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Without warning, the long-standing offer for a waived first-year annual fee on the Ameriprise version of the Platinum card has been killed and replaced with the standard welcome offer of 60K points after $5K in purchases in the first 3 months. That’s a massive disappointment for those who had intentions to apply for this card but hadn’t yet done it.
There are several “flavors” of the Amex Platinum card (See: Which is the best Amex Platinum card?). Unlike other flavors of the Platinum card, the Ameriprise version has not offered a standard points-based welcome offer. Instead, the benefit of this flavor has long been that the Ameriprise Platinum card’s $550 annual fee was waived in the first year. That created the possibility to enjoy the Platinum card’s many benefits fee-free for a year (including the annual airline credits, Uber credits, etc). Better still, since this was considered a benefit rather than a welcome offer, it was not subject to the once-per-lifetime restriction placed on points-based welcome offers.
Unfortunately, that has changed without warning today. Interestingly, you can still find a landing page for the waived-fee Ameriprise Platinum card here.
However, when you click through to apply, it produces the page shown above saying that the offer is no longer available.
Reddit users shinebock / drew_carnegie reported a link to a new “standard” offer that does not include a waived fee as seen here.
This is certainly unfortunate news for anyone who had it in mind to apply for this card but had not yet done so. This offer was an excellent way to enjoy Platinum card benefits at a large savings, and that was surely quite appealing to those who would otherwise be ineligible for welcome offers on other Platinum cards based on lifetime language.
We have updated the link on our Ameriprise Platinum card page to reflect the new offer. You can find offer information for other flavors of Platinum card on our Best Offers page.
H/T: reddit
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The one’s getting hurt here are those that have signed up within the last year. At best, they will only get the Airline credit $400 (from last year and this year) + other benefits that it comes with. Although, with no AF. Actually, this is a great deal, but by no means, it is nothing like those that have had this card for past umpteen years (way before my time…as an amateur, I just start this miles/pts 1 1/2 ago).
**Pours one for the homie**
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I am definitely looking forward to signing up for the card once my other cards (Amx Plat personal changed from Amx Mercedes Benz and Amx Morgan Stanley Plat) hit the 12 months in May-June time frame. The additional 60KMRs will add to my accumulation for my current 500KMRs, so far. Also, my objective is to get the Amx Schwab Plat this summer to give me my escape route to the 1.25 cash out, if needed (only as an emergency if needed). While on this subject, Nick, do you know if I cash out to buy miles from an airline, when there is a big bonus for buying miles (say 100% or so), what would the return on rate be?
FYI – My Amx MS Plat is still opened since last May when I opened a Morgan Stanley access account. Even though, Morgan Stanley closed my access account after 45 days without funding it, my MS Plat remains opened.
[…] HT: Frequent Miler […]
Ouch….in second year of 4yr P1,P2,P3,P4 . This was always “card for the benefits not points”.
[…] tip to r/churning members who discovered this and to Frequentmiler who posted about this as […]
Ouch…this one hurts.
The no-annual fee card was a hidden gem…
Yeah I think you are missing the forest through the trees here pal. 60k MR if they consider this a new product is certainly better than waived AF. Can you do some real recon/work to find out if this if possible? Can you get the bonus if you’ve had the no bonus card before? Instead of just h/t to Reddit. Much more helpful.
I think you have missed the scale of this. We have been getting free amex plat cards for the past 4 years. Alternating with P2 and adding 3 free AUs. $400-$600 in airline gift cards for every application along with centurion lounge access. I certainly value 4 years of free plat benefits more than 60k MR. I can’t believe it lasted as long as it did.
I can assure you me and my P2 have had more open than you at a time. The point being this product opens up 60k x 2 to those of us who’ve gotten every platinum bonus (including Morgan Stanley). I think that’s the real question and a potential win if true.
To each his own. This is a huge loss IMO. $550 for 60k points is like buying pts at a little more than 9/10 of a cent. Although I understand that this is still a decent deal, I would much rather have the $550 waived and have this card in perpetuity to rack up FREE gift cards. A one-time 60k purchase of points vs continuous free platinum benefits. That is an easy choice for me. Unfortunately, it appears dead now.
