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If you read this morning’s post about how I earned 581,000 Membership Rewards points buying a car, you may or may not have seen the update about the Shop Small offer. For those who have missed the bummer of the day, the 15x offer for Shop Small merchants in the US and restaurants worldwide has expired on the Platinum Card from American Express. This offer was only available through restaurant reservation website Resy. It has been replaced with a new offer that’s certainly not bad but it has lost a lot of luster.
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
100K points + 10X on dining ⓘ Non-Affiliate 100K points after $8K spend in 6 months + 10x on dining for 6 months (on up to $25K in purchases). Terms apply.$695 Annual Fee Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. FM Mini Review: This card is absolutely loaded with high end perks. Depending upon your situation, those perks may be worth the annual fee or much more. Earning rate: 5X points for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel ✦ 5X points for prepaid hotels booked through American Express Travel Card Info: Amex Pay Over Time Card issued by Amex. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Noteworthy perks: Up to $200 a year in statement credits for incidental fees at one qualifying airline per calendar year ✦ $200 prepaid hotel credit per calendar year valid on Fine Hotels & Resorts and The Hotel Collection bookings ✦ Up to $20 per month rebate for Disney+, a Disney Bundle, ESPN+, Hulu, The New York Times, Peacock, and/or The Wall Street Journal ✦ Up to $120 Global Entry/TSA Precheck fee reimbursement.✦ $15 monthly Uber or Uber Eats credit ($20 in December, use it or lose it each month) ✦ $199 CLEAR (R) Plus fee credit per calendar year ✦ $12.95 (+tax) monthly credit for Walmart+ monthly membership subscription credit when you pay with Platinum card ✦ Up to $100 in credits annually for purchases at Saks Fifth Avenue (up to $50 in credits semi-annually) ✦ Priority Pass membership (Lounges only) with 2 guests and other airport lounge benefits (Centurion and Delta) ✦ Rental car elite status ✦ Marriott Gold status ✦ Hilton Honors Gold status Enrollement required for some benefits. Terms Apply. (Rates & Fees) See also: Amex Platinum Guide |
Unfortunately, the offers on the Schwab Platinum and Morgan Stanley Platinum card no longer appear to have any temporary bonus categories at all (each continues to carry a welcome offer to earn 100K points after $6K in purchases in the first 6 months, but gone are the restaurant and Shop Small bonuses).
Resy continues to have the best offer on the “vanilla” Platinum card, though the maximum number of points that one could earn with the bonus offer is now only 375K points — and that would require a lot of restaurant spend in six months.
The ability to earn a big initial bonus offer and get excellent return on restaurant spend is still quite strong, but it is an entirely different ballgame from the previous offer. Truthfully, I am amazed that the old offer lasted as long as it did — I never would have expected it to last for more than six months.
We certainly did our best to shout from the rooftops about what an incredible opportunity was presented with the 15x Shop Small offer and hope that a lot of readers were able to take advantage before it disappeared. The timing of today’s offer change is a major disappointment for those who might have been able to leverage a similar deal to the one I wrote about, but hopefully it plants a seed in case we ever see anything like it again.
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I signed up for the Resy offer in early January and recieved the welcome package with the 125,000 mile offer and 15 times points. Will Amex change that now?
No, whatever terms were in place at the time of your application will still apply (that’s always the case)
Thanks FM team for the Resy 15x offer. Was about to sign up for 10x back in November and the saw your post.
Drinks all around. On Nick. Thanks Nick and team FM. The best gets better.
So wish it was still there, I was hoping to get my spouse the card after my 6 months but I knew it was a long shot.
Bloggers kill another golden goose 😉 Seriously I learned a lot from you guys on this bonus. I can see Amex execs reading your car buying post “Someone bought a freakin car with the bonus? Really? Jeeves!!! Get my assistant, immediately!”.
I just want to join the chorus again thanking you guys for leading us to the best offer we’ve ever seen and not doing the old screwjob referral like other folks do on their sites.
Your readers trust you because you’ve proven over and over again that we can. That means a lot!
Without an extra multiplier category or a points rebate (like biz), I don’t get the appeal of this card after year 1. Yes we can travel a little more now but not really. The new designs are hideous IMO. I have to guess many will cancel/downgrade like me unless there’s an awesome retention.
Typical blogger! Writing about this offer so heavily killed this deal…
Like others have said, you all do an amazing job keeping your readers up to date on deals/offers that are best for them. Thank you.
Man, I just applied for this today without looking at the terms. I couldn’t get in on it last year since I kept getting a notification that I would not qualify for the sign up bonus. Now that I didn’t get that notice anymore, I was glad to be golden (or platinum, I should say). I’ll have to see the benefits when the card comes in to be sure, if not I’m done with it if I can’t get 15X small businesses.
My guess is the marketing team is trying this new card design approach to sell the product. Several blogs are already marketing it for them. It’s interesting they drop all the good platinum offers just as the new card design came online. I’m surprised the 15x lasted as long as it did. I thought for sure it would end December last year to prevent a possible triple dip. Tho the +4 did end early December. My guess is some other nicer offers will come, maybe towards the end of the year like last year.
I was able to triple dip and get the referral +4. And now I’m getting an extra 1 point up to 3000 of spend. So for the next 5 weeks I’m getting 20X on small business and restaurant and 6X everywhere else.
The 15x is still active for people who applied and have the card in hand, correct?
Yes, of course. When a welcome bonus offer changes it doesn’t affect people who already applied, just new applicants moving forward. You’re good to go!
THANK YOU for promoting this offer so heavily. I applied just last week. I was hoping to have the husband apply in 6 months – hopefully there will be a worthy replacement by then. In the meantime, thanks for all of the great info.
All good things come to an end, congrats to everyone who got in on the offer and was / will be able to max out the bonus 🙂