RIP to the big 15x Shop Small and restaurant bonus

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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
150K points after $8K spend in 6 months. 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.
Recent better offer: 150K after $6k spend (referral only, expired 10/23)
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
Base: 1X (1.55%)
Travel: 5X (7.75%)
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, SiriusXM, and/or The Wall Street Journal ✦ $15 monthly Uber or Uber Eats credit ($20 in December, use it or lose it each month) ✦ $189 CLEAR fee reimbursement 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)

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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