Can Amex Card Upgrades Use Amex Dining Credits In 2021?
Our question of the week asks whether or not card upgrades can use the Amex dining credits in 2021. Hopefully, you’re all using those temporary credits that American Express rolled out on their co-branded credit cards. Our question this week looks at eligibility for these.
The Question
Our question of the week comes from Ryan in our Facebook group:
If you take an Amex Hilton upgrade offer, will you immediately begin earning the higher $/month dining credit? For instance, no fee up to Surpass… $10 instead of $5/month.
In short, do the Amex dining credits for 2021 work after upgrading a card? Will you get the higher amount? And if you go from a card that didn’t have the benefit (such as Delta Blue) to a card that does (ex: Delta Gold), would you become eligible for the benefit?
The Rules That Created This Question
There are some rules for these temporary monthly credits. That’s what leads to our question.
- You must activate the offer before using it, or you won’t get credit.
- The offers are only for cardmembers who had the card prior to January 1, 2021.
From these rules, we know that opening one of the cards with these credits won’t make us eligible. But what if I upgrade to an eligible card?
What Amex Has To Say About It
My gut response was that it won’t work, due to the “had the card prior” language above.
I asked American Express about this. Information straight from the source.
I know Amex chat reps aren’t always the most reliable, so I asked twice with different reps. And the fact this first guy replied immediately without pause / without checking any info made me a bit leery.
Here’s chat 2 with a different person.
In short: no. This guy spent 7 minutes “checking info”. That seems more reliable.
A 3rd chat elicited the same response after checking info for a few minutes. Thus, Amex says you can’t use the 2021 dining credits after upgrading to an eligible card.
Final Thoughts
There are a ton of temporary credits from Americana Express this year. Check out our list here, so you can remember to use all of them. Unfortunately, Amex says you aren’t eligible for the credits after upgrading to an eligible card. You must have had the card before January 1, 2021. And remember to activate the offer from your “Amex Offers” section. Otherwise, you won’t get the credit no matter how long you’ve had the card.
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This seems to be the corollary to when I upgraded to the Marriott Brilliant with a spend $25k get 25k pts offer already on the old SPG. I got to keep earning that bonus on the Brilliant. He won’t get the increased $10, but he should continue to get the $5 on his current card if he opted in.