Amex churning question

Thanks. Pretty sure I set up a Club Carlson account to secure the status when I upgraded to Amex Platinum, so I'll dump our loose points in there before closing anything!

 

Amazon? you can link to the amex and get £15 off £25 spend by using just one point

 

Thanks - I've used the £15 off on each account, but lost sight of the fact that the obvious option would be to just use the points against an Amazon order!

 

Haha!

 

Thanks Joe, look forward to learning more about how to utilise my points and spend efficiently.

It is the old charge card I may wait until the first 'free' year elapses and get the 10k and maybe by then may have found another scheme to transfer the points too. Signgapore looks like a good option for booking a one way with kris and the other with avios.

 

No worries! It's a friendly place on here, so if you have any questions at all when reading up on points/miles stuff, don't hesitate to ask.

 

I've just taken out the Gold Preferred Rewards credit card. I do intend to use the points towards holidays mainly, and liked the fact I could choose between 12 different airline operators reward schemes to convert my points. However the fact that the BA Amex card offer 1.5 avios to £1 spent and companion vouchers is making me wonder if I took the right one now

 

Hi Tomlee,

I would say that the Gold is definitely the best starting point in this hobby for most people - being free for the first year and coming with a nice welcome bonus (with a good variety of transfer partners as you say). You earn 2 Points per £1 fo travel related spend too, which is decent.

You can always just get a BA card in a few months anyway regardless, if you want Avios/companion voucher. You could probably get one sooner, but I personally (completely unscientifically!) like to leave it a few months between credit card applications - I've never had an issue being accepted with that level of frequency and it gives me time to hit the min spends without having to get more creative.

 

Do some of you churn these same amex cards over and over? 5 times? 10 times? 20 times?

 

Yep - I've been getting a gold, upgrading it to platinum, cancelling, waiting 6 months then doing the same again for many years now! Same with SPG card, etc.

 

Note that you can no longer upgrade from gold to platinum because one is a credit card and the other a charge card.

 

Yep, good point.

 

Just wanted to add here that you can get 3000 extra points for adding a supplementary if you wait for a weeks after applying

 

Afternoon all,

I have more questions, and always prefer your experience over actually picking up the phone to Amex until I am fully ready.

Having dipped my toe in the Amex water by starting this month with an Amex Gold credit card - used one of the referral links on here, going back to a promise i made to one linker on an earlier post - I have just had a lightbulb moment after reading an article about Platinum charge card on the "take me to the points" blog, along with ideas from posts in the forums here.

So assuming I am eligible to get the Platinum at the same time as holding the gold, and I time it right, can I use it for 1 month to pay our impending holiday balance to hit the spending trigger instantly, then close the card either in the same month, or the following month, to maximise the annual fee refund ?
Amex T&C appears to say that as long as I keep the Gold card going in my Amex account, all the points will just stay there anyway, with no rush to move them to whichever airline I decide on.

 

Hey johnbrowell,

You won't be eligible for the plat bonus if you have had ANY mr earning card within the past 6 months

Youre right about the fee, but some are lucky and get no charge, some get charged for 1 month etc when cancelling.

Yes, mr are 'alive' as long as you hold a mr earning card.

Hope it helps

 

Good advice.

I did actually manage to get a Plat sign up bonus whilst holding the Gold card, but that was because I was misinformed by an amex telephone about whether that was supposed to be possible or not (still took months of chasing!). Unless you get told contrary in writing or on a recorded call (I think Amex record all calls?), you don't get Plat sign up bonus if you already have the Gold.

 

It's a shame that they changed the Gold to credit card

 

Very helpful.

 

Is it possible to churn a BA Amex premium plus card? ie cancel it completely and re apply to get the sign up bonus in 6 months?

I have just received my companion voucher, would I lose this? And do you get a pro-rata refund like with Amex plat card.

 

Sure is! as long as you dont have the ba blue card and spend the £2k again you're all good. You'll also get a pro rate refund when you cancel