The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. – Mark Twain (well, actually, it’s a misquote…but still…)
It has been widely reported today that the various methods of adding Amex Offers to multiple cards are dead. That’s somewhat true. It turns out that some are still working when synced to multiple cards. This story is developing — it looks like we will need to collect more datapoints to fully understand. However, this much is obvious: one foot is firmly in the grave for Amex Offers.
Cue the funeral march
For years, it has been possible to add a single Amex Offer to multiple cards by logging in and then opening each of your cards in different tabs in the same browser (known as the “multi-tab trick”). At some point, some offers stopped showing up after being added — but you could almost always log in via the old interface and still see all of the offers you had added (though some unsynced offers shown in the new interface wouldn’t be available to sync in the old interface…they would only show up after they were synced). Then, Amex started slow-rolling some offers — making them available on some cards on Day 1, others on Day 5, etc. This caused some to suggest multiple logins for different cards.
Over the past month, the multiple login trick appears to have died, with an offer disappearing from other logins tied to the same SSN once added to a card in any login under that SSN. Today, it has been widely reported that the multi-tab trick died as well. In short, you can still use the trick to add an offer to several cards in the same login. However, once you refresh / log out and back in, the offer will have only successfully synced to the first card you chose to sync.
But there appear to be some exceptions
Through trial and error, we’ve found that there appear to be some offers still syncable with the multi-tab trick.
First key point: offers you synced before today are all remaining so far. My guess is that those offers you synced to multiple cards before August 1st will continue to work on multiple cards.
Seond key point: Doctor of Credit reports that you can add one Membership Rewards version and one statement credit version of the same offer. It appears these are treated as separate offers.
Third key point: some offers still sync to multiple cards, some don’t. It was theorized at first that only new offers were dead — that is to say that old offers could still be synced to multiple cards but new offers couldn’t. Of course, we have a much larger sample size of “old” offers that we know still work. However, through trial and error, we’ve determined that at least one old offer wouldn’t sync to multiple cards (the Crate & Barrel offer below). That indicates to me that this may not be so simple as being dead — perhaps there is something else at play in determining whether or not an offer will sync with multiple cards.
But that may be wishful thinking and the ability to sync to multiple cards might be sporadically working but on its way out the door either way. Shawn at Miles to Memories reported getting the new Staples offer to sync to two cards, but said he probably clicked three in under 1 second and by the third card, he started seeing the error that you have likely seen today at some point when trying the multi-tab trick in the old interface:
It is certainly possible that syncing to multiple cards will completely die any minute — so if you have old offers you would like to sync to multiple cards, try it now – it may not last much longer.
What still works? A handful of datapoints
Here are some data points for offers that worked using the multi-tab trick still this evening:
- Tripfuel
- Shutterfly
- Wayfair
- Staples 2X
- Amazon 3X
- Amazon Kindle
- Martha Stewart Wine
- BJs
- Cole Haan
- Pier 1
- McCafe
- Kimpton
Here are some data points for offers that would not sync using the multi-tab trick (that is to say they will not sync to multiple cards — only the first card you choose):
- Crate & Barrel (this one doesn’t support the new offer theory)
- Staples $5 back
- THE PENINSULA HOTELS-NYC+BEVERLY HILLS
Share your datapoints
If you try to sync an offer to multiple cards, please share your results and we’ll try to make sense of it if it doesn’t complete die in the coming days. Keep in mind that with the multi-tab trick, you may initially see the offer loaded on multiple cards. Log out and log back in to see if the offers have remained on multiple cards. Even if newly multiple-synced offers remain on multiple cards, time will tell whether or not the same offer will trigger multiple times moving forward. It certainly seems that Amex is moving to only honor each offer once per SSN, which will likely be the new reality one way or another.
[…] days ago, several blogs reported the death of the multi-tab trick. Nick followed up with “Not totally dead: Some Amex Offers still loadable to multiple cards.” It seems that Amex has coded things so that the multi-tab trick doesn’t work with […]
[…] is a quick update to Nick’s post yesterday: Not totally dead: Some Amex Offers still loadable to multiple cards. In that post, he documented the results of some experiments I had run when trying to load Amex […]
Web and Postmates worked for me.
DP: added every offer yesterday to four cards with no problem by using multi-tab. But added offers are disappeared for three of them when checked back today.
Yesterday I successfully synced Staples deal on 2 of my cards and 2 of wife’s cards. Today both accounts only show deal on 1 card each.
