new account offers. You may be offered a bonus to upgrade (for example) a Gold Card to a Platinum Card, and you may be eligible for that bonus even if you previously held a Platinum card. It is still essential to read and save the terms of the offer.
If we identify you as currently having an American Express® Card account, you may not be eligible for this welcome bonus offer.
- This language appeared in the Spring of 2013, a year before the once-in-a lifetime policy was announced. The key term is "may", which gives American Express discretion to award or withhold the bonus.
- To reduce the risk that the automated system will deny a new account bonus, RIGHT click the application link and open the application in a Private or Incognito browser window. American Express will still know that you are a current cardholder, but the system will not flag your application.
Points will be credited to your Membership Rewards account within 6 - 8 weeks after the spend requirement has been reached.
- In practice it is not possible to know when American Express's system will credit a bonus to your rewards account. It may happen immediately after you meet the target spend, or it may happen when the next statement (or the following statement) is generated, or it may take the full eight weeks.
Put a fork in it 5.1.2014: One bonus per personal card per person "lifetime" [USA]
Apr 20, 2014, 8:05 pm
#166
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,762
Those who know their time lapses are less than 12 months know fully what the risk is.
Apr 20, 2014, 9:53 pm
#167
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: 대한민국 (South Korea) - ex-PVG (上海)
Programs: UA MM / LT Gold (LT UC), DL SM, AA PLT (AC), OZ, KE; GE and Korean SES (like GE); Marriott Gold
Posts: 1,995
What is good for churners is NOT so good for non-churners. With some people getting hundreds of thousands or more of miles on FF programs, the airlines will keep going up on the number of miles needed for free flights and upgrades. Those of us who have one/two cards and use them actively for many years should be the ones rewarded, not those who get bonus miles, meet minimum spend, cancel, then repeat. It's great, Mr. Churner, that you now have hundreds of thousands of miles for free flights and/or upgrades, but it's not quite so good for us who see the required number of miles keep going up. I know I'll get grief for my opinion, but I see the value of my miles going down. I know what you are doing isn't unlawful, but it does hurt others.
Apr 21, 2014, 8:28 am
#168
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: BOS
Programs: AA Gold, IHG Plat AMB, Hilton Gold, SPG
Posts: 156
Are you referring the apps done in 5 days apart, or referring the apps done on the same day?
I cannot see why the 2 pulls done on same day would not merge unless different cards generate pulls from different entities inside AMEX. That does not seem to be the case though as AMEX seems to not even differentiate the entities between personal and business app.
I cannot see why the 2 pulls done on same day would not merge unless different cards generate pulls from different entities inside AMEX. That does not seem to be the case though as AMEX seems to not even differentiate the entities between personal and business app.
I am therefore guessing that when the apps are put on hold, they will not pull your credit on the same day and hence the two HP would not merged. But then, this is only my experience, others might have different situations.
Apr 21, 2014, 9:08 am
#169
Join Date: Sep 2013
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 3,677
Check back in 5 days and I'll let you know what happens.
Apr 21, 2014, 9:23 am
#170
Join Date: Sep 2013
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 3,677
I would certainly not roll the dice on a MB Plat card.
Apr 21, 2014, 5:02 pm
#171
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 6,607
According to the original post on Dan's Deals that apparently started all of this, the 12 month rule is no longer in effect. So in this short time frame before May 1st one can indeed get the bonus even if they recently canceled the same card. There obviously is not enough time for repeated data points on this. But since the strongest probability is that after May 1st we will not have another chance to get the bonus, I think the best course of action is to try it out and see. Especially since the cards I am applying for have no AF the first year, so my only cost is the spend, which I can easily do courtesy of my local pharmacy and WallyMart. If I didn't have those nearby it might be different.
I would certainly not roll the dice on a MB Plat card.
I would certainly not roll the dice on a MB Plat card.
Apr 21, 2014, 5:05 pm
#172
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 6,607
What is good for churners is NOT so good for non-churners. With some people getting hundreds of thousands or more of miles on FF programs, the airlines will keep going up on the number of miles needed for free flights and upgrades. Those of us who have one/two cards and use them actively for many years should be the ones rewarded, not those who get bonus miles, meet minimum spend, cancel, then repeat. It's great, Mr. Churner, that you now have hundreds of thousands of miles for free flights and/or upgrades, but it's not quite so good for us who see the required number of miles keep going up. I know I'll get grief for my opinion, but I see the value of my miles going down. I know what you are doing isn't unlawful, but it does hurt others.
