Couple of Questions on Amex Bonus Points Cards!

[brad1549]

Hi all,

I recently signed up to the Amex Ultimate Card and have successfully spent the $3k in 3 months for 100k Qantas Bonus Points. I now have a couple of questions:

1. If I refer my partner using my Amex Ultimate Card link, but my partner decides to sign up to the Amex Explorer Card, will I still earn the 30k Qantas Points referral? Or is it only if she signs up to the same card (i.e. Qantas Ultimate Card)?

2. I note the Amex Explorer Card comes with 100k bonus Amex Points. Which airlines can I use these points on? Is there an easy calculator somewhere converting Amex Points to flights on, say, Singapore Airlines?

3. Would you recommend my partner signing up to the Amex Ultimate (for another 100k bonus points) or Amex Explorer card? Which is regarded as best?

Thanks everyone!

 

[Mattg]

1. I believe she would need to sign up for the card that the link is for if you want to get the bonus points.

2. The Explorer card earns Amex Membership Rewards Gateway points. These can be converted to around 8 airlines at a 1:0.75 ratio, including Virgin Australia, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Malaysia Airlines, Etihad, Emirates etc. This basically gives you access to all of the Oneworld and Star Alliance airlines, as well as Virgin, Etihad, Emirates and partners. So those points are pretty useful!

3. It really depends whether you're after Qantas or Amex points. I would personally value 100,000 Amex Gateway points (equal to 75,000 airline miles) slightly higher than 100,000 Qantas points, but it depends on how you want to spend the points. I'm a big fan of KrisFlyer miles and an effective earn rate of 1.5 KrisFlyer miles per dollar on the Amex Explorer is pretty hard to beat.

 

[blueythecat]

1. I believe she would need to sign up for the card that the link is for if you want to get the bonus points.

I believe she would be able to sign up for any card from the same rewards range using a referral link. For a referral link generated from a qantas points earning card this would be any other qantas points earning card Amex offer.

For the Explorer (which is a great deal at the moment) the referral link would need to be generated from an Explorer, Platinum Charge, Platinum Edge etc (any card that earns Amex Membership Rewards points)

Hope this makes sense and good luck with the application!