American Express has released a new public link for a 100,000 point offer on the Amex Business Platinum card. This card has seen offers all over the place from a mere 40,000 points to as high as 250,000 points. In the middle, we have the 150K, 100K, and 75K offers to consider to determine if now is the time to apply for the Amex Business Platinum 100K offer.
Which Amex Business Platinum Offer Is Best & Should You Wait?
To be clear, the 150K Amex Business Platinum offer is not currently available. But, I mention it because it does go out in targeted mailers from time to time so it is one that should come into the equation.
The 75K Amex Business Platinum offer is a targeted one that is available through targeted people’s Amex account (see this post for more). The 100K Amex Business Platinum offer is the one that is currently publicly available and what I wanted to compare the others to.
Which Amex Business Platinum Offer Is Best?
The reason this conversation is necessary is because Amex has their once-per-lifetime on all the public offers (and sometimes on targeted ones as well). That means if you get one Amex Business Platinum card at any point, you will not be able to get the sign-up bonus again. If you want to get the best deal, you should know what is possible.
The 150K Amex Business Platinum Offer
Here is what the 150K offer required (again, this is a targeted offer that is sometimes sent out but not one online for just anyone):
- Receive 100,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $5,000 within 3 months
- Receive an additional 50,000 Membership Rewards points after spending an additional $10,000
- Total – $15,000 in spending in 3 months for 150,000 Membership Reward points
There have been many reports on Amex clamping down on people who manufacture spend by purchasing gift cards and such so if spending $5,000 per month for 3 months is too hard to swing, plan on passing on this offer – possibly.
See, it is a tiered offer so if you do get targeted for this, you could get the base 100,000 points for only $5,000 spending in 3 months. But, that is counting on Amex keeping the spend requirement where it was before.
The 75K Amex Business Platinum Offer
This one is one that has been targeted to many people, some based on the amount of spending or a sudden uptick in spending.
This one breaks down like this:
- Receive 50,000 Membership Reward points after spending $5,000 in 3 months
- Receive additional 25,000 points after spending $5,000 in the same 3 month period
- Total – $10,000 in spending in 3 months for 75,000 Membership Reward points
This is a better offer if you cannot swing the higher spending of the other offers. It is $10,000 in 3 months, which can still be steep, but you are guaranteed 50,000 points if you do meet the $5,000 threshold.
The 100K Amex Business Platinum Offer
Now we come to the one that is currently available to the public. Here is what this offer requires:
- Receive 50,000 Membership Reward points after spending $5,000 in 3 months
- Receive additional 50,000 points after spending $10,000 in the same 3 months period
- Total – $15,000 in spending in 3 months for 100,000 Membership Reward points
- Link
Like the 75K targeted offer, you will receive 50,000 points even if you only spend $5,000 in 3 months. If you are able to hit another $10,000 in spending during that time, you can get another 50,000 points as well.
Offer expires January 25, 2017
HT: Doctor of Credit for the headsup on this one
The Amex Business Platinum Offer Benefits
All of these different offers would give the same benefits:
- 50% Airline Bonus (see this post)
- $200 Airline Fee Credit (per calendar year)
- Airport Lounge Access Program
- The Centurion lounge network
- The International American Express Lounges
- Delta Sky Club
- Priority Pass Select lounges
- Airspace Lounge
- Concierge Service
- Gogo® & Boingo Internet
- No foreign transaction fees
- SPG Gold status
- Hilton Gold status
- Annual fee: $450
Should You Apply For the 100K Amex Business Platinum Offer?
To answer that, here is a big question first: Can you spend $5,000 in 3 months? If the answer is no, not easily, then skip all of these offers as that is the price for admission to any points at all. That brings us to the second question: Do you feel comfortable hitting $15,000 in 3 months? If the answer is no or you are unsure, then it may be best to skip this offer for now. You may get a targeted offer for 75K or even another 100K with smaller spending thresholds. Once you get the Amex Business Platinum card, you cannot get the sign-up bonus again! So, you will want to make sure you can at least get 50,000 points out of it but you may want to wait for a spending offer that maxes out at $10,000.
In our case, my wife applied for her targeted 75K offer since that spending is more doable for us right now. Sure, the extra 25,000 points from the 100K offer would have been nice but I did not want to risk not making the extra $5,000 in spending and missing out on anything over 50,000 points. Not only that but putting that extra $5,000 in spending on something like our Chase Ink on gift cards from office stores would get us an extra 25,000 Ultimate Reward points instead (which I find more valuable).
Will you apply for the 100K Amex Business Platinum card or wait?
Why is it risky to try to MS with this card? Is amex randomly shutting down card users who demonstrated MS spend patterns? Or is there a definite pattern that gets shut down 100% of the time?
There has been a lot of that in various feedbacks where people who are buying gift cards are getting point clawbacks from Amex due to that kind of manufactured spending being “technically” against the rules on the bonus and card.