American Express MR 25k Bonus to Upgrade to Business Platinum

This offer pops up every once in a while. The first time I received it was about six months after I applied for the American Express Business Gold Card. The time it takes until you receive it will vary. I got an email last month and decided to go for it this week after speaking with Jamison (Points Summary).

Offer: Get 25k MR points on first purchase when upgrading to the Business Platinum Card. From flytertalk posts, it seems as if the annual fee of $395, which is not waived, is charged for the part of the year left on your Business Gold card.

There are numerous benefits to the Platinum Card. Here are the few I would be using:

• $200 airline fee reimbursement per calendar year (resets Jan 1st)
• AA and Delta Lounge access when flying on that airline
• Free Priority Pass Select Membership, free lounge access for you and $27 for a guest
• American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts

Just as a reminder, there is a $395 yearly fee, which many other posts have shown that it is worth it.

As I will be upgrading part way through my Business Gold membership year that started on Feb 1st, I would only be paying for part of the $395 fee for October-Feb 1st, which would only be about $120. If I were to maximize my profit off of this card, I would upgrade the card in November, get the $200 airline fee for this year and next year and then cancel before the fee comes up for the full year next year. I would still be considered a card member for about a year as I had the Gold card for this time.

In practice, you can also sign up for a card late in the year and cancel early the following year to minimize the yearly fee, but this is not recommended. Many would recommend you keep a card 9-11 months before cancelling. Keep in mind that they charge you the $395 fee when you apply, but if you cancel it part of the way through your membership year, the unused portion is refunded. You can also downgrade it to Gold or Green and get the difference in annual fee back as a credit.

The Priority Pass membership is pretty nice. It is similar to the Lounge Club membership for Chase Ink cards, but there is no limit on how many times you can use it. However, you will need to pay $27 per guest you invite. The first two complimentary lounge visits on the Lounge Club card includes one guest.

Another reason why I decided to upgrade is because I want to avoid the Business Gold Card Fee of $175. Its not really worth it and doesn’t have a lot of the benefits of the Platinum card. The only thing I used was 3x MR points for any booked flights, 2x for gas or supermarkets. There are other cards that can get you similar bonuses in those categories but this is the best card for booked flights. I was going to downgrade it to Green but that is still $95 a year and there are no MR category bonuses.

As this is a business card, they have OPEN savings program, which gives you a certain percentage back on certain retailers. Many people have really took advantage of it by using this in combination to other offers but I have not.

I got the Business Gold card on the 75k MR point offer back in January. I was disappointed I didn’t sign up for the 100k Platinum Card offer in early January. However, with this offer, it essentially makes my Platinum card 100k total MR offers and I would only have to pay for part of the yearly fee.

Application Process

Here the direct link for the 25k upgrade offer. I received mines in an email but others have used this link to sign up:

https://www257.americanexpress.com/openplatinum/benefit.do?benefitTemplate=template_a&tab3=global&benefitId=open.platinumupdates#01

I would click on “Upgrade Now” and get an error message. I called in customer service and all they can find is the current offer at 30k points.

The current Business Platinum upgrade offer is 30k points for $10k spend over 5 months. Not worth it in my opinion.

I also called the number in the email that is supposedly an auto phone upgrade and that was patched to a representative once I put in my account number. I declined the 30k offer and I spoke with another representative, who said that the 30k offer was no longer in my account. She also noted that it takes about 30 days for it to reappear if you decline so don’t worry about not getting it again.

The instant she said she didn’t see the 30k offer, I went online and tried the link above again.

it worked this time! So 25k MR points, 1st purchase as seen in the screen shot below. I believe that you need to clear your account of any upgrade offer before the one in the above link works.

The only problem is that I need this card Friday for my 3rd Fall mileage run this weekend. The American Express representative says that it usually takes 24 hours for the change to happen so I will need to call in tomorrow to request they overnight my card to me. Theoretically, it can be delivered on Thursday so I’m not too worried.

It was definitely a lot harder than I expected to upgrade to the Business Platinum card but in the end, I got the offer I wanted. How was your upgrade experience?