Well great news when I logged on and saw that AMEX had extended
this great offer for 5 months
, until the 31st of May 2016! Still with the massive 120,000 bonus points!!!
As I said in my original review I think this offer represents amazing value, especially given some of the shakeups we are likely to see to the credit card market place in 2016. The RBA’s upcoming proposed changes to credit card interchange fees are bound to lead to less generous credit card signup bonuses – amongst other things!
Having had this card for a while now, I can say I would happily recommend it to anyway who is looking for a really good value card (albeit it with a hefty annual fee), a couple of family members and close friends have this card now!
If you already know this card is for you and are just looking for a referral link –
my Referral Link is HERE.
With AMEX extending the offer by 5 months, which is about the time I’ve had this card, I thought it would be a good time to update my original review and how my views have changed over the last 5 months.
If you are contemplating whether this card is for you or not, here are some of my thoughts on the card and the current bonus points offer. When I originally applied for this card I was very daunted by the annual fee and I guess in a way I still am – $1200 seems like a lot to me for a credit card – after all in the end it is just a piece of plastic. Having said that, the 120,000 bonus points AMEX is offering cover that fee and much more (as you’ll soon see), at least for the first year! Even given that, I debated whether to apply for ages, and I crunched the numbers many times, in the end it was AMEX’s pro-rata annual fee refund that did it for me.
If you’re also keen to apply here is the
UPDATED REFERRAL LINK:
OFFER NOW Expires 31 May 2016.
You will receive 120,000 Membership Rewards points if you spend $1000 in the first two months –
updated referral link HERE!
So if you are struggling to justify applying for this card here are my brief thoughts on why I think the massive 120k bonus points on offer justifies the $1200 annual fee:
- 120,000 Membership Rewards points – pretty simple really – based on my numbers I value this at $3000-$4000 (annual fee covered right there!) – a little more on this later.
- Points can be transferred to massive variety of partners – Qantas FF, Virgin Velocity, Kris Flyer and Cathy Pacific Asia Miles and some more valuable ones via SPG (AAdvantage, BA Executive Club & US Airways Dividend Miles) – no other (non-invite only) Australian Credit Card can boast this!
- $200 Annual Travel Credit with American Express Travel – value $200 (clearly)
- A Free nights accommodation at an Accor Hotel (through the Accor Plus membership) – I saved $250 on the hotel I booked and you can certainly do better than this!
- Free domestic / international flight (NZ) if you apply for a FREE Platinum Reserve companion card – you’ll need to ring AMEX after approval to arrange an application for this (value to me $500+) – Destinations List Here (Platinum Reserve)
- Unlimited Virgin Australia / Priority Pass / AMEX Lounge Access – again subjective value about $250 – I’m not big on paying for lounge access so it is hard for me to value, but the Virgin Australia domestic lounge access kind of speaks for itself (they are really good these days!) and once outside Australia Priority Pass have a lounge network that is hard to surpass! If you value lounge access more than me this benefit could easily be worth $500+
- Access to AMEX Cash Backs and Small Shop Offers – I wasn’t even aware of this benefits until I received this card. In the last 5 months I have saved a $100 through the Small Shop month and have also made use of Myer, First Choice Liquor and Barbeques Galore statement credits (value $90) – total value for the year estimated to be around $400
- NRMA style roadside assistance – value about $80 (hopefully you never need this one!!)
A Quick Card Summary:
- 120,000 Membership Rewards bonus points after spending $1000 in first two months after card activation
- A $200 Platinum Travel Credit each year, can be redeemed online for airfares, car hire and hotel bookings – I’ve done it and it was really simple
- Complimentary access to more than 800 airport lounges in 100 countries, including Virgin Australia Lounges, Priority Pass, Delta Skymiles and American Express Lounges
- Dedicated Platinum Concierge Service to take care of travel plans, tickets or dinner reservations
- Earn up to 3 Membership Reward points per dollar – I should mention I value MR points at 2.5-.3.5c/point
- Transfer your points to a choice of 10 airline rewards programs:
- Qantas Frequent Flyer, Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer, Emirates Skywards, Etihad Guest, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, Air New Zealand Airpoints, THAI Royal Orchid Plus, Malaysia Airlines Enrich and Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- And the best bit, transfers to AAdvantage, BA Executive Club & US Airways Dividend Miles, amongst others are possible through SPG (Starwood Preferred Guest)
- Transfer your points to leading hotel programs: Hilton HHonors, Priority Club Rewards, Starwood Preferred Guest
- Complimentary enrolment into elite tier of hotel partner programs including Club Carlson, Starwood Preferred, Club Accorhotels and Accor Plus
- Complimentary worldwide Travel Insurance and Purchase Protection Insurance
- Great savings on First and Business Class fares with some of the worlds leading airlines through the AMEX Platinum Airline Privileges program
All up you get a lot of stuff with this card and I rate it as a very good offer, certainly worth applying for – after all I’ve put my money where my mouth is on this card.
So how to value the current AMEX offer, always a challenging task, but I will give it a go. Whilst putting a value on reward points is always very subjective,
I personally value AMEX membership reward points at 2.5-3.5c/point.
Based on this, the bonus points from the current offer are worth $3000-$4000. Perhaps a less subjective way is to provide some basic concrete examples, the 120k points redeemed for
Virgin Australia economy SYD-MEL flights is worth $2200 – not a bad deal, but this isn’t even trying. Better value would be flying Business return SYD-LAX on Qantas by redeeming the points through Cathy Pacific Asia Miles – Qantas charge $7000+ for this flight!!! Of course for supreme value you could try your luck at a Singapore Airlines Suite – using AMEX points is the only way I’m ever seeing the inside of one of those!!!
If you add in all the other benefits in too, the total value of this offer to me is in the order of $4600-$5600!! Not a bad deal at all!!
I have been known to earn and churn the odd credit card (and then a few) – in fact for a decade I have made it a point of pride that I never paid a rewards credit card annual fee. There are now two exceptions to this, the
AMEX Platinum Edge Card (if you don’t have one already you should get one!!!), and now this one. Originally I considered that this card might be an earn and churn card, but after having it for awhile I’ve changed my tune. I’m now thinking it will be in my wallet for a little while yet!
If you’d like to apply for the Platinum Charge Card my
Referral link is HERE, for anyone kind enough to use my link, my heartfelt thanks, the referral points I receive will be put to good use by my wife and I on a belated baby moon!
Footnote:
Here is an interesting article on why you might want to consider an AMEX card in the near future – it predicts that earn / burn rates on VISA/MASTERCARDS will be reduced after the RBA brings in interchange rate reforms.
