TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Other links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission that helps contribute to the running of the site. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Terms apply to all credit card welcome offers, earning rates and benefits and some credit card benefits will require enrollment. For more details please see the disclosures found at the bottom of every page.
Towards the end of September, American Express began targeting select business card holders for spending bonuses that run through the end of the year. I was one of the targeted cardholders, but the offer I was targeted for was far from tempting.
Towards the end of October, Amex caught me by surprise when it made a change to that targeted offer, but the surprise that I felt back then doesn’t really compare to the surprise I felt this morning when I saw that the offer had been changed for a second time.
How things have played out
Back in September, the original offer that appeared in my online account was giving me 2,500 bonus points for spending $9,000 or more on my targeted card (up to 3 times).
Given that here at TFM value Membership Rewards Points at 1.5 cents each (based on the value that we know that we can get out of them with relative ease), this offer would give me an added incentive worth just $37.50 in return for spending $9,000 on the Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express or the Business Platinum Card® from American Express.
That wasn’t an offer that I was interested in so I didn’t bother adding it to either of my targeted cards.
On the morning of 24 October, the original offer had disappeared, and a new offer was sitting in its place (albeit with the same end date).
The offer that was now targeted to the same two business cards would give me 2,000 bonus points for spending just $4,000 on one of my targeted cards (up to 3 times).
Given the reduced spending target, this was a more interesting offer, but because I was in no hurry to trigger the 90 day period in which the spending needs to be made in order to earn the bonus, I didn’t add the offer to either of my targeted cards.
Fast forward to today (exactly 2 weeks since the offer first changed), and the offer has changed for a second time.
This time around, the spending target has been increased considerably (compared to the second offer), but the bonus has increased considerably as well.
Now I can earn 10,500 bonus Membership Rewards points in return for spending $10,500 on one of my targeted cards (up to 3 times).
Once again, the spending target doesn’t have to be met in a single transaction so, effectively, I’m being offered an extra point/dollar if I can spend at least $10,500 on one of my targeted cards in a 90-day period (I only have to add the offer to a card by 31 December and I get 90 days in which to meet the spending target regardless of when I add the offer to that card).
As someone who holds the Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express, this is an incredibly tempting offer to be given as it effectively means that my card will earn me 3 points/dollar on the first $10,500 of eligible spending that I put on it after I save the offer to the card*.
Given that I already have quite a few other nice offers added to the Blue Business Plus card and given that I have a significant amount of unavoidable spending coming up, this offer could turn out to be very rewarding.
Just by hitting the spending target I’ll earn 31,500 Membership Rewards points, but if I make sure that this spending triggers some of the other offers that I’ve added to my card, I could also end up earning quite a bit of cash back and a few more bonus points as well and that could a very nice way to end the year.
*As standard, the Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express earns cardholders 2 points/dollar on the first $50,000 of eligible spending per year (1 point/dollar thereafter – terms apply) and I’m not close to reaching that limit for this year.
This is what really interests me
Clearly, as a big miles and points fan I’m always going to be drawn to any new opportunities that allow me to boost one or more of my program balances without having to go out of my way, but the bonus points on offer here aren’t really what interest me most about what I’m seeing.
For me, the more interesting thing here is that it appears as if Amex keeps an eye on what targeted offers cardholders are adding to their cards and, at least in the case of offers that Amex itself has published (i.e. not offers that include Amex partners), it seems prepared to alter those offers if the original offer didn’t get any traction.
I’m tempted to ignore this offer as well and, purely as an experiment, see if Amex changes it for a third time between now and the end of the year when it sees me not engaging.
I have to admit that I’m a little reluctant to do this as I really like this latest offer, but there’s a good chance that the inquisitive side of my nature will get the better of me 🙂
Bottom line
For the second time in two weeks American Express has altered the terms of a spending offer that is sitting in my online account and which has been targeted to my two Amex business cards.
This latest offer is the more tempting of the three offers that I’ve seen to date, but the more interesting aspect of this whole experience is that it looks like Amex takes note of who engages with its offers and who does not and, more importantly, is prepared to act on that information before the offers expire.
