ffI

Of course new accounts are best, but they entail a credit pull at times, and I prefer to keep them for Chase, Cap 1 Business etc etc
- Amex has been good in that respect - They often give new acounts without a pull.
The best way is when you can stack the employee cards on top of new accounts as you point out, but I can't do 18 cards in 1 month x 5 employees
When dealing with indutrial sized spend needed, it is better to avoid multiple new accounts and alert the RAT team.
One member of family is on the Amex RAT list after closing a Schwab card at 1 yr with just minimal spend.

So this method of maximizing spend with both the original card and stack that with employee cards is best,
but we could not do the volume of spend at the same time for everyone involved.
So, what to do if some of the cards were opened 8 months ago and this offer is available now with the spend to support it?
You take this offer instead of more new card applications and extend the primary card a year with a retention bonus if possible.
We had a whole lot of Amex offers since 2020, and we max out on them steadily up to the max spend that can be supported.

Take Capital One business Venture X = 395 fee; 100k spend (2625 lost cash) real cost 3k
For that I get 500k miles = at least 5k value = 2k free (or miles bought at 0.6 cpm)
I think of that as half my usual cost of miles from spend = 1.3c (lost cash 2.6/2 miles)
Cap 1 - only 20k spend = 150k bonus = 395 cost + 525 lost cash = $920 for 1900 miles = about 0.45c each

The current Amex AU route costs me 0.47-0.5c - a bit better than above. By doing smaller amounts you can get them cheaper.
Amex Gold 150k for 15k spend is better = 295 cost+ 395 lost cash = 690$ for 165k miles = 0.43c each
but stacking that with employee cards is even better as you point out = another free 95k miles for almost same spend
21k spend 1k main +4k on AUx5 on Gold card = 525$+295 fees = 800$ for 245k (150+20+75) miles is a bit above 0.33 cpm
That is a quarter of regular price for miles from spend (still, no miles are "free")

The only 1.5x spend is on the Platinum cards - not on the gold cards = 7.5+15= 22.5 for each AU
The 2x spend is on the business plus cards (AU gets 2x+15k = 23k per each 4k spend X 5 AUs) = 20k spend done - leaves 30k for later this year

gnomie

Don't forget to clear out your cache and cookies before looking

hurnik

Dumb question, but do the NLL bypass pop-up jail for SUB?

acinchus

Can use some guidance to make a decision on couple of biz plat cards that are at 13-14 months

options:
a) Outright cancel so that I can get full refund of the annual fee
b) Downgrade to green and hold out for an upgrade offer later in the coming months this year.

Note: P1 first time in PUJ (learnt when applying for biz gold, which I never held) and hoping P2 is not in PUJ but last application was over a year ago, will get confirmation only at time of next app.

What factors are you weighing between downgrading vs cancelling?

UA Fan

Generally yes.

What's PUJ?

mia

I think it refers to Pop-Up Jail, when American Express displays a pop-up notifying you that you are not eligible for a new account bonus.

Biggie Fries

Interesting question... I would normally say (and do) "just cancel," since the Business Green is as big a nothing burger as one can find in the points and miles universe. And $95 is $95, and quite a bet on a wasting asset like the possibility of an upgrade offer.

But... With NLL offers suddenly in seemingly short supply... and with the nebulous but possible relationship between a history of card cancellations and pop-up jail (PUJ) -- we are there, too, at least last time we checked -- it does potentially make sense to shovel a few bucks to Amex as a temporary peace offering (with the possible upgrade offer as a hope). Also, even without an upgrade offer, it occurs to me that within an upcoming 12 months it might prove useful (if a Player has no other active Business Platinum) to upgrade in order to weaponize the 35% back on MR points for paid flights. In fact, with no SUB or upgrade offer at risk, one could conceivably upgrade for a couple of months, use the 35% back, and then re-downgrade, right? I know that this is the exact opposite of the temporary peace offering I allude to a few sentences back, but -- to your original question -- these are, for me at least, some of the current considerations.

DCJoe1

Looks like it's working again (with the higher annual fee, of course). Still targeted, if you login and get an error, you aren't targeted.

https://www.americanexpress.com/en-u...d/intro-offer/

UA Fan

The offer I'm looking for is one where you can add AUs to existing cards and get 15K mile for $4K spend.

friedablass

I know that you can only apply for an NLL card once every 90-92 days for the Biz Gold and Plat cards. But what I don't remember is if this applies to both Gold and Plat cards at the same time or each one can run on it's own 90+ day cycle?

For example, if I applied for a Biz Gold a month ago, can I apply now for a Biz Plat or I need to wait 90+ days from the Gold app or do I only need to wait 90+ days to apply again for a Gold?

blitzen

From memory it applies separately as inside 90 days Amex states something like "duplicate application" (which points to the same product vs product family)

friedablass

I was asking on behalf of my dad because I wasn't sure what happens if one applies for the other product inside of 90 days. He was approved for the Biz Gold about a month ago. Then he got a Biz Plat NLL offer, applied today using a different business he has, and was not instantly approved. It said more information needed and to call. He calls and is told to submit a form 4506-C 2022.

When he told me about it, I thought that perhaps this happened because of the 90 day rule, thus I came here to ask the pros, but it seems that the application would have rather stated that it's a duplicate if it's not allowed within 90 days? And the fact that they're asking for more info means that there's a chance of getting an approval once the info is provided?

frappant

I got my 90k MR points for $4000 spend on the personal Gold card.

I did not receive a targeted offer, just saw the offer when logged into the Amex site and went through the application without any popups or any language about once a lifetime for bonus points restrictions.

Dr Jabadski

90+ day limitation is correct and applies independently to NLL Biz Plats and NLL Biz Golds. At the height of the NLL craze a couple years ago, there were multiple reports here of approvals for a NLL Biz Plat and a NLL Biz Gold on the same day and again 92 days later. Personally, several times I was approved for a NLL Biz Gold or Plat within a few weeks of an approval for the other and always at least 91 days from an approval for the same card.

blitzen

My applications went from pending/more information needed to declined inside an hour with the reason "duplicate application". For your father the pending seems to be triggered by another check and not the 90 day rule.