Apr 21, 2014, 5:11 pm
#173
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: 대한민국 (South Korea) - ex-PVG (上海)
Programs: UA MM / LT Gold (LT UC), DL SM, AA PLT (AC), OZ, KE; GE and Korean SES (like GE); Marriott Gold
Posts: 1,995
All this will do is take people like me who had no interest in Manufactured spending and get them to look into it as you get many more miles/points doing MS than on sign up bonuses.
Apr 21, 2014, 7:59 pm
#174
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 6,607
But on the other hand you have no problem with a person who can get a $20K CL ( like I was just approved for ) doing MS to buy re-loadable cards and use AP to rack up 250K miles per year ( on just that one card) rather easily from what I see ?
Now I add in my Delta Business card, my Personal SPG and 20K more on my SPG Business and we're really talking not to mention the 5k bonus for every 20K miles transferred to Delta from SPG
That seems a bit odd to me as one MS can create 30- 40 times the miles a churner can thus devaluing the miles even further.
The guy who pointed me in the right direction for MS claims to be doing $125,000 a month and from what I read he is far from the only one doing that amount.
Last edited by flyer4512; Apr 21, 2014 at 9:29 pm
Apr 22, 2014, 10:17 am
#175
Join Date: Sep 2013
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 3,677
You can no longer even begin to keep up with regular spend, much less BIS flown miles. Over the years, sign up bonuses have gone from 15K, to 25K, to 50K, and now 100K. To get the same AA FC award to Europe that I got with three 50K ccs last year, I now have to get four 100K ccs. And the only possible way to cover that is massive MS.
Don't blame me, I didn't set the game up this way. I'm just playing the game according to the rules that the airlines and cc cos set up themselves.
Apr 22, 2014, 4:22 pm
#176
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 6,607
So true. We need to forget about "fair and proper". This is the way the Airlines and cc companies have set the game up. You can fume about it, but that won't change anything. The main way airlines have made any profit lately is by selling miles to cc companies.
Don't blame me, I didn't set the game up this way. I'm just playing the game according to the rules that the airlines and cc cos set up themselves.
Don't blame me, I didn't set the game up this way. I'm just playing the game according to the rules that the airlines and cc cos set up themselves.
Last edited by flyer4512; Apr 22, 2014 at 4:41 pm
Apr 25, 2014, 10:04 am
#177
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Baltimore MD
Posts: 3,457
So I've been following this peripherally, but aware of the 5/1/2014 rule... so I figured I would apply for a SPG AMEX (last had product 2010) to get the bonus.. as I completed the application I noticed this verbiage
Welcome bonus offer not available to applicants who have or have had this product.
Well I guess I'll see what happens...
FDW
Welcome bonus offer not available to applicants who have or have had this product.
Well I guess I'll see what happens...
FDW
Apr 25, 2014, 2:04 pm
#178
Join Date: Sep 2013
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 3,677
So I've been following this peripherally, but aware of the 5/1/2014 rule... so I figured I would apply for a SPG AMEX (last had product 2010) to get the bonus.. as I completed the application I noticed this verbiage
Welcome bonus offer not available to applicants who have or have had this product.
Well I guess I'll see what happens...
FDW
Welcome bonus offer not available to applicants who have or have had this product.
Well I guess I'll see what happens...
FDW
Apr 25, 2014, 8:40 pm
#179
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: LAX
Posts: 10,909
All you are really risking is the hard pull. The AF is waived the first year, and the first 10K points are supposed to post after first purchase. So just put a small amount of spend on, and wait for the bonus points to post. When they do, and since you applied before May 1st I think they will, you can go ahead and start serious work on the minimum spend.
Apr 25, 2014, 10:47 pm
#180
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 940
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brugge
All you are really risking is the hard pull. The AF is waived the first year, and the first 10K points are supposed to post after first purchase. So just put a small amount of spend on, and wait for the bonus points to post. When they do, and since you applied before May 1st I think they will, you can go ahead and start serious work on the minimum spend.
Last year a family member got 10k but was denied 15 after meeing spend - amex claimed 1 yr rule.
Originally Posted by Brugge
All you are really risking is the hard pull. The AF is waived the first year, and the first 10K points are supposed to post after first purchase. So just put a small amount of spend on, and wait for the bonus points to post. When they do, and since you applied before May 1st I think they will, you can go ahead and start serious work on the minimum spend.
Last year a family member got 10k but was denied 15 after meeing spend - amex claimed 1 yr rule.