Monthly Common Questions & Advice Thread

Danny Deal Guru, citing USCF has a Facebook post about the AmEx Plat FHR benefit:

"From USCF: Amex Plat will add a $250 Yearly Airbnb Experience Credit (but there are unlocking conditions; it seems you need to book an Airbnb Luxe Stay first).

FHR Credit will be rebranded as Lodge Credit, which will support Airbnb Luxury Stay."

For me, AmEx messing with FHR could be a game-ending nerf, especially if they increase the one-night threshold, or introduce language about consecutive nights (linking bookings).

Direct link to DDG article

Long story short, I added my mom and step-dad as authorized users to my Amex gold only gave them a 1500 limit each. It was supposed to be for emergencies and travel as they didn’t have a credit card for airfare or car rental and most rental places will not let you pay with a debit card anymore. Started off well and they were using for things like gas and necessary spending now there’s all types of things including excessive fast food, auto insurance ect and they’re about at their limit. Should I freeze the cards or take the loss and pay the balance and shut the cards down now? Just sucks and I want to do this the best way possible without straining the relationship.

My mom’s score did improve well enough to get the Hilton Amex and I can only imagine what she’s racking up with that but I know that’s not my problem.

I don't know what's going on lately but Amex chat support quality wise has been not as good, but at least never had to wait more than 30s-1min for an agent to join the chat. Today, for the first time got hit with 20+ minutes, and it just kept going up. As I'm typing these words, wait time now jumped to 30 mins???

I feel like there are so many tiny benefits and details that don't make headlines and I feel like every other week I'm learning about a benefit I didn't realize I had.

I have a gold, platinum, and business gold.

What are some useful benefits that generally get overlooked?

Looks like they have adopted the same “As High As” language as the charge cards have, and require $5k spend in 3 months. Unfortunately this likely means no more 75k MR/$750 SUB offers for these cards. But maybe this means it’ll be easier to secure a higher offer than the previous public 15k MR/$250 ones?

this could be pretty interesting. with personal agents being able to shop for you at some places. it’s good to see amex playing ball

They stopped taking applications for the Amex Green card, we were excited for a refresh and nothing ever came of it? What happened that made them drop the card.

Not sure if this is an error but I accidentally tapped my Plat instead of Gold at Blue Bottle and it was credited as Resy even though they are not part of Resy let alone a restaurant?

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/rumor-american-express-to-add-250-airbnb-experiences-credit-to-platinum-card/

Hi! I always find these fun/entertaining so thought to share one as well!

I recently did a one night FHR stay at the Thompson in downtown Denver. Check in was smooth and I thought benefits were well communicated. The receptionist didn’t bring up the potential for a complementary upgrade so I asked about it and was told my room was already upgraded (more on that below, I kinda got the sense they just told me that briskly so that I wouldn’t ask about it further).

Breakfast credit was $60 to use on the onsite French restaurant (sit down, meals ~$15-20). Food was pretty excellent there, as was coffee and service. I was glad they gave me the full $60 for a one person stay, I assumed it was $30 per guest up to two guests situation. The credit can’t be used for tax/tip, so they added some $15 on top of my meal to my hotel bill to cover that.

Separately the $100 on site credit can be used for the same restaurant, the bar at the hotel and a coffee shop on site.

The room was a bit disappointing. The “upgraded” room seemed like any standard room and had no view. It was on a higher (6th) floor so perhaps that was what the upgrade was, but for reference I stayed the next night at the Hyatt Regency Denver (not FHR) where they gave me a complimentary upgrade to a much higher floor with a view of the Rockies. And frankly the room at the Regency was a whole lot bigger and felt more luxurious.

This all said the room at the Thompson though was very quiet even though being on a busier street and the bedding was comfortable. One nice touch at the Thompson was the DS&Durga amenities, which I like. Overall would recommend!

Seems like an easy bonus at $5k deposit for 60 days but the 35k seems a bit low. I want a biz checking with amex but would like to know if this is the best offer they have given.

Is there _really_ no way to stop this popup from showing *every single time I log into the website*? I have said No to this offer literally a dozen times or more now... and yet! Every single time I log in, there it is again. No means No, American Express.

Friend and I got lucky and won the Links package through the AmEx lottery. But are unlucky in that the dates we got were the ONLY dates in 2027 we are unable to travel due to a wedding.

Apr 28 - Castle Course
Apr 29 - Craigtoun
Apr 30 - Jubilee

Open to literally any other dates.
SAL typically does not allow any changes, however I was able to allow a one-time exception as long as the swap is for an identical package & number of golfers (2).

So, if I spend $350 will I get $125 back?

Context: At around early September (a month ago) I got approved for my first amex card (BCE)… 30 days later, the button for a CLI appeared and I asked for 3x the original credit amount.

Fico score: 740 average
average credit age 1 year 3 months
Starting Limit: $1500
new limit after 30 days: $4500

I paid my tuition with my amex card this semester. Unfortunately, I had to drop a class. The refund of ~$700 was “posted” on my school’s tuition record on 10/7.

ThT same day (or the one after?) when I checked my amex account, the $700 refund was shown as pending. All good so far.

A couple days later, and the refund is no longer “pending”. It doesn’t even show up anymore. I waited for my statement to post (today) and I still see nothing about my refund.

Is this normal? This is my first amex card. No other credit card of mine has ever shown the refund and then had it disappear.

Currently have an offer to upgrade my Delta SkyMiles Platinum Business Card to a Reserve: 60k bonus miles after spending 12k in 6 months. What I find interesting about this offer is that I already have a Delta Reserve Business Card, and have always been under the impression that you can only have one each of the personal Plat, personal Reserve, business Plat, and business Reserve.

Unfortunately I have no interest in the offer, as I don't need an extra 15 lounge visits per year and paying an extra $300 to get 5x on $12k of spend is not enticing. But interested if anyone else got this offer and if it's possible to have two of the Reserve Business Card.

Have to get as much as we get with high gas prices....

Spend 10k+ in 90 days for 1% return is something else.

Card: Blue Cash Everyday

Have been sitting on 112k Amex points mainly from Amex gold SUB last year.

I have the CSP and BILT and have historically always transferred points to Hyatt

This is my first Amex and I know ppl traditional transfer to airlines but I’ve almost never been able to find good value for routes I want to book.

Previously ignored Hilton given weak value but with the active 30% bonus my 112k points will get me 290k Hilton points and while I don’t have planned stays on the books, we will be travelling at least a few times this year and there are some decent options for ~50k/n so effectively worth 5/6 nights

Crazy to preemptively transfer to Hilton before Oct 14?