AMEX's is throwing lip stick on a pig again... This time with the PRG.

There's a possibility that the credit sticks around but with tighter enforcement and without an AF increase. I mean, technically it's for incidentals (baggage fees, etc.) and not for airline gift cards and such, it's just that there was a lot of leeway in the system before.

They may get rid of the $100 airline credit to keep the annual fee the same

Do you think I would run into issues if I got this card and used it to purchase $100 to $150 Visa or MasterCard gift cards at Safeway so then I can spend them over at Fred Meyer (which currently shows as a warehouse store). I would LOVE 4x on dining and grocery and combined with my platinum would probably put my CSR out of use.... but it's not worth getting for 4x dining if I can't also make use of the grocery. (Shifting my grocery buying away from Fred Meyer isn't an option due to selection of products carried in my area)

My grocery spend would probably only be $350 to $500 a month though, so it should fall in line with "normal" grocery spending and wouldn't be used to abuse the system to be able to spend 10k a month on grocery items or anything.

Too much speculations on reducing $100 credit, or increasing AF. I do not like the smell of this. If there is such change, it will only speed up my chopping of the PRG.

The $10/month does not really add much and it costs little to AmEx. I would not change my lifestyle just for the $10/month. I did not even know what Grubhub or Seamless was.

The 4x on dining may add some value to some people. But not to the folks who already have Chase CSR or similar.

I think if you buy a few regular groceries at Safeway and toss in a Visa or Mastercard when you are checking out, then I doubt you will see any issues with Amex.

As a data point, I will sometimes buy a $25 Starbucks gift card when I am at a grocery store when I am checking out because I give the gift card to my dog's groomer as a tip when I take my dog in for her bi-monthly grooming. Never had any issues with getting the points from Amex.

That's the thing, if Kroger brand cards were sold I totally would buy those and not the VISA or MasterCard ones... but Kroger doesn't seem to sell their cards outside of their own store...

But again, I totally wouldn't abuse this and would be well within normal grocery spending amounts...

You wouldn't run into issues with Amex, but you'll incur a 4-5% transaction fee since the VGC activation fees are ~$5 a card, so I don't see this being worthwhile if you're only buying that small of a gift card.

Hmmm, I forgot about that...

Interesting...was thinking of PCing this down to a free card when my AF came up...with 4x restaurants, I'd probably consider keeping it for that alone ... that is assuming all of the other benefits still apply

Why does anyone think offering a $10 per month dining coupon tease to a handful of merchants cost AmEx money? The Saks deal should have indicated that to anyone. My thinking is that AmEx is not paying these merchants or at least, they are paying a very small amount ($2 to $5 if even that) for the $10 value. It is almost no different than the gift card deals sold at Costco or Sam's Club. To correlate this dining coupon to a higher AF is ridiculous. I am not sure if this is smart or not on the AmEx part because they are creating perceived value with almost no cost (well, it depends if the cardholder sees value in the list of restaurants). If AmEx was really serious, they would have not tokenized it at $10 per month.

It does seem interesting for AmEx to put the supermarket limit at $25k. I am not sure how interesting this is for MS (probably doesn't do much if you are serious), but seems way too high for regular spending. That seems like a useless limit from what I can tell.

I like the 4x race (I have to think Savor played a part in AmEx's announcement timing because they are essentially pre-releasing three weeks ahead of schedule). Savor did some expensive events in the past few weeks mostly for celebs.

American Express is serious about creating an incentive for us to keep the card in our wallets year 'round, not in creating an opportunity to cash out a benefit and put the card away. The cost comes in offering four points per dollar for dining and groceries. The $10 credit is a just a sweetener if we happen to use the card at the restaurants who fund the bonus component, and I daresay that list will grow.

Can we stop calling it a $120 "dining credit"?

It's $10/mo at GrubHub. It basically offsets the delivery fee and a little bit of the food markup, but it's of no value beyond that, particularly with the way they string it out.

4x on the other hand, makes the card a bit more attractive.