My Wife’s Amex Platinum Retention Offer – Did She Keep or Cancel?
My wife’s annual fee just hit on her American Express Platinum card so I had to dip into my chest of good will. I had some built up from her Puerto Rico trip and used it to get her to call in. I have had a decent offer and a lump of coal in the past for my Amex Platinum retention calls. In my Aspire Retention phone call write up I suggested that American Express only allows one retention offer per person per year or two. Since my wife has not made a retention call for a few years I felt like the chances of her getting an offer would be good.
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Amex Platinum Retention Offer Phone Call
Her Platinum card is the old Mercedes Benz card that was recently transitioned into a traditional Platinum card. I told her to downgrade the card to the Gold card if she didn’t get an offer. I am trying to keep her out of pop-up purgatory so I figured we needed to keep it open somehow. The rumored Green card revamp could have been another downgrade option as well.
When she called in and asked for the retention offer she received the following offer:
- Earn 20,000 Membership Rewards points
- Must make $3,000 worth of purchases over the next 3 months
I of course told her to take the offer.
Crunching the Numbers
I felt like the value of the card outweighed the fee and with banks cracking down I take what value I can get these days. Here are my valuations for the card:
- 20,000 Membership Rewards points – $300 (valued at 1.5 cents each)
- Airline Incidental Credit – $180 (discounted 10%)
- Uber Credit – $100 (discounted 50% since she doesn’t use Uber as much and we never use Uber Eats unless burning the credit)
- Saks Fifth Avenue Credit – $80 (discounted 20% since that is about what I can sell the gift cards for)
That is a total value of $660 for a cost of $550. And that is with some very discounted valuations. Those figures do not include the lounge access or fringe benefits of the Platinum card since she won’t use them often.
Conclusion
My wife’s Amex Platinum retention offer is not giving us world beating value but we are coming out ahead. And it hopefully keeps her off of American Express’ naughty list. Has anyone been able to get a better offer lately? Share your data points below.
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[…] Express Platinum cardholder, for example, said on the site Miles to Memories that they were offered 20,000 Membership Rewards points (worth about $400, according to The Points Guy’s valuations) if they spent $3,000 with their card […]
[…] Express Platinum cardholder, for example, said on the site Miles to Memories that they were offered 20,000 Membership Rewards points (worth about $400, according to The Points Guy’s valuations) if they spent $3,000 with their […]
[…] Express Platinum cardholder, for example, said on the site Miles to Memories that they were offered 20,000 Membership Rewards points (worth about $400, according to The Points Guy’s valuations) if they spent $3,000 with their […]
[…] Express Platinum cardholder, for example, said on the site Miles to Memories that they were offered 20,000 Membership Rewards points (worth about $400, according to The Points Guy’s valuations) if they spent $3,000 with their card […]
[…] Express Platinum cardholder, for example, said on the site Miles to Memories that they were offered 20,000 Membership Rewards points (worth about $400, according to The Points Guy’s valuations) if they spent $3,000 with their card […]
[…] Один American Express Platinum Владелец карты, например, был предложил 20 000 баллов за членство (стоит около 400 долларов, согласно оценкам The Points Guy), […]
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[…] Aufbewahrungsangebote sind zahlreich. Ein American Express Platinum Karteninhaber war zum Beispiel bot 20.000 Membership Rewards-Punkte an (nach den Bewertungen von The Points Guy etwa 400 US-Dollar wert), wenn sie in den nächsten drei […]
Yeah, but I hadda work for that credit! Plus the 4k came at a rather ill-advised time, but I can make that work anyhow. I do value lounge access since I am near SEA and that has a decent one. I figger I get 25-35 bones worth on a visit as I make sure I have time to drink and eat, even though the food is usually so-so! Saks, well, it has some value and I have been lucky enough to get some decent Amex offers on my card this last year so hope it continues. Likely next year they will say no as that seems to be the pattern but what the heck.
Ok, Mark, Never mind, though I am still curious. Did the HUCA dance and got $300 back for 4k spend and that seem pretty fair. Took a while though!
Yeah I would keep it with a $300 credit too – that is a good offer. Even though GCs are dead there is still some value in the airline credit.
@Mark Now the Airline Credits for Gift Cards is DEAD. Please, post a re-analysis on this card or in reply? I am facing the AF right now and I have time, but am trying to decide if to go apply for the Schwab (I think I can get it) or just let this card drop if I don’t get a great retention offer.
What if one cancels a card after getting the bonus of a retention offer?
You can only get a refund within 30 days so that probably won’t work. And Amex may consider that gaming. You could possibly downgrade to a card with no or a lower annual fee but they may not like that either. Depends on how much risk you want to take on.
what do you do with the $200 airline? I’ve been buying 50$ delta giftcards.
I buy a $200 Southwest gift card
Ah, does it work like any airline gc then.
If you downgrade to gold can you upgrade it back to platinum or do you need to wait an year to do this?
I am not sure to be honest. I don’t think so but they may look at it as gaming if you try to do it to double dip the airline credit etc. So there is some risk there.
I tried in December to get a retention offer and they ran through all the uses that I’d had: the Ubers, Saks credit, Centurion Lounges, airline fee credits (that I used for SWA gift certificates), etc. What a wonderful luxury that card is!
In the end, they only offered to let me pay the $550 fee using 1:1 AmEx points, which of course I did not do. So I’d say your wife did awesome getting that retention offer! Well done!
Thanks Tessa! Had you had a retention offer on another Amex card in the last year or two?
Got the identical offer and did not have the ability to meet the spend so decided to downgrade to the gold card which does have sufficient benefits for my situation.
The gold card is a better overall product for most so sounds like a great decision David
useful article, I’m going to call when mine comes due!
Thanks Kate – glad you enjoyed it
Good article, Mark. I agree – I would have done exactly the same. Thanks for sharing the thought process. The intangible factor of staying off the Amex black list is huge. ~Craig
Staying in Amex’s good graces was probably the biggest factor in all of this.
I got a 30,000/$4000 offer last year!
Oh nice – I would have been jumping through the phone for that one 🙂
Me too. Took it.
Saks Fifth Avenue Credit Can be used to but Saks gift cards? If so in store or online? Thanks.
In store only has worked for me in the past
I like using that credit for things I’ll buy anyway, that I can find for similar costs… like a travel umbrella or lipstick. Just an idea.
Received the same offer and took it as well – will probably axe the card next year though.
That is our plan as well since I highly doubt they will give her another offer.
Why not downgrade to gold?
More value overall sticking with the Platinum with this offer. Downgrading to Gold would be a net cost not net gain.
How?
You get $200 in Airline credit and $120 in cheese cake factory gift card.
Not to mention 4x grocery which I calculated as $1000 breakeven against my other card that earns 3x at grocery.
I am not looking at it as a spending option etc.
I also don’t have a cheese cake factory near me that I would go to. You also only get $100 in airline credit since it isn’t the first year so you can’t double dip.