The Explorer Credit Card (New AMEX Card!)

[Steady]

Do both options (skyscanner/Amex) have the same booking fees?

 

[tizey]

Anyone having delays of referral bonus coming through for this card?

I've referred my brother and his wife - the 2x20k referral points came through in 2 days of them submitting applications (application made late Friday night, points credited Monday morning).

I made an application for mrs tizey using my referral link - we received the card last night, but no referral bonus points showed up on my card yet. Every referral bonus I've ever received (Velocity/Platinum Charge) came through almost instantly - this one is a bit weird. She does hold Velocity Platinum in her own name, but thats the only Amex in her own right - but she is a supplementary cardholder on my Explorer/Velocity/Platinum Charge.

Activated the card last night, spent $500 and can see the gateway program opened up, and should hit $1500 spend tonight and cleared in the next few days - hoping 110k points hit and the 20k bonus is just a bit slow.

Anyone having troubles? Not contacting Amex about it for obvious reasons, but hoping there is just a delay before the referral bonus points hitting my account.

 

[michaelangelo]

Do both options (skyscanner/Amex) have the same booking fees?

There's no mention of a booking fee in my confirmation email from Amex. I didn't pursue the Skyscanner options beyond an initial price check as I was going to use the $400 credit anyway, but their prices are supposed to include any booking fees (although I have seen this not happen before).

 

[Finale]

I asked previously if booking travel through Amex would give the same options and prices as using a search aggregator, such as Skyscanner. I used my Explorer travel credit yesterday and the flights I wanted on Singapore were about $45 more expensive than the best option on Skyscanner. The cheapest options on Skyscanner (a mix of Air Asia and Scoot) were also nowhere to be seen.

Not a huge deal (I rationalised it as 100k points for $45 since I was taking these flights anyway), but may be of interest to some.

It depends what site is giving you the best price. I normally see some dodgy sites offering cheapest fare but after reading reviews, their support is almost non-existent which could be a pain when you want to change/cancel/etc or issue with the ticket. I would still go with a more expensive option from well known agents. As long as the fare is the same as airline site or other big sites like expedia etc, I'm happy.

 

[Damien00]

Do both options (skyscanner/Amex) have the same booking fees?

I think that's going to depend on which booking site Skyscanner bumps you off to...

I made a booking on the Amex site to use the Travel Credit and in comparison to the QF site the prices were the same but I was not charged the CC surcharge on the balance as I would've been booking directly with QF.

As I was not buying the cheapest available fare it made sense to do it this way and take advantage of the Travel Credit, but without that I would imagine that a Skyscanner search could've gotten a much cheaper price even accounting for the CC fees included.

 

[HTG2016]

Anyone having delays of referral bonus coming through for this card?

I've referred my brother and his wife - the 2x20k referral points came through in 2 days of them submitting applications (application made late Friday night, points credited Monday morning).
.

So the 20K referral points should post instantly after application received ? I have applied my partner today via referral link and have been approved instantly saying cards will be mail out 5-7 days . In T n C saying that application need to be approved and $1500 spent need to be met before you can received the referral points .

 

[HTG2016]

Edge and Explorer is probably the best combo in terms of point earning ability and cost. You get a domestic flight every year with edge. If you apply through certain professional organisations e.g. CPA, Engineer, Drs etc you also get discounted annual fees. Combine your return ticket and the Explorer's travel credit ... you get a nice weekend away. You can wait till the end of one membership year for the edge and claim two return tickets (One for current and one for next year).

Currently hold the Explorer ( 1st card ) and thinking about applied for the Plat Edgee , my understanding is Explorer is on Gateway while Edge is on Ascent , been reading thought this thread and heard other saying that they can merge both to one MR Ascent which make the Explorer earn 2 Ascent points / $ what do i need to do before or after i applied for the Edge to be able to do this do ,

Also have onyone here have been approved for the first card and got declined for 2nd Amex card . Only got the Explorer approve in October together with another Westpac Card so my Veda score is abit low of around 587 points . Should i wait for a few months or i am ok as Amex already got my name on their system which make easier to approved another card .

 

[nightelves]

Generally speaking you'll get approved even with that score and even if you've had one or two declines. That's what I found when I applied for the Velocity Platinum card thinking I got declined and was told it got approved.

Make sure if you do apply that you add a supp as well to get 5k. Promo ends tomorrow for supplementary bonus.

I got a referral link if you're happy to help another AFF member out.

