If you’ve recently decided to split up with your American Express Platinum Card or Business Platinum Card, there’s been some news that might come in handy.
American Express seems to be defending its title as the reigning champion of Canadian travel credit cards and even surprising us with a new idea to entice “re-upgrade” bonuses on their flagship premium travel cards!
Let’s jump right in and take a look.
Amex Platinum Card offers targeted upgrades
I was made aware of this new upgrade offer by my excellent and talented colleague at Prince of Travel, Sophie. Full credit goes to his eagle-eye attention in his promotional email folder (I often delete mine without reading a thing).
From Gold Rewards Card to Platinum Card
This promotion is available to card members who have previously decided to downgrade their American Express Platinum card to their younger brother, the American Express Gold Rewards Card.
But why would anyone downgrade in the first place instead of canceling directly? While I admit that the new Rose Gold configuration of the Gold Card is undoubtedly interesting, I think most of these downgrades have been due to relative reasons. AndThe attractiveness of paying an annual fee of $ 699 for another year.
It appears that Amex Marketing has become aware of this, and has decided to try to bring it to the cardholders. And-Downgraded by Again– Upgrade. They have offered an exciting incentive, which is good from May 25 in this case June 29, 2022.
80,000 membership prize points You may have to spend $ 6,000 in the first three months after your re-upgrade.
Older Gold Cards are usually activated so you can start spending $ 6,000 right now, but American Express Platinum Cards are shipped by Express FedEx so you’ll have them in a few days anyway.
Business Platinum Card from Business Gold Rewards Card
Even better, there are a few episodes of similar upgrade offers for American Express Business Gold Rewards cardholders to choose from when upgrading to the American Express Business Platinum Card.
This upgrade plan is a pleasant promise 110,000 membership prize points After spending $ 7,000 in the first three months after receiving Business Platinum. I haven’t seen a published expiration date for this campaign yet, but as always, the early bird gets the worm.
If you would like to receive cash in any of these opportunities, you can either click on the link provided at the end of your invitation email or call the American Express Contact Center to request an upgrade.
In fact, if you recently downgraded your Platinum Card (Personal or Business) and held a Gold Rewards Card (Personal or Business) No. Receive a promotional email, I would definitely recommend giving Amex a ring to ask
Is the juice worth the price?
Now, বছর 499 and $ 699 per year are no small part of the change. Heck, the card doesn’t even have a price tag in the Gold Family. If you get this offer, spending extra flour to upgrade can be 100% rewarding.
The first thing to remember is that Effective The annual fee for a personal revision of the Platinum Card is not 699. This is actually 499, because the 200 annual travel credit is as good as cash, thus reducing the overall cost out of your pocket.
The Business Platinum Card re-upgrade offer comes with an additional $ 1,000 for the minimum requirement, so be prepared for that, but an additional 30,000 points compensates for this limitation.
This brings us to the use of 80,000 and 110,000 MR points that Amex is hanging for this promotion.
You can transfer points to my favorite Frequent Flyer program airplane, and you can book Swiss world-famous business cabins directly from Montreal to Zurich. 60,000 airplane points.
You can toast your point savings while sipping champagne in comfort and style over the Atlantic.
Using the Business Platinum Card upgrade offer will provide a haircut below the points needed to fly this round-trip and also toast it.
Of course, if flights aren’t on the market right now, you can always turn your membership reward points into Marriott Forest Fear points in a 1: 1.2 ratio. 80,000 MR points will turn into 96,000 Bonvoy points, while 110,000 will turn into 132,000.
That’s enough for one night in a hyper-aspirational property like the W Maldives, where about a bundle of forest fear points 0ne or more stays overnight at a more decent hotel – let’s say four points at Sheraton Edmonton South, for those of you chasing Platinum status.
In addition to being able to use your upgrade bonus on the trip I listed above, you can also complement your trip with the full regular benefits of the Platinum Card.
Marriott Forest Fear and Hilton Honors Gold Status (the latter only in private platinum)? Check.
Free worldwide access to the American Express Lounge collection, including Centurion Lounge? Review.
For those of you who are getting a personalized version of the Platinum Card, if you already use the NEXUS credit that comes with the Gold Rewards card, you can get an extra $ 100 on the NEXUS credit.
This allows you to effectively reduce the Platinum Card’s annual fee by just 100 to just $ 399, which is not half as bad at all.
A new way forward for American Express Canada?
I wondered for a moment whether American Express Canada would bother to emulate their Southern counterparts by offering upgrade bonuses on their products.
In the United States, it is common for American Express cardholders to downgrade a premium card, only to receive an offer to upgrade later and another welcome bonus.
This is because in the US, there is no “once in a lifetime” language for the welcome bonus in the upgrade offer and it is possible to keep a copy of the same credit card.
Here in Canada, I’ve never heard of holding two business cards at the same time (for different small businesses) at the same time, but curious to know if this was possible for personal Amex products as well.
Personally, I would also like to acknowledge the fact that these bonuses have been noticed as a strong indication to individual users that they Willpower Rewards will be made after creating the minimum cost requirement, even if you have held the card before.
While we haven’t yet found anything as bold as the upgrade offers across all Amex products, I hope this is the beginning of a trend, and will not be limited to just the premium line of Amex’s charge cards.
If the company gets a positive response to this promotion, it would be great to extend the upgrade bonus across their entire portfolio, so that any cardholder can take full advantage of the one that costs more.
Since there’s no way to predict the future, if you think you can use these points in your account and don’t mind paying a higher annual fee, I’ll work now and not return before finding out if this promotion is just a stop.
Conclusion
The American Express continues to dominate the Canadian credit card market for a reason. Again, they’ve stepped up their impressive brand expansion efforts by providing a new lucrative incentive to hold their premium credit cards.
I hope this is not the end we will see upgrade offers, and similar promotions will be available for a wider pool of Amex customers.
Until next time, keep tapping.
