Miles Earn and Burn has shared a link to a targeted upgrade offer that provides the opportunity to earn 120,000 American Express Membership Rewards points after $10,000 in purchases in the first three months when upgrading to The Business Platinum card from American Express. It’s not clear to me how widely available this upgrade will be. Neither my wife nor I was eligible for this one, but if you have a Business Gold or a Business Green card, it might be worth checking to see if you’re eligible for the upgrade offer.
The Deal
- There is a targeted offer to upgrade to The Business Platinum card from American Express whereby an upgrading card member can earn 120,000 Membership Rewards points after $10,000 in qualifying purchases in the first three months if targeted for the offer.
- Direct link to this upgrade offer (note that if you see “We’re sorry. This offer is no longer available” after logging in, you are not targeted
Key Card Details
Note that if you click on the card details below, you’ll be taken to our card-specific page that includes the current publicly available introductory bonus information. If you’re interested in the upgrade offer, you’ll need to see the link above under the heading “The Deal.”
| Card Name w Details & Review (no offer) |
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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. Click here for our complete card review $895 Annual Fee Earning rate: Earn 5X flights & prepaid hotels booked at AmexTravel.com ✦ 2X points per dollar (on up to $2 million of those purchases per year) for each eligible purchase of $5000 or more, US construction/hardware stores, US software & cloud system providers, US electronic goods, and US shipping ✦ 1X elsewhere ✦ Terms apply. Card Info: Amex Pay Over Time Card issued by Amex. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Big spend bonus: Spend $250k+ on eligible purchases in a calendar year, get up to $1,200 in statement credits to use in the next calendar year on flights booked on AmexTravel.com, and up to $2,400 in statement credits for use in the next calendar year on monthly fees for American Express One AP®. Noteworthy perks: Select one qualifying airline and receive up to $200 in statement credits per calendar year for qualifying charges ✦ Up to $600 prepaid hotel credit semi-annually (Up to $300 Jan - June and July - Dec) valid on Fine Hotels + Resorts® and The Hotel Collection bookings ✦ Up to $1,150 a year in statement credits for Dell purchases ($150 + $1,000 when spending $5,000 in a calendar year) ✦ Up to $200 in Hilton credits (Up to $50 per quarter) ✦ Up to $120 in wireless services credits per year (Up to $10 per month) ✦ Earn up to $300 in statement credits per calendar year on U.S. purchases of ChatGPT Business. Enrollment required. Subject to auto-renewal ✦ Global Entry statement credit every 4 years ($120) or TSA PreCheck statement credit every 4.5 years ✦ Global Lounge Access benefits: Priority Pass membership (Lounges only) with 2 guests, Centurion Lounge access. Also, Delta Sky Club® access (when flying an eligible Delta flight): 10 visits per year February 1 until January 31 of the next calendar year (after 10 visits have been used, additional visits can be purchased for $50 each or earn unlimited visits after spending $75K/calendar year on the card). Access limited to eligible card members ✦ Rental car elite status ✦ Marriott Bonvoy® Gold Elite Status ✦ Hilton Honors™ Gold status ✦ Leading Hotels of the World Sterling status ✦ Up to $209 CLEAR+ fee reimbursement annually ✦ 35% Airline Bonus: Get 35% points back after you Pay With Points for flights with your selected airline ✦ $250 statement credit when spending $600+ on U.S. purchases with Adobe per calendar year ✦ Enrollment required for select benefits See also: Amex Platinum Guide |
Quick Thoughts
Keep in mind that American Express uses lifetime language on their bonus offers, whereby you may not be eligible for the new card member offer on a particular card if you have or have had that card before. If you’ve never had a Business Platinum card before, you would be better off looking for a new card member offer, which tends to be stronger (or at least for an increased number of potential points) on this card. However, if you don’t expect to be eligible for a new card member bonus or you simply don’t want to open a new account for one reason or another, the upgrade offer here could be really good. It’s effectively earning 12X everywhere, not including the regular rewards you earn for purchases with the card.
In my household, we’ve been able to get several Business Platinum Cards in recent years with new card member offers, including offers that were specifically targeted to us to open an additional Business Platinum Card. We see no-lifetime-language offers like those pop up from time to time. Again, it might be worth going after one of those bonuses instead of an upgrade bonus, depending on your situation.
