Amex Offers Posted

Last week, I posted about delays with Amex Offers.  Not sure what was going on, but I can confirm that my Amex Offers at Bouqs, 1-800 Flowers, Jonathan Adler, Uniqlo, and Saks Fifth Avenue all posted on May 7th and 8th.

I'm assuming the delay was IT related and am glad to see that Amex Offers seem to be posting as normal.  

Are Amex Offers Posting Slower Than Normal?

Amex offers are a great way to extract additional value from Amex cards.  I'm now up to nearly $3K in savings from my stable of Amex cards over the past few years.  Credits have always posted very quickly - within a day or two after meeting the spend requirements.  Emails/mobile notifications would fire immediately.

Well it seems Amex is either making a change to the way things work or they are having IT issues.  Travel With Grant has noticed the same thing and posted a good summary of his experiences a few days ago.

I've qualified for 4 Amex offers in the past couple of weeks (Saks Fifth Avenue, Bouqs, Boxed, and Jonathan Adler).  Only the Boxed and Jonathan Adler credits have posted:

• Boxed offer on Hilton Amex - posted within 2 days
• Jonathan Adler offer on Everyday Preferred - posted within 1 day

I'm hoping this is just an IT issue and not Amex posting the credits after the offer expires - that would make it much harder to keep track of.  I'll keep you posted on the other two pending credits.  I

Have you noticed slower credits from Amex on Amex Offers?

How Quickly Do SPG Amex Referral Points Post?

Last week I posted about the outstanding SPG Amex signup bonus.  I've had half a dozen people ping me for referrals and a couple have already posted (thank you!).

ATRP reader Elissa emailed me on Sunday, 2/19 to ask for a referral.  She applied and was approved that day.

The 5,000 points posted to my account on 2/22 so just 3 days later.  Kudos to Starwood for such a compelling offer for both parties and for posting the points in such a timely manner.  Who else is interested in picking up this card?

New Marriott & Hilton Amex Offers

Amex is out with some pretty lucrative Amex Offers for stays at Marriott & Hilton properties.

Earn 3,500 Amex Membership Rewards Points after spending $250 at Hilton or Curio Collection hotels and resorts.  The offer is good for one-time use through 4/15/2017.  I had this offer on my Amex Business Platinum.

Earn 3,000 Amex Membership Rewards Points after spending $200 at Marriott properties (almost all brands) by 2/28/17.  This offer is good for two uses.  I had this offer on my Amex Everyday card.

I randomly have both a Marriott and Hilton stay coming up so will get to take advantage of two of these offers.  That's 6,500 additional MR points.

I value MR points around 2 cents so that's like $130 in travel value for spend that I would have made anyway.  Yes, I'll divert the spend to these cards from my Chase Sapphire Reserve (3x on travel and dining) but I'm still coming out way ahead even if I'm giving up 2x points on $450 in pend (900 points).

10 Free GoGo Passes With Amex Business Platinum

The Amex Platinum offers a number of perks that offset the $450 annual fee.  The business version of the card has a few different perks that are worth considering in your valuation of the card offering.

One of the benefits is 10 free GoGo internet passes per calendar year.  So if you get the card in 2017, you'll get 10 free passes in 2017 and 2018...all for one annual fee.

To get the passes added to your GoGo account, you'll need to go to this website.  Enter your card information, GoGo account credentials, and the 10 passes will be instantly added.  This will take you two minutes max.

I flew Delta last week and was able to use 2/10 free passes during the trip.  The internet would have cost $9.95 per flight so if you use that as your benchmark, this is a $200 benefit associated with one Amex Platinum annual fee.  Add the $200 annual travel credit, (typically) large sign-up bonus, Amex centurion access, and Global Entry fee waiver, and you can get a ton out of value out of the $450 annual fee.

Save Big with Verizon and Amex Offers

If you've been reading ATRP, you know that I'm a huge fan of American Express Amex Offers.  Over the last few years, I've saved over $2,500 by leveraging Amex Offers to obtain statement credits on stuff I was going to buy anyway.

Nearly $1K in savings on one card

The concept is simple - login to your American Express account online, scroll down to the bottom and you'll see the available offers. Scroll through the offers that make sense for you, and click "Add to Card."  Meet the spend requirements at that merchant and you'll receive the statement credit a few days later.

