COVID-19 is turning into a bonanza for points and miles enthusiasts. Although most of us are not currently travelling or redeeming points, there is no shortage of promotions encouraging people to build-up their stockpile of points. This is specially relevant for those with an American Express issued credit or charge card, as they have been bombarded with multiple bonus points offer.

In the last 3 weeks, we have seen:

• Double Rewards on American Express Platinum & Centurion Cards.
• Bonus points for spends at Supermarket, Food Delivery Services & Amazon Prime on other American Express Cards.

If you thought that was all, I have got some excellent news for you. American Express card-members are now being targeted with a new spend-based bonus offer, as you can see below.

You can earn up to 20,000 Amex points under the offer

I received this offer on my Platinum Reserve card, which is complimentary for all Platinum card holders, although it is possible that a similar offer may also be available on other cards.

The best way to check whether or not you have been targeted is by logging into your American Express account and navigating to ‘Amex Offers’. Unlike regular Amex offers where you actually need to save the offer to your card before making the spend, it appears that that is not required in this instance.

Login to check if you are targeted for this offer

Why I am prioritising Reserve over Platinum

For a while it seemed like we should all be directing most of our spends to the Platinum card. With this offer in play though, things have changed a bit. Let’s do the numbers:

• Ordinarily, the Platinum card earns 2.25 points per dollar on all spends except Govt transactions where the earnings drop to 1 point per dollar. With the double rewards currently on offer, that jumps to 4.5 points per dollar and 2 points per dollar respectively. This means that a $1,000 spend will earn a total of 4,500 points (assuming its 100% non-govt spend).
• The Reserve card generally earns 2 points per dollar on all spends except Govt or Govt related spends where it earns 1 point per dollar. Under this promotion however, the same $1,000 charged to The Reserve Card will bring home an astonishing 7,000 points (2,000 regular + 5,000 bonus points), which is significantly higher than the Platinum card.

Remember that once you have maxed out the promotional spend on your targeted card ($1,000 per month), any additional spend should still be directed to your Platinum card, as at that point, the targeted card will no longer be earning any bonus points.

The other point worth mentioning is that the offer is only available on the primary card, so just be aware of that if you happen to have additional cards too. Make sure you familiarise yourself with the T&C’s shown below.

T&C’s for the offer
 

My Thoughts

With all the COVID-19 induced travel restrictions in place, some people might be questioning the point of all these offers. That is understandable. But remember, the virus will not be around forever, sooner or later we will start travelling again and at that time, your meticulously earned points will come in very handy.

My feeling is that in the current climate, a lot of people are hunkering down and doing away with all discretionary spends, which may be digging a hole into the P&L’s of companies like American Express. In that sense, it’s not really a surprise to see multiple promotional offers being doled out simultaneously.

Do you plan to take advantage of this offer? Leave a comment below.