(EXPIRED) New 100K Membership Rewards points offer (requires big spend)

There is a new welcome offer out for up to 100,000 Membership Rewards after qualifying purchases on the Business Platinum card from American Express. This offer is not targeted — though it is subject to the usual Amex lifetime language, meaning that you will not be eligible if you have or have had this card before.

The Offer

• Get a welcome bonus of 50,000 Membership Rewards points after you spend $10,000 on purchases in the first 3 months and an additional 50,000 Membership Rewards points after you spend an additional $15,000 on purchases within the first 3 months on the Business Platinum Card from American Express
• Find a link on our Best Offers page or our Business Platinum Card page

Key Card Details

• $450 annual fee
• Earn 5x on flights and prepaid hotels booked at AmexTravel.com
• Earn 1.5x on eligible purchases of $5,000 or more (up too 1 million extra Membership Rewards points per year)
• Earn 1x on all other purchases
• Up to $200 a year in statement credits for airline incidental fees
• $100 Global Entry fee reimbursement.
• Airport lounge benefits: Priority Pass Select membership, plus free access to Delta SkyClubs, Amex Centurion Lounges, and Airspace Lounges
• Rental car elite status.  National Executive status is particularly valuable in my opinion.
• SPG Gold status.  Match to Marriott Gold!
• Hilton Gold status.  Free breakfast.
• Free Boingo wifi.
• See also: Maximizing value from Amex Platinum Cards

Quick Thoughts

This offer requires a lot of spend in three months to get the full intro bonus ($25,000 in purchases in 3 months) and thus it surely will not appeal to everyone, but for those who qualify and can meet the spend it is certainly a valuable offer. There are occasionally targeted mailers for an even higher intro offer of 150K points after qualifying purchases (and usually those offers only require $20K in purchases), so this new offer isn’t a historical high. That said, 100K is typically as good as it gets for a publicly-available welcome offer on the Business Platinum card.

With the wide range of Amex transfer partners, there are a lot of ways to get excellent value out of such a high signup bonus. Just this week, I transferred 80K Membership rewards points to ANA for a round trip business class itinerary between Shanghai, China and New York with a stopover in Japan next year. While taxes & fees on my itinerary were $434, I was still thrilled to get a round trip with a stopover for about the same number of miles most airlines charge one-way. Here are some other recent posts related to Amex transfer partners that show some additional good uses for Membership Rewards points:

• From 11K RT on American: A sweet spot for North American flight redemptions
• Hacking Avios
• Searching for business class sweet-spots in Iberia’s OneWorld award chart
• Toward hacking Asia Miles: the unified oneworld award chart

The Business Platinum card comes with many of the same awesome perks found on consumer versions of the Platinum card and does so with a lower annual fee: A $200 airline baggage & incidentals fee credit with one chosen US airline, Priority Pass and Centirion Lounge access, Hilton Gold status, SPG Gold status (which will get you Marriott Gold), National Executive status, $100 Global entry credit, access to Delta SkyClubs when flying Delta, etc. It additionally comes with 10 Gogo inflight Internet passes, earns 1.5x on purchases of $5,000 or more, and 35% of your points back when you redeem Membership Rewards points for first or business class fares through Amex Travel or for any flights on the airline chosen for your annual $200 credit.

Note that the Uber credits associated with the consumer versions of the Platinum card are not a feature of the Business Platinum card, nor is the airline bonus category (though the Business Platinum card does earn 5x on flights and prepaid hotels at AmexTravel.com.

It would be hard to justify so much spend if it came at the expense of your ability to meet spend for other offers, but if you have high expenses and can utilize the great suite of benefits of a Platinum card, this new 100K welcome offer could certainly be attractive.

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