Did Amex Just Open the Door for Second Bonus

Waking up this morning I’m wondering if what just happened came true. Did Amex actually just give the green light for a second bonus on the same product? As far as I can tell that appears to be the case! I was not dreaming and all of the follow-up I just completed yesterday all points to great news.

It started around late June when Amex sent my wife a targeted email for the Delta Gold Skymiles Amex card. I pretty much took the email with a grain of salt. My wife and I were both targeted for this card in 2016 after holding the card, and cancelling the card, in 2013. The reason that I said I took it with a grain of salt was due to some serious heartburn from the 2016 targeting. Call it naive or simply not paying attention, but we took that 2016 offer and went through the entire $3,000 spend. WE BOTH APPLIED! After $6,000 we waited around for the bonuses to post. I think you may know or experienced the rest.

The bonuses never posted over the course of a few months. Fearing what I felt was coming, I made the call and heard the worst news. You’re not eligible for this offer because both you and your wife have had this card before and received the bonus. I knew about the once-per-lifetime rule but figured since were targeted for the bonus, it must be legit. I was wrong and when I reviewed the small details in the original offer, there it was. “If you’ve had this product in the past, you will not be eligible for the welcome bonus offer of 50,000 points”.

And there you go, heartache, anger and a desire to kick all of my Amex cards to the curb. But…I got over it eventually. Fast forward to June of 2018. I’m a little bit smarter. Little bit I said. I read the disclaimer in the email and at no time did the once per lifetime language appear. Not feeling too confident yet, I shelved the email and figured I’d come back to it as we were just about to be under the Chase 5/24 rule.

Thank you Sir, May I Have Another

July poked its head out and somehow this email found its way to my eyes again. I noticed at the bottom the deadline to apply. I once again reread the disclaimer. No language on bonus eligibility. The offer, spend $1,000 in 3 months to receive 50,000 points as well as a $50 credit on Delta was simply too good to not give it a shot. Going through the application, I made sure to take screenshots of every page I encountered with specific attention to the terms and eligibility before I hit apply. Again, no language, and of course the big winner for me was not receiving the pop-up of “not being eligible” that recently has been added. Maybe we were in the clear!

We received the card and began the spend. A week into spending I decided to visit the chat section of the website and hopefully get the news I so desired.  The rep came on the line and just as quickly as my dreams were elevated, they were dashed. The worst news came my way as you can see below.

Now any other time I may throw in the towel, but this wasn’t the day. I proceeded to copy and paste the entire disclosure of terms to the rep and argue my case. The rep stated that the terms on the email were general terms and the “actual” terms were when I applied. Hmmm, that’s funny because I took screenshots of those as well and explained that I can send these by email for proof that they were not there either. In fact the link the representative gave me after the fact wasn’t the one that populated in the application. And I had the proof! The rep essentially attempted to end the chat but not before I asked to be transferred to a supervisor.

Redemption is Found

The supervisor joins the chat and asks me for a few moments to read over the case to where my frantic typing continued to send little messages of my experience, including me stating I was aware of the new, but not received in this instance, Bonus Pop-up that should alert any applicants of a non-eligible bonus. After a minute of waiting the next pop-up was the winner.

As you can see I also questioned why the other representative seemed to no very little about this offer and was told as you can see above that action would be taken. Maybe those were just words, maybe there’s a new philosophy or rule. Either way it appears we will be receiving a second bonus and will update everyone when it occurs.

So what should we take from this? Hard to say really as this could be an anomaly of which we are the lucky recipients. What I hope is that Amex may be starting to back off the once-per-lifetime language that has hampered many of us and in our case, caused a pretty decent amount of pointless organic spend that could have been used elsewhere in years past.

Either way the message is clear, take screenshots of every single screen, email chat and anything else you can think of while applying for any card. It’s entirely possible that my diligence to this may be the reason for the bonus. Get that school hat on again and take copious notes and just maybe the payoff will be in your favor. Have you received a targeted email missing the bonus language? Let us know!

“Live Within Your Means, Travel Beyond Them”