In the same boat as “Too Nashty” here, had this card many many times, so yes, it is no longer free to have, that boat has sailed. So we are in the “new” boat now. LOL
The question is now, can we squeeze out another 60,000 points out of this product due to the fact that we never received any sign up bonus for it. My gut feeling is “no”, as the T&Cs say that the bonus is not available to applicants who had this card before, not to applicants who got the bonus before.
FYI, you do not have to pay $550 annual fee if you are quick enough in meeting the spending requirement and closing the card, so 60,000 points in this case does not cost you $550. If your transaction costs are around 100 basis points (1%), these points are free.
Cheers,
PedroNY
assume you can get the 60k points, they will be clawed back if you close your card within the first year according the current AmEx T&C. the good old days are long gone.
yup it was the gateway card to get my DW on board with Ultra-Premium Credit with an expensive sounding AF.
A few outbound trips leaving after making the rounds at PDX Capers cafe & market and a stop at House spirits distillery, and enjoying our on Capers Cafe meal on the flight. Centurion lounge, using travel credits (GC) to pay for an in-law trip was all it took, Saks just icing on cake.
Normally my DW would be a hard sale on the CSR $450 AF she would even normally balk @ $150 net cost. So it was an enthusiastic yes.
So now we are adding the CNB for its 4 AU fee-free.
Sad too see it change before we could P1/P2
with $100 referral.
Couldn’t agree more!!!
The screen shot in the post with the new offer shows the lifetime language in bold — no, you can’t get the bonus if you’ve had this card before. Typically, a change in welcome bonus or annual fee does not constitute a new product.
The 60K offer certainly can be better for those folks who have never had the Ameriprise Platinum before, but as HawaiiDreaming points out, the ability to essentially have a fee-free Platinum card (with all of its benefits and credits) in perpetuity was awesome for those who have already had all of the flavors of Platinum and thus were not (and still are not) eligible for this or other welcome bonuses on the Platinum cards.
nick, if we had a personal & biz plat but not this before, will get the welcome bonus for this, correct? also, this is a personal charge card, not biz? thx
Correct on all accounts. The “vanilla” Amex Platinum is a separate product from this and the Morgan Stanley Platinum — so if you’ve had one of those but not the Ameriprise version, you should be eligible for the welcome bonus here. This is a personal charge card — there is only one Business Platinum card.
thx for conf: hopefully the bonus would be bumped to 100k pts later this yr, and w/o a pop-up msg when apply, lol
I could be wrong, but I don’t think we’ve seen a 100K bonus on any of the flavors of Platinum other than the vanilla Amex one (and the biz plat). I don’t recall the Morgan Stanley, Ameriprise, or Mercedes Benz (no longer available) offering 100K.
just a wish; for 60k pts & only benefits of airlines credit & lounges access, a $550 AF may not attract many applicants
The whole point is this was a long game card. Churnable. Now it’s not.
Amex will usually match the difference if you apply for a card a second time with a larger welcome bonus. This has to be done manually though. So since we’ve all had it without one we should be able to get them to give us 60k.
Could it be viewed as a better offer for some though? I’ve been running through all the flavors of platinum and pretty much never use the benefits, so I was never interested in the ameriprise version without a sign-up bonus (I realize some out there churn the travel credits). Now that 60k MR offer is available, I’ll probably go for a triple dip in December (and cashout via Schwab).
What is the triple dip?
Triple dip = open in December 2019. Receive $200 airline credit for that calendar year. In January 2020, get a new $200 airline credit. Then, in January 2021, get another $200 credit. If you cancel within 30 days of the AF posting around Dec 2020, they refund the fee — meaning you can get the airline credit 3 times and then cancel. Of course, in an era of Amex cracking down on these types of behaviors, there is the chance that doing this type of thing too often might lead to the no-bonus-for-you pop up when applying for a new card.
[…] Update: As of 2/6/19, the first year fee is no longer waived. See: Dead: Waived-fee Ameriprise Platinum offer. […]