Still, I can certainly see the appeal here for some, given the reduced spending requirement versus what is traditionally required on the Business Platinum for a new card member. While you’ll be on the hook for the annual fee and you’ll need to keep the card open for at least a year after upgrading, it could certainly be worth it. The value of the points earned here certainly exceeds the cost of the annual fee before accounting for any of the card’s various coupon credits.
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I opened my Biz Gold 11 months ago and am targeted for this upgrade offer. Is it safe to apply before the end of the first year or will they claw back my initial bonus for Biz Gold?
Yes. I’ve done this a bunch of times without issue, as have others. I’ve never heard of a clawback after an upgrade, only a downgrade.
Thanks!
DP – I had the offer on my Green card and jumped on it 5/3. No email received, just found it my account.
Good thing I converted I took FM’s advice to downgrade my Platinum and wait for a good offer (I downgrade in Aug 2025)!
Thanks Matt
No longer available.
That’s the message you get if you’re not targeted.
Is there any “standard” time frame when you downgrade a platinum card to a gold or green that you’ll get one of these offers? I have two APP’s that will be due for their AF in August and was planning on closing them but if I can downgrade to a green card for a few months and get a similar offer I’d take it.
Upgraded P2’s biz gold to biz plat with this offer and it worked. Tried getting new card first and declined for new SUB. Better than nothing!
both P1 & P2 not targeted
I currently have both a biz platinum and a biz gold, and have been targeted for this upgrade offer. Can I upgrade my biz gold to the biz platinum and then downgrade my existing biz platinum to a biz gold a few weeks later?
Yes, you should be able to do that.
Took advantage of this last month on a biz green that had originally been a biz platinum!
I was fortunately targeted, and even though I downgraded from Biz Gold to Green for this opportunity, I’m having a hard time pulling the trigger. The Personal Platinum gives easy ways for me to recoup the massive annual fee (entertainment credit, Resy credits, even Lululemon), but it’s hard for me to justify the Biz Platinum with basically no use for the FHR credits. I know this is classic YMMV for credits, it just pains me that this offer would be such a no-brainer on the Personal side, but I just can’t seem to pull the trigger on the Biz side. Ughh
I guess the way to look at it is 120K at 1.5 cent/point is $1800 – if you didn’t use any of the credits and payed the $895 annual fee, that puts your net at $905. Spending 10K to get $905 is like getting 9x on those 10K spend at a minimum
(if you’re able to use at least half of that FHR credit then 12x)
I completely agree that the consumer version is far easier to justify based on the coupon credits. That said, far be it from me to try to convince you to upgrade to a card you don’t want, but I think that even if you don’t use the FHR credits, the business platinum can be worth it for the first year. Even if you only used the quarterly Hilton credits and the $200 airline fee credit this year and next year, that’s $600 in credits. Any additional value you get from a $150 Dell credit this year and again next year or if you’re able to use the FHR credit even one time out of three, we could say that combination of things is likely worth at least $300 to you. If it is, you’re effectively paying about $600 for 120,000 membership rewards points. I’m probably a buyer at half a cent per point, and in my case, I probably value the things other than FHR at more than $300 combined in the first year. That said, it’s easier for me to say that since I will probably be willing to plan a weekend away somewhere around using FHR or THC.
Have you recalculated the value of the airline credit? I used to value around $150 when the travelbank worked, now… maybe $25? Their Dell credit is now worth more imho. Probably even the ChatGPT credit.
Value of biz plat credits for me is FHR value + $250(Dell) + 25(travel) + 30(phone) + 25(chatgpt) + 100(Hilton)=$430. FHR is worth maybe $100 for me, since I only seem to make good use of one in 3-4. The cost of the MS must be $150ish. So as I see it, I’d be trading $615 for 120k. That’s not a bad deal. I do have this offer and also received by email.
Just depends on your use case. We have two companion passes in my household, so the airline fee credit is almost as good as cash to me. And for many folks it’s useful for ordinary stuff like checked baggage fees or seat selection. It certainly might be reasonable to value it at $25 in your case, but it’s hard to assign a universal low value like that to it IMO.
But as always, you’re right to be conservative with your evaluation.
I calculate 35.7 trips @ $5.60 per trip… or it has covered smaller SW flight purchases?
I haven’t used $5.60 charges for that in many years.
https://frequentmiler.com/amex-airline-fee-reimbursements-still-works/
You might also want to check out the section of our complete guide regarding flight credits.
https://frequentmiler.com/southwest-airlines-rapid-rewards-complete-guide/