UPDATE: This offer has expired. You can learn more about the current offer here.
The increased 100,000 point offer for The Business Platinum® Card from American Express OPEN is coming to an end, TOMORROW, January 25, 2017. The 100,000 points earned from this bonus are worth a minimum of $2,000 towards travel! If you use the points earned with your selected airline for the year, you’ll receive 50% of your points redeemed back to your account, which will get you a fixed $2,000 value! Or, you also transfer your points to a partner airline and hotel program and potentially get an even greater value! Note: Links on this site will be disabled at 1pm ET tomorrow.
While the minimum spend required to earn the 100,000 points is high, this is one of the best publicly available offers for this card. Also, keep in mind that the benefits of the card, without even taking into consideration the welcome bonus, outweighs the $450 annual fee for at least the first year. One other thing I want to point out is that this card does NOT count towards Chase’s “5/24” rule since it is a business credit card.
Card Benefits:
$200 Airline Credit Per Year, So Get $400 in Credits 1st Year!
While this card comes with a high $450 annual fee (not waived the first year), there are some perks that can help outweigh the cost. First off, you’ll receive a $200 airline credit per calendar year. That means if you apply for the card now, you can receive a $200 statement credit between now and the end of the year and then again starting January 1, 2018. That means it is possible to receive up to a $400 credit in your first year of having the card. Since your $450 fee will get you $400 in travel credits, if you want, you can think of the annual fee as really costing you only $50. There are some airline gift cards you can purchase that will trigger the statement credit as well.
Lounge Access
This card also gives you access to Centurion Lounges as well as over 1,000 airport lounges. This is one of the better perks of the card for those that fly often and enjoy the access of lounges throughout the world. I personally am a huge fan of the Centurion Lounges, but unfortunately there are not too many of them throughout the United States.
Global Entry
With this card, you’ll receive free Global Entry. You just need to pay for the $100 Global Entry fee with the card and you’ll be reimbursed for the cost. You can also instead decide to receive TSA PreCheck instead (which costs $85 and you’ll be reimbursed), but since Global Entry comes with TSA PreCheck, you might as well get both, assuming you’ll travel outside the country within the next 5 years. And if you already have Global Entry, you can use the statement credit on someone else’s Global Entry fee. This can include a friend, family member, or complete stranger. Just pay their $100 application with your card and the statement credit will hit your account within a few days. The names do not need to match.
Starwood, Marriott, and Hilton Gold Status
This card will automatically give you Starwood and Hilton Gold status. And since you can currently match you Starwood and Marriott status, once you receive SPG Gold status you can leverage that to earn Marriott Gold status! You can learn more about this automatic status and what the status will get you here.
Earning Points
With this card you’ll also earn 1x point on all purchases, however, a new bonus was recently added – for purchases over $5,000 you’ll earn 1.5x points on your purchase. This is great for those that have high purchases, but probably not very common for the average person. This is a new addition to the card. This card does not receive 5x points on airline purchases that comes with the personal version of the card.
50% Airline Bonus
Another new perk of the card is that when you use your Membership Rewards Pay with points for all or part of a flight, you’ll get 50% of your points back for both: 1) First and Business Class tickets with all airlines available with American Express Travel; and 2) Any fare class with your selected qualifying airline. You are able to select one airline of choice for the year and this is the airline you can receive both the $200 statement credit and 50% points back with for the year. This new-ish addition to the card means that the 100,000 points earned are worth at least $2,000 towards travel! For example, if you book a flight that costs $500, that will require you to use 50,000 points. You’ll then receive 50% of the points used, thus 25,000 points, back to your account to use for a future flight.
Overall…
This is a great card for the welcome offer alone. I personally like to use my Membership Reward points to transfer to partner loyalty programs, although with the new 50% point back benefit, that can actually be a great redemption option too. When transferring to partner loyalty programs, I value the 100,000 points to be worth at least $2,000 in travel when. Although, for those that prefer to redeem their points for business or first class, you’ll most likely receive even more value from the points since those flights cost significantly more if you were to actually pay for them. Or, if you’d prefer to use them another way (i.e., redeeming for gift cards, etc.), the 100,000 points is worth at least $1,000 (not recommended, but still good for those that prefer an easy redemption).
Unfortunately, I’ve applied for this card in the past (also during a 100,000 point offer a few years ago), so am no longer eligible for this card. American Express now has a once in a lifetime rule for all cards. But, fortunately, my husband was able to apply for this offer!
*Terms Apply
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