Amex is out with two targeted offers for big savings with Verizon.  First, 10% off a cell phone bill (could be any wireless carrier) up to $30 off ($300 in spend).

But the good news is that you can double dip this Amex Offer with one of two targeted offers that I received.  The first is $25 off $100 in spend with Verizon up to two times.  The second, is 2,500 American Express Membership Rewards points on $100 in spend with Verizon.  I value MR points around 2 cents each so this is like getting $50 back in addition to the 10% off.

Both of the Verizon specific offers are good through 2/21/2017.  Verizon will let you pre-pay up to $500 and I did just that to trigger several of these bonuses.  I'll make another round of pre-payments in February to finish them off.  In total, I will be putting $600 in Verizon spend on various Amex cards and receive 5,000 bonus MR points receive a $160 rebate on the payments.  That's 40% off my cell phone bill!

Save $70 at Conrad & Waldorf Astoria Hotels

If you've been reading ATRP, you know that I'm a huge fan of American Express Amex Offers.  Over the last few years, I've saved over $2,500 by leveraging Amex Offers to obtain statement credits on stuff I was going to buy anyway.

20% off a Waldorf Astoria or Conrad stay

 The concept is simple - login to your American Express account online, scroll down to the bottom and you'll see the available offers. Scroll through the offers that make sense for you, and click "Add to Card."  Meet the spend requirements at that merchant and you'll receive the statement credit a few days later.

Recent Amex offer savings

Amex is out with a targeted offer that will provide a $70 statement credit after spending $350 at Conrad or Waldorf Astoria properties through 3/31/17.  We have an upcoming stay at a Conrad which will cost around $800 in total for three nights.  By splitting the charges on two Amex cards with the offer, we should be able to save $140 on the stay!

Amazing Holiday Shopping Amex Offers

I've written numerous posts about the Amex Offers concept.  Amex is out with a couple of pretty awesome shopping offers.  While these are targeted, both Emily and I had each offer on our Amex Everyday/Everyday Preferred cards.

The first offers 7,500 Amex Membership Rewards points after spending $500 at Saks Fifth Avenue.  The second offers 4,000 Amex Membership Rewards points after spending $200 at Bloomingdale's.

These offers are stackable so if you have a Saks/Bloomingdale's promo code or go through an online shopping mall, they are even more lucrative.  Earlier this week, United's shopping mall (since expired and currently offering 4x) was offering 15x at Saks.  I'm confident an offer like that will return before the Amex offer expires on 11/7.  Let's do the math on that:

• 7,500 Amex MR points valued at $.02 each worth $150
• 7,500 United MileagePlus miles valued at $.02 each worth $150
• An additional 500 Amex MR points for the $500 in spend worth $10

Assuming you place the same value on points as I do, that's $310 off a $500 purchase.  Note that gift cards will typically trigger the bonus so that's a great way to "extend" the savings into the future.

SPG Amex Bonus Points Posted

Earlier in the week, I posted about the 2,500 bonus point offer for adding an authorized user to a SPG Amex card.

Good news - the points have already posted to my account.  I added Emily as an authorized user on Saturday (7/23).  The points were in my account on 7/26.

This is a no-brainer promotion.  While the offer is supposed to be targeted, I didn't receive any direct communication from Starwood or American Express and the points still posted to my account.  So definitely worth giving it a shot for 2,500 SPG points.

Amex Offers Saved Me $1000 in 2015

I've written about American Express Amex Offers a number of times.  Amex really steps up their game at the end of the year and this year was no exception.  I was able to add awesome Amex Offers from places I was going to spend money anyway (i.e. Amazon, Uber, Saks, Instacart) to multiple cards by opening multiple windows and adding the offer to each card.  I was able to add the Amazon offer ($15 off $60 in spend) to 6 of the cards - that's basically $90 in "free" money since you can buy pretty much anything at Amazon.

Adding Amex Offers to your card account is easy

While the year isn't over yet, we're already at $958 in savings across 7 American Express cards.  That is way more than the Amex annual fees we paid ($640) in 2015.

Savings on food, hotels, luggage, and more!

It is super easy to add the offers to your card.  You can add via Facebook or Twitter but I prefer to check out the mobile app because scrolling through the offers is most efficient when there is a long list (I currently have around 85 available offers on my Amex SPG Card).