I have AEP with 3 AUs on it. I added the Staples offer to my 3 AUs and then to my card. Just checked and they are still there. Didn’t use multi-tab or multi-browser, but each have their own login. Staples offer not my DH other personal cards or my business cards.
That makes sense. Just to confirm: each AU is a different person? If so, it is expected that you should be able to load offers to each separate person’s card even if they are AU cards from the same primary account
Each AU is a different person.
Unless something changes, it appears this program has been gutted. Many of us who truly appreciated the value of these offers are stuck with multiple Amex products (both biz and personal) without a way to cover the annual fees any longer. Would be helpful to get your opinion on closing or keeping some of these accounts going forward. Given the SPG devaluation I’m thinking there is very little reason to keep multiple products. Thanks.
I’m planning to do a post on that topic. Thanks for the suggestion!
Yesterday I was able to add the Staples offer to 2 of my cards. I opened one card on my pc and the other on my phone. Then I saved both offers at the same time and they are both there now. Gone from all of my other cards though.
Yesterday I synced the Staples offer to 5 of my cards and 7 of wife’s cards. Today I logged in and it is only on one of mine and one of wife’s. Looks like it is time to start dropping some of these cards.
Did you check via the old interface to see if the offers were still there? It is fairly common for the new interface to show it only under one card.
Yes, I checked under the old interface only. Enrolled in the offers using the multi tab method on the newer web page interface.
Same thing for me for Staples $5 off $25…I got them to load on 3 cards on same login for myself and two AUs, but then when I logged back in, it only shows up on one card for each login/AU. Happens to be the Platinum personal card for all three (and then Hilton for a 4th where Plat & Blue didn’t get the offer). I believe I added to Platinum first on those three cards.
Note I am not using the old interface. If this change has occurred, really stinks. I’m only paying one annual fee now, but its for the platinum card + 3 AUs. At $550 + $175, will most likely drop the AUs next renewal as its for my wife and parents and they rarely travel and my wife never travels without me. I figure now I get the $200 airline fee credit, $100 Saks credit (can probably always find a use for that) and since I live in the burbs only use about $75 of Uber credits. So $350 a year is too much for my liking and can save nearly $200 off that, I’ll be ok with that.
I feel like the offers have been pretty weak the past 12 months anyway…as an example on my wife’s Platinum login, I’ve saved $664, but the last savings was in December 2017…the pinnacle was getting 8x $100 off Royal Caribbean for a cruise in and $10x $99 off $99 for Frontpoint security after having joined not too long before. Prepaid for over 2 years of my security.
Did not work on the old interface.
As soon as added to one card, all other cards show the message “Sorry this offer is no longer available” right under the Staples offer heading.
I seriously think you should compare the languages on the T&Cs of the offers. There are at least 4 versions of such.
Those that can be added to multiple cards have the T&Cs ALLOWED that.
Do some legwork first.
Someone already figured this out by carefully comparing the languages on offers that successfully added (i.e. do not disappear afterward) to the Staples offer.
They have different languages!
I added the staples offer on 2 cards using the multi tab trick.That has always worked for me.
Synced Texas de Brazil across five cards early this morning with multiple tabs open
I think you should correlate the “restriction language” on the AOs and compare that language to the AOs being able to be synced to multiple cards vs single card. There are at least 4 variations on the offers language on restricting to one per account/login/etc.
Exactly. This is what causes the offer limited to one card or can be to all cards that receive the offer, or to one account (log in).
Dig deeper you will see there are at least 4 versions of the T&Cs. Already seeing the enforcement of 3 out of the 4.
Hint, someone at other site already figured this out.
Thanks for the suggestion. I found 6 different terms but I couldn’t find any correlation between the terms and whether the multi-tab trick still works or not:
per American Express® Card: sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t
per Card Member: Doesn’t work
per American Express Card online account: sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t
per American Express® online account: Doesn’t work
per household: Doesn’t work
per person: Doesn’t work
Is AmEx treating business (EIN) and personal (SSN) separately? Without doing any tricks, I’m seeing some identical offers (e.g. QuikTrip) on my biz blue plus and my spg personal and was able to add both.
Synced a few today,
Didn’t Work:
Staples $5 back, QuikTrip
Did Work:
Cheddars 2x points
QT is interesting–that one did not appear on the old interface when it was released.