American Express Is Sending Out Upgrade Offers

Update 07/09/18: Looks like another round of offers have gone out. In particular try navigating to the Hilton Honors Ascend page when logged in to see if you have any upgrade offers to that card. Hat tip to @GreatTwitcher

American Express has sent out a number of upgrade offers on their credit and charge cards. Check your e-mail to see if you’ve received an offer. Offer might also show if you click ‘view all personal credit and charge cards’ on the American Express website.

Blue Cash To Blue Cash Preferred

  • Bonus of $150 after $2,000 in spend within 3 months of upgrade. Annual fee of $95 is also waived.

Have seen a bonus of $250, but that was without the annual fee being waived so basically the same offer.

No Annual Fee Hilton To Hilton Ascend

  • Bonus of 75,000 points after $2,000 in spend within 3 months of upgrade. Annual fee is not waived.

Haven’t seen an upgrade offer on the Ascend card yet, but they were extremely common on the Surpass (basically the same card). Previous bonuses have been 100,000 points though. Some people have been able to get this to show by navigating to the Ascend page on the American Express website.

Everything You Need To Know About Upgrade Offers

If you have any questions about these upgrade offers, I’d strongly recommend reading this post.

Our Verdict

Usually it’s possible to get the sign up bonus on these upgrade offers, even if you’ve had the card and gotten the bonus before (although this isn’t always true and it doesn’t seem like you can really fight it if the bonus doesn’t automatically post). In those cases these bonuses can be worth it, otherwise I’d generally just wait for bigger public bonuses to come along as these are typically better than these upgrade offers. The advantage of the upgrade offer is you keep the account history and also no hard pull is done.
    William Charles
  • On July 9, 2018, 18:28

View Comments (62)

  • @will Old post, but wanted folks to be aware that Amex is sending out these offers again. Got one today to upgrade my Cash Magnet to Blue Cash Preferred, with a $150 statement credit after $1000 of spend in 3 months. (I took the offer.) Expires 7/23/20

  • 4 of us saw the Ascend upgrade offer online (not via email), accepted and were all approved. Did a quick chat on one of the accounts the next day just to confirm since the card was showing upgraded to Ascend, and the online chat agent said there is no bonus offer attached...

    I do have screen shots but this is going to be terrible to deal after waiting over 8 months to get the AU bonuses..

    • Has anyone read anywhere where Amex did something if you downgraded a card within a year of getting the bonus on the card, and they took the points back (for a 3rd party code). I've seen the language, but haven't seen any actual reports of it happening for 3rd party cards. Haven't actually done it, but as I keep seeing the language, was curious if it actually happened to anyone.

  • DoC,
    Please delete the 2nd post above (along w/ this post). The 2nd post is a duplicate of the 1st. Thx.

    • I got the upgrade offer for two Hilton Honors cards and was able to upgrade both of them into Hilton Honors Ascend cards. Both cards were for a single account.

  • I had the Surpass years ago and took the upgrade offer again last September, being charged partial AF after the upgrade. I believe they calculated the AF using the previous anniversary. Now I am charged the full AF again.

    Question: if I downgrade now, will Amex take the upgrade bonus back? Or should I wait till September (12 months after taking the upgrade offer)?

  • Had an offer on my everyday to upgrade to preferred for 25k points after 2k spend.

  • I got an upgrade offer for Everyday NO FEE to Everyday Preffered with $2k spend in 3 months and 25k Mr bonus.

    • Thanks, we've posted about this before. It's one of the incognito mode offers

  • I don't have any option to upgrade anywhere on my account, but I'm seeing an offer for 100,000 bonus points with $2k spend. Annual fee isn't waived, so I'm not sure if it's worth it.

  • Hey guys. Anyone know if there will be upgrade offers for current holders of the Amex SPG? If there were upgrade offers, would the Ritz Card be an option or solely the AmEx SPG Luxury Card? Also, with AmEx being more stringent about credit card applications, would it look better for us to upgrade as opposed to cancel and sign up for the bonus? Thanks!

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