Once the offer is added, go meet the minimum spend threshold online or in-store and you should receive an email informing you that you've triggered the Amex Offer.  In my experience, credits post in 2-3 days.  You can also stack Amex Offers with other promotions or even buy a gift card to trigger the discount.  I was able to trigger the $80 W Hotels offer by booking Emily a "prepaid" rate at a W in New York in January - even though the stay was outside of the promotional window.

Kudos to Amex for not only launching but continually improving this program with improved offers each year!

A Successful (Saks) Triple Dip

Perry's brought a lot of joy to our lives but she's also destroyed a few things.  The one time we let her on the bed (to play) she clawed a giant hole in our sheet.  Note to self - never do that again.  So we needed new sheets.

Last week, Saks Fifth Avenue sent me a promo code in the mail for $100 off $500 in spend.  Amex added an Amex Offer that provided 6,000 Membership Rewards Points ($120 value to me) for $400 in spend.  United temporarily increased their shopping portal payout at Saks to 15x.

Call it a perfect storm.

I wouldn't ordinarily purchase sheets from Saks but this was too good of a deal to pass up.  We were able to find sheets, pillow cases, and a few towels we've been needing to purchase anyway for a total of $536 with tax and shipping.  Going through the United portal and leveraging my promo code and Amex offer, I received:

• 6,436 American Express MR points
• 6,300 United Miles

I value both currencies at around 2 cents and I would actually buy them at that rate if I had an award in mind.  After the coupon, I paid $436 and received $254 in point value back.  That's $182 for some really nice sheets that we had to purchase regardless.

Everyone will value their points differently but for the time it took to execute this trip dip (less than 15 minutes) I'm quite pleased.

SPG Amex Bonus Match - 5,000 SPG Points!

I recently applied for the business version of the Starwood American Express card.  The offer I received was for 25,000 total SPG points after $5,000 in spend in 6 months.

Starwood and Amex recently increased (they did this the last couple of years as well) the bonus offer to 30,000 total SPG points after $5,000 in spend in 3 months.  I'm nearly at the $5,000 spend threshold so called Amex to see what they could do for me.  I've read reports online that they've been very liberal in matching the old bonus offer to the new one.

The hold time for Amex was unbelievably long - almost 8 minutes.  But once I connected with an agent, the process of getting the bonus matched took <3 minutes.  The agent promised that 5,000 SPG points would be credited to my account within a couple of days.  So it was less of a "offer match" and more of a courtesy.

Seems like the right thing for them to do and totally worth 10 minutes of my time. 

What's in My Wallet - June 2015 Edition

It's been awhile since I've posted about the credit cards currently in my wallet.  I'm going to try and keep this up quarterly.  You can check out other posts here:

What's in My Wallet?  March 2015

What's in My Wallet?  October 2014

What's in My Wallet?  April 2014

Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below.

1)  Citi Prestige

I've yet to write about this card but have it on my list to do so.  I am almost done with the $3,000 minimum spend to earn the 50,000 Thank You point bonus.  While the card comes with a hefty $450 annual fee, you can easily make that up (and then some) as there's a $250 annual travel credit that credits automatically and can credit against air fare. So but a $250 ticket, get $250 credited back to your account.  I've already redeemed my credit for 2015 and will look forward to another $250 credit in January of 2016.

2)  Chase Freedom

The Chase Freedom card offers "rotating" 5x spend categories by quarter.  For this quarter (ending 6/30/15) Freedom is offering 5x at restaurants.  This is a pretty easy 7,500 points as it's not hard to spend $500 per month at restaurants when you include coffee, lunches, dinners, bars, etc...I'm pretty close to completing my 7,500 points and we're working on getting Emily there by 6//30 for a total of 15,000 bonus UR points this month.

3)  Chase Sapphire Preferred

All of my extra (not contributing to signup bonuses) travel and dining spend goes on the CSP.  I've had the card for over 3 years and gladly pay the $95 annual fee given my credit history, limit, and the earning power of the card.

4)  Amex Starwood Preferred Guest

This card is perpetually in my wallet and the card I leverage for all non-bonused spend.  So if I still have spend to hit a sign-up bonus (as I do above) I'll wait to put additional spend on this card until that's been complete.