 

[calgarychris]

Generally speaking you'll get approved even with that score and even if you've had one or two declines. That's what I found when I applied for the Velocity Platinum card thinking I got declined and was told it got approved.

Make sure if you do apply that you add a supp as well to get 5k. Promo ends tomorrow for supplementary bonus.

I got a referral link if you're happy to help another AFF member out.

does the 5k apply for the edge or just the explorer? I've done the latter, didn't realize it applied to the edge..

 

[Mr_Orange]

does the 5k apply for the edge or just the explorer? I've done the latter, didn't realize it applied to the edge..

I believe it applies to any card where you apply for a supplementary. I did it for my Reserve.

 

[HTG2016]

Generally speaking you'll get approved even with that score and even if you've had one or two declines. That's what I found when I applied for the Velocity Platinum card thinking I got declined and was told it got approved.

Make sure if you do apply that you add a supp as well to get 5k. Promo ends tomorrow for supplementary bonus.

I got a referral link if you're happy to help another AFF member out.

Couldn't add supp to get 5k yesterday , happy to use your referral link if i decided to go for the Plat Edge .

 

[unfunkable]

So i got approved for the explorer except the credit limit is only 6k.
One of my expected monthly charges is about 15k per month...should I just preload the card first? Does amex allow this?

 

[imipenam]

I think others have done it before. I read in AFF somewhere that some didn't hear boo from Amex and others being told not to do it, so not sure.

Have you got other Amex issued cards? You can transfer the limits from the other cards over to your explorer.

 

[imipenam]

So i got approved for the explorer except the credit limit is only 6k.
One of my expected monthly charges is about 15k per month...should I just preload the card first? Does amex allow this?

Old thread ... http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ssion/pre-loading-credit-card-cash-29991.html

 

[unfunkable]

Oh snap, that's not going to help
Might have to ask my supplier to bill me in 6 k increments or something..:shock:
I'll give them(amex) a call anyway and see what they can do...

 

[LA10]

A lot of posts in this thread and the referral one talk about sq. I'm assuming Asia miles is also a good use of these points, particularly if I want to fly J to hkg or tokyo?

 

[adelee]

I think many people aspire to the insane luxury of SQ suites, but Cathay has a wonderful business hard product, (IMO) consistently decent service and really low taxes for redemptions, so indeed, AsiaMiles is a good choice!

 

[N860CR]

Is anyone else having issues getting the $400 travel credit on the account?

Mine won't appear and I've been stuffing around with Amex for a few weeks. Their solution is "just call travel when you want to book as there is an error on your account". All well and good, but I don't do much travel booking between 9 and 5.

 

[potm]

My travel credit appeared initially but disappared when I unlinked I think. I called up and the lady mannually added it after confirming I should have it.

 

[imipenam]

Happy to report the following: -
1. Applied and approved for Explorer card. Also have the edge.
2. Noticed both cards were linked to MR ascent. Rang up to unlink prior to receiving card.
3. Had problems with adding MH ff membership to edge (MR Ascent) ... rang Amex. Whilst trying to fix the problem, CSR (with an American accent) made a passing comment that I could have both cards linked to MR ascent if I wanted to, since I may have the same problem linking MH ff to MR Gateway too. Told her I would consider it later.
3. Spent appropriate amount and received 100k bonus to MR gateway.
4. Had same problem adding MH ff membership to Explorer (MR Gateway) ... rang Amex. Got CSR in Sydney. Agreed to try to fix issue. Asked him if I could link both cards to make it easier .. said not possible.
5. Wrote to Amex via secure email asking if possible to link both MR programs ... reply was NO.
6. Waited till Saturday night, rang Amex again. Got CSR with an American accent. "Of course we can link both cards to Ascent" Put me on hold for 10 mins. Thought, Oh ****! I am gonna lose my bonus points. CSR came back "Noticed you have significant amount of points in both accounts. I can proceed to link them if you like. It needs to be done manually and I will call you on Monday afternoon to follow up"
7. Fast forward to Monday 5pm. Missed call on mobile. Logged onto AMEX and VOILA both cards combined to MR Ascent with points added together (without losing any).

Lessons learnt ... Not all CSRs know that the MR can be linked - most will say no. Perhaps try to call A/H in order to get an American CSR as they seem to know better. Call the MR contact number 1300 363 276 rather than the number on the back of the card (They are not as good with MR related issues). There is potential risk of losing the bonus points but didn't happen in my case.

I hope this helps.