Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
Update: The offer described in this post expired on 9/30/21. See our Best Offers page for current offer information.
Amex has been emailing business cardholders with a welcome offer for the Business Platinum card: 150,000 points after $15K spend in 3 months. I recently wrote about how my son took advantage the same deal through an “expand your membership” offer (Bypass Amex’s lifetime rule when you “expand your membership”). This one seems similar but I don’t think it is only for those who currently have a Business Platinum card.
Another version of the email offers only 100,000 points after $15K spend.
How to find the offer
Check your email for the following:
- From: American Express <americanexpress@member.americanexpress.com>
- Subject: “Limited-Time Offer for [your name]: You could earn 150,000 points”
- Alternate Subject: “Limited-Time Offer for [your name]: You could earn 100,000 points”
No Lifetime Language (sort of)
The email itself does have lifetime language. That means that it says that you can’t get this offer if you have the card or have ever had it before. Specifically, it states: “Welcome offer not available to applicants who have or have had this Card.”
That said, when you click through from the email to apply, the application page does not have lifetime language. This means that you can most likely get the card and qualify for the offer even if you’ve had the card before. There’s very little risk in trying: if you click to apply and Amex thinks that you are not qualified for the offer, you should then see a pop-up telling you so. The pop-up will then give you a chance to cancel without finishing the application.
My Take
If you can meet the spend requirement, this is a great offer. It’s especially sweet that it looks like it will work even if you have had a Business Platinum card before, or even if you currently have one. Plus, Amex business cards do not add to your 5/24 count.
My wife received the 100K version of this offer. The offer is good until September 30, 2021, so I plan to wait and see if she gets a better offer. If not, maybe she’ll apply on September 30th.
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Read a report in Forbes (of all places) of multiple reports of Amex closing accounts and confiscating all points for people using the 150K Biz Plat offers sent by an amex rep email offer? Anyone else heard this?
I got the 150K business platinum offer through one of my business cards even though I have a business platinum already. I was instantly approved but there’s a couple of weird things: Some benefits like the Dell $100 credit simply will not load. Likewise with the $200 airline credit. Also when I looked at application status, which shows the card types you’ve applied for recently and approval result, the card type came up as DUMMY CODE rather than PLATINUM CARD or DELTA SKYMILES GOLD BUSINESS AMERICAN EXPRESS CARD or something similar. Any idea what that means? Do you think I should call Amex and invite eyes on my account? I don’t normally do anything questionable but I still like to fly low. OTOH I’m not at all keen to pay the annual fee and scrape the $15,000 spend together only to be denied the huge introductory bonus. Any insight or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
The same happened with my son’s card. We used online chat to get him enrolled in the Dell offer and to pick a preferred airline. After spending $15k he got the 150k points. So I think you’re safe.
Thanks, that worked for me and they confirmed the signup bonus. Now I have a fresh quandary: I have another business platinum 150K offer still showing as available under one of my business cards. I’m really torn between greed and fear. I’d have to wait at least until next month to apply to manage the spend but 3 business platinum cards on the same business might invite some RAT scrutiny. Any thoughts?
I got the 150k/$15k offer under my offers section on a gold biz card but it only has a link to a prefilled application. When I click the link it leads me to a login page even though I was already logged in. I log in and it routes me back to the offer page with the link to the prefilled application. No idea why but chat tells me that I must not be approved for the offer even though it shows up in my gold account, or at least it did at the time I was trying. It has since vanished but I saved the link to the offer. I then received an email for a 100k/$15k offer with NLL language in email but not in the application page T & C’s .
Question, how did you get approved for the Cap One card you mentioned if you churn? I have never been able to get a Cap One card and am now down to 9/24 if you exclude biz cards.
Try going through the application process from an incognito/private browser. It sounds to me that you have errant cookies mucking things up.
How I got approved for the Cap One card: They’ve eased up a bit on approvals. Pro tip: when the app asks if you will ever run a balance, say yes
Just approved also! I have one already.
I received an email offer for 150k MR after $15k; I’m currently holding the old Business Gold card.
Does the Business Platinum still have the $200 airline credit?
I don’t see it mention anywhere in the offer and on the Amex page for the Business Platinum CC. It only mentions the $200 Dell credit
My 150K email offer did not list the $200 credit, either — I asked Greg in a post if that part got pulled and he said it’s definitely still part of the perks — I applied and was approved and I can confirm the $200 airline credit IS part of the perks.
@ Greg — I get that AMEX wants to juice their numbers, but I don’t really get these offers. If you spend $15k on tax payments, you will earn 22,500 MR points (versus 30,000 with AMEX Blue Biz, so opportunity cost is 7,500 points) plus you earn 150,000 bonus points, for a net point haul of 142,500 = $2,423 at 1.7 cpp. Then, if you use the $200 airline twice, and the Dell $100 credit three times, you save $700, for a net cash cost of -$105. Finally, no one in their right mind would keep this second card open after the first year passes, so AMEX is now out some portion of $2,528 (it is their own currency, so clearly not costing AMEX the full 1.7 cpp). We are happy to take their money (we just added our second Gold Biz at 90k and second Plat AMEX at 150k in the last 4 days), but just not sure how AMEX profits.
@ Gary — To clarify, these are now our second simultaneously open Gold Biz and second simultaneously open Plat Biz EACH (so four new cards in the past four days). Insane.
@ Greg — Sorry, you are not Gary. 🙂
Obviously! 🙂
My guess is that they are counting on clueless cardholders keeping their cards long term and paying the annual fee over and over again without taking advantage of the card’s annual credits.
I’ve had the 150k offer for the last couple of weeks, but sadly right after doing a 100k NLL and overpaying taxes…no way I could do $15k now, not being a professional MSer like our friend Jordan.
@Greg – my wife had an offer to upgrade to Biz Platinum from her Biz Gold but it was pulled months before the June 30 deadline, so it could be risky to wait!
Also, I took that same Gold Biz to Plat Biz upgrade offer a few months ago and last week got the offer to “expand your membership” with another Biz Plat and a 150,000 MR bonus. I applied, was approved, and already received the card.
Thanks for the warning
I received this offer but I currently have the platinum business card and the blue business card (plus many others). If I applied, I assume I would be denied as I already have it or is it possible to hold 2 of the same product. Cancel current one and then apply?
It’s usually not possible, but with offers like this you can have two of the same card.
Well, after receiving your response, I applied. I was instantly approved. I checked my “old” Biz platinum and my annual fee is due at end of July. I am now in the process of trying to use up all my credit (airline incidental credit) and plan to cancel that one soon after all posts. Thank you for your help! I love your blog, learned so much from you. C
I have received the same offer, but after completing the application form and clicking on Apply, I keep getting the message “We’re sorry. Our system is not responding right now. Try later” or something like this. Tried this a few times, probably there is a hidden reason for this error. I already have the card.
Hmmm… I had this card before and I also have the “expand your membership” 100K offer on my Blue Business Plus card.
Same 🙁
Anyone got this since this morning? “Currently our system is not responding.”
I also was approved. Are tax payments still good for meeting minimum spend on Amex cards?
Yes definitely. I just made a quarterly payment even though I didn’t need to to help with the minimum spend
I received this 150k offer. The expected pop-up “you have already received this welcome offer and so you don’t qualify” did NOT pop up. I applied and was approved.
Here’s hoping I have the same luck. Been in pop-up jail for all of 2021 even though I haven’t opened an Amex card in over a year.