American Express have just increased the sign up bonus on both the personal & business SPG cards to 35,000 points:
- American Express SPG Personal Card Offers Now 35,000 Points
- American Express SPG Business Card Offers Now 35,000 Points
A lot of people recently signed up for these cards (especially the personal card as it was offering a 30,000 offer via incognito mode). There is nothing worse than signing up for a card only to have the bonus increase after you’ve signed up for it. Some credit card issuers will match you to the higher sign up bonus, officially American Express won’t do this.
The good news is what they do instead is that they’ll offer courtesy points (no, I don’t know why American Express insists on calling these courtesy points. Most likely because they don’t want to seem to have a matching policy in case they want to deny the request for any reason).
Here are some tips for getting those courtesy points:
- Don’t message, online representatives do not have the ability to award courtesy points.
- Call and say you’re disappointed that a new higher bonus became available so recently after you applied (use your own words).
- The first representative will likely offer you a weak offer (e.g less than 5,000 points). Ask politely to be escalated to a manager and repeat your disappointment in American Express due to the bonus change.
- The manager has the ability to award the full 10,000 point difference, they won’t always offer it but they can.
- If you don’t have any success, hang up and call again (HUCA) at a later time.
One very important thing, if they say that a note will be added to your account (or an investigation will be started) then ask them add them to your account instantly instead. A note is basically useless and in my experience never results in the points actually being added.
If you don’t believe me that this works, you can read success stories from last time this happened here. Please share your own experiences in the comments below.
I know this is old, but back when this first happened I got in too late and was refused any courtesy points at all. My AF doesn’t come due until December, but I thought I’d give it a shot and called in. I asked for any bonus offers on the account. None. I asked for courtesy points after explaining I was super disappointed about not being matched in February. Was offered 3k points. Transferred to a supervisor who insisted the first rep shouldn’t have even offered me 3k points to begin with. Politely repeated my story, stonewalled. Took the 3k points though.
Nicely done.
i applied for the spg amex using when they offered the 35k points for for 5k spend. I applied March 5 and was approved. I spenk 5k just before my statement closed yesterday April 9. They awarded me 25k. Should I be concerned that I have not received my 10k? i get conflicting answers from different representative.
Called atleast 3times before today and every time got the same reply ‘Cant able to add/apply new promotion’
Finally got successful today with first representative ready to give 2k courtesy points and accepted the offer. Asked to connect to supervisor for more points and finally able to get 5k courtesy points. Just saw my account and 5k points credited already. Applied for 25k points offer
Just another bummer DP – Called and got a supervisor who said they would open up a ‘case / investigation’ that would take 6-8 weeks…. I said’ I’d rather just speak with a Supervisor… She transferred, and the supervisor said they couldnt do anything because they have different marketing programs that change and she couldn’t help me.
Not sure if its worth HUCA… Last week I called and a different lady ‘opened up an investigation’ (which i regret doing)
Call 1 – Routed to overseas call center and filed a ticket. They said to expect follow-up in 6-7 business days.
Call 2 – Routed to overseas call center again and asked for a supervisor after the rep said he was unable to do anything since I had opened the card over 45 days ago. Supervisor said she tried putting in a request for an extra 5k but her system denied it. No luck for me.
Should I still give this a try? I opened the business version about 45 days ago under a normal 25k/5k offer. Missing those extra 10k points is really stinging, but it looks like reps are being told not to issue any courtesy points now?
I would still give it a shot. It can’t hurt. I received the full 10,000 difference expressing disappointment. Spoke with a manager who in turn deposited the 10,000 to the account. Took 3 days but I see it in my SPG account now, and I haven’t even met the minimum spend requirement yet!
Always worth a try
Called just now, and CSR said that the bonus offers revolve and that what I was given is what I got. He cannot give me anything else. I will try again later. Maybe wording it differently. :/
Called back, rep was very hesitant and told me pretty much what the last one did. After checking with what I presume was a manager, he said he would submit an investigation, cannot promise anything, and see what happens. Guess I will wait and see.
This is interesting…. I just spoke with a manager and she said she would extend the courtesy and deposit the points within 1-3 days. It would be 10,000 pts because I submitted an application for the 25k. Heres to hoping it actually happens!!
Update: Just saw the 10,000 in my account. I guess I got super lucky.
Thanks DOC
HUCA for a couple of times, either not transferred to supervisor or the supervisor insists that everyone has a different offer … Maybe I need to learn to negotiate, sigh …
Tried HUCA 4 times now – all of the supervisors referenced “blogs” and wouldn’t provide anything.
Spoke with a manager and they told me AmEx had removed the ability to add points due to a large influx in people calling in to request it. Recommended I contact the CFPB to file a